BrandNew Stores aims to turn fleeting pop-up shops into a chain concept, creating fixed spaces where brands can temporarily present themselves in a regular retail environment. Its first branch opened in the Dutch town of Amstelveen last month, where Alfa Romeo used the shopping mall space to present its new Alfa Mito model. It's all about experience marketing: companies can use a BrandNew Store for a few weeks to present a product or service, or to reach out to new and existing customers without going for immediate sales.

Targeting premium retail areas where unhurried leisure-shoppers are more likely to explore a client's offerings, BrandNew Stores will add locations in Groningen, Den Haag and Rotterdam later this year, with more cities to follow in 2010. The stores will be decked out with video screens, interactive floor projectors and other elements that make it easy for brands to present themselves.

Exclusivity has been a major element of the pop-up phenomenon, and brands have mostly limited their temporary attention-seeking abodes to major cities like London and New York. By creating a nationwide network, much of that exclusivity is lost, and the concept becomes more of a regular marketing tool. Which has its benefits: brands can reach a much wider audience, and being able to design once and then move everything to another city significantly brings down the cost per location. Since rents are still down in most malls and high street shopping areas, now's the time to bring this to other countries. (Related: Brands to take turns running airport store in Glasgow.)

Website: www.brandnewstores.com
Contact: info@brandnewstores.com

Last month, we reported on Milk Made: a Manhattan members club for artisanal ice cream. Operating on the same principle—food produced in small batches and delivered locally to pre-paying customers—is Dulcinea. The young baked-goods company, also based in New York, delivers 'a wholesome indulgence' every Wednesday. Customers subscribe per month, paying USD 28 per week.

Past deliveries include six jumbo rhubarb muffins, a blueberry lemon pound cake, and a half dozen strawberry scones. Dulcinea uses produce from local farms, choosing organic and sustainably produced ingredients as much as possible. Like the roaming restaurants we've covered, the subscription/members model used by Dulcinea and Milk Made is a great way for fledgling entrepreneurs to get a foothold in the food business, creating a steady income and a client base for other parts of their business (Dulcinea, for example, also does catering). Entrepreneurial foodies in other cities—what are you waiting for?! ;-)

Website: www.dulcineabaking.com
Contact: emma@dulcineabaking.com

Spotted by: Danielli Alejos

Real-time price search has arrived, and with it some unexpected bonus features for consumers. German site Apnoti claims to have the first search engine to index prices for the German, American and French markets in real time. Currently in beta launch, the engine crawls over 65 million items in more than 10,000 affiliated stores for each and every search request, presenting users with a comparison of products' price trends over the past four weeks and current prices, accurate (in theory) to the past few seconds. Apnoti differentiates itself from other price comparison services which usually rely on daily updates by their operators, claiming that these services cannot cope with the price fluctuations that often occur throughout the day.

According to Apnoti's creators, sudden price drops and fluctuations of up to 90%—usually due to retailer error—are a regular occurrence. To help their German users take advantage of these mistakes, Apnoti launched another purported web first: Preispanne.de ('price breakdown'), a free email alert service for huge price drops. Users enter their email address and select which product categories they'd like to monitor. When a price drop of over 50% occurs, they will be immediately alerted by email so they can pounce on the super-bargain before the retailer has a chance to correct it. Web store Otto.de recently learned this to its cost, when they received 6,534 orders for a EUR 2,000 MacBook mistakenly reduced to EUR 49.95.

Ethics aside, the services offered by Preispanne and Apnoti meet the demands of two powerful consumer trends: transparency and real-time everything. Online retailers will have to stay on their toes if they're to stay in the game! Meanwhile, opportunities abound for entrepreneurs who can make the most of real-time transparency. How about a cheeky webstore off the back of Preispanne's alerts?

Website: www.preispanne.de
Contact: www.apnoti.com/support

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

UK consumers spend some GBP 315 million on sex products each year, according to retailer LoveHoney, but not all towns spend equally. Thanks to LoveHoney's new UK Sex Map, it's now plain for all to see which areas invest the most in their erotic lives.

In creating its Google Maps-based tool, LoveHoney began by taking an anonymous sample of more than 500,000 orders placed at its online store. It then aggregated that data into regions that match population statistics from the UK Census and added in data representing sales from other retailers and manufacturers. The result is the UK Sex Map, which shows annual per-capita spending on sex products for towns with populations of 10,000 people or more. The map is updated monthly, and all data are anonymised and aggregated, so no personally identifiable information can be seen. Instead, heat-map colours reveal a town's spending habits at a glance, with green representing areas that spend about the same as the national average, dark blue indicating those that spend a lot less, and red and white flagging hot points. Also visible, meanwhile, are the particular types of items the various towns are spending on—vibrators or condoms, for example—with links for quick purchase on LoveHoney's site. Users can scroll through the map for browsing purposes, or they can search by town name or postal code; included on the map, not surprisingly, are also sex-related establishments in each town. LoveHoney invites proprietors of such places to list their businesses for inclusion on the map, while users themselves can make their own recommendations.

Customer involvement appears to be an ongoing strategy at LoveHoney—it's also in the midst of a contest to design a new sex toy—but its sex map promises to directly increase sales as well, both its own and those of listed businesses. It's all thanks to today's sophisticated and cheap (if not free) online mapping tools and databases, which make it easier than ever to display information in map format. Time to see what Google Maps could do for *your* bottom line! ;-) (Related: Nightlife mapping tool uses GPS to reveal hotspots — Crowds create heat maps of hot gigs at music fest.)

Website: www.lovehoney.co.uk/sexmap
Contact: www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/contact-us

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Prompted by a satisfied customer who claimed he'd be even happier if he didn't have to hold on to a piece of paper for five years to retain the warranty on his new espresso machine, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen saw a gap in the market: digital storage for all of the guarantees and warranties that consumers accumulate alongside their purchases.

Reisby Nielsen, a fourth-generation Danish retailer of cookware and home furnishings, launched the Garanti Hotel to help solve the common annoyance of product paperwork that piles up but can't be found when it's actually needed. Consumers who sign up with Garanti Hotel can upload their warranties and access them online whenever and wherever they're needed—at home or when bringing in a product for repair. While retailers don't have to participate in the scheme for consumers to save documents, Garanti Hotel is encouraging them to sign up in order to streamline the endeavour, ideally enabling stores to send documents straight to a consumer's Garanti Hotel account. The company doesn't sell warranties or get involved with the fine print; its sole purpose is to provide a consolidated storage space for buyer protection documents.

The firm's ultimate goal is to have a wide range of retailers offer Garanti Hotel as a valuable service to their customers, both in Denmark and internationally. Considering most stores have their own priorities when it comes to providing guarantees, it won't be easy to persuade them to add another step to their sales process. However, considering the potential gains for consumers, this notion is one to look into if you're in retail.

Website: www.garantihotel.com
Contact: info@garantihotel.com

Spotted by: Claus Schioldann von Eyben

In the midst of an explosion of information and choice, are consumers missing out on surprise? The team behind Hipstery, a web store for mystery t-shirts, thinks they are. Which is why there are no t-shirt designs to choose from on Hipestry's site. Instead, customers select a size, pay EUR 17 (plus shipping) and answer a series of questions about themselves. The Hipstery's 'style scientists' run the responses to this quiz through their 'innovative style algorithm'—both concepts which the site's irreverent tone would lead us to interpret loosely—to select the right t-shirt from their exclusive range of designs, many of which are out-of-print shirts from small suppliers.

Leipzig-based Hipstery's openly opaque business model latches onto an anti-trend noted by our sister-site trendwatching in last month's briefing about transparency. While most companies are providing ever more choice and ever more information, a gap is opening for businesses who can relieve consumers of the burden of decision. Acknowledging that this is a big responsibility to hand over, Hipstery will replace any t-shirts that customers don't like, with the option of a refund if they're wrong the second time. Sometimes a lack of choice is a good thing, especially if used to surprise and delight consumers. It's a theme creative entrepreneurs should have fun exploring. (Related: Soft drinks for the undecided — Kashiwa Mystery Café.)

Website: www.hipstery.com
Contact: www.hipstery.com/contact

Spotted by: Andreas Milles

Amidst thousands of online clothing retailers, Market Publique has found its niche. Based in Brooklyn, it aims to attract premium sellers and buyers of vintage fashion. Goods are sold both through auction sales (eBay-style) and fixed prices. Potential sellers fill out a brief application form before joining. Besides selecting those that offer great vintage clothing, Market Publique also ensures they possess necessary skills such as correctly taking measurements. Once a seller is accepted, there's a USD 0.25 charge per listed item, plus a 5% commission fee for each sale.

Buyers and sellers receive monthly itemised bills from Market Publique, making it easier to keep track of purchases and sales. Sellers also benefit from the site’s active blog and promotion through advertising in print and on the web. Currently, only women's clothes and accessories are on offer, but men's items and housewares will follow soon.

By focusing on one niche and creating an appealing storefront for carefully selected vendors, Market Publique takes the standard online marketplace model and makes it more attractive and reliable for both buyers and sellers. (Related: Online marketplace focuses on mid-century design.)

Website: www.marketpublique.com

Spotted by: Bonnie Sandy

Should marriage really be celebrated with pots, pans and food processors? Aiming to offer a less dreary alternative, New York's nAscent Art has launched a registry service. The service, dubbed ArtWish, gives couples the chance to create a registry from art works showcased by the company. nAscent Art will then email the couple's friends and relatives explaining how they can purchase works from the list outright, or make a partial contribution as a gift. Customers have work from over fifty emerging New York artists to choose from, with pieces ranging from silk paintings to steel sculptures. Says nAscent co-founder, James Wallace: "We really bring art back from the stratosphere to prices within the reach of ordinary people. ArtWish is just one more way to reach that goal."

Recently married themselves, co-founders James and Jennifer Wallace wondered why art wasn't available on their own wedding registry. This formed the inspiration for the service. However, it's not necessarily limited to couples. With the holiday season on its way, some families might be spared the high-street frenzy by an invitation to chip in for a piece of art online.

Website: www.nascentartny.com
Contact: info@nascentartny.com

Spotter: Cecilia Biemann

Pop-up retail is a concept we've been covering for years, generally focusing on a store that opens for a limited time in an otherwise unused space. Turning that notion on its head, in some respects, is Planeshop, a permanent store opening soon in the Glasgow Airport that will be periodically taken over by a different brand.

The brainchild of the founder of Vacant —which was probably the first pop-up store way back when—Planeshop is billed as a permanent shop with a flexible retailing concept. Brands will take over the store for a limited time, including changing the shop's exterior graphics to match their identity. Currently, consumers are invited to vote for the brands they'd most like to see in that role. No word yet on how long each brand will stay in place, but once that time is up, another brand will move in and take over, ensuring that there's always something new to see in the store. Also available at Planeshop will be Planemix, a downloadable selection of global digital music tracks that rotates each month, and "Foodflight," a selection of tapas and sangria for takeout or in-store dining.

Planeshop's flexible retail concept is patent-pending, the company says, and it seems safe to assume that brands are currently lining up for a spot in the store's rotating roster. One to watch—or get in on early yourself...? (Related: Retail space helps brands collaborate — Store perpetually reopens.)

Website: www.planeshop.net

Finding a convenient, healthy snack can be difficult in workplaces and schools where fruit trees are long gone and the best on offer now comes from a vending machine stuffed with junk food. Back in 2007 we picked out YoNaturals, a company that responded by supplying vending machines filled with organic produce. Now a Barcelona company—Lof (short for 'Lo Fresco')—has brought a similar service to market in Spain. Sidestepping the debate over whether organic food is all it's cracked up to be, Lof's emphasis is on solid nutritional value. Their machines, which are supplied, installed and maintained for free, sell nuts, prepared fruit, ready meals and Spanish speciality, gazpacho soup.

Novel uses of vending machines are a staple of the Springwise diet—we've dispensed reports on vending machines for everything from bathing suits to hot pizzas. By using them to promote healthy eating, Lof has latched on to two key trends: convenience and organic foods, with a model that creates social value as well as profits.

Website: www.lofresco.es
Contact: info@lofresco.es

Spotted by: Joandó Reverter