Elsbeth and Micki Rowaan are Dutch sisters who have lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years. For many years, they talked about starting a company that honored their roots, and last year they made it happen!

In 2018, the sisters launched Uniek Living as a forum to introduce the North American consumer to modern, functional + affordable goods from the Netherlands. Their products include home goods, accessories and a selection of small furniture.

Uniek Living is primarily an online retailer, but has also enjoyed a successful strategy of hosting a variety of pop-up stores in different formats and locations. The pop-ups have varied in duration, from as short as three days to as long as three months. The spaces have ranged in size from 200 square feet to as large as 1,200 square feet.

While Elsbeth and Micki focus primarily on web sales, they believe that having temporary retail space is an excellent way to build a network of loyal, engaged shoppers, increase brand awareness and is also an effective vehicle to test new product lines.

The pop-up initiatives have ranged from incredible to “great learnings”! Elsbeth and Micki will be sharing some of these experiences during their session, as well as discussing their pop-up concept and how to get the process started. More importantly, they excited to impart key learnings regarding what worked and what missed the mark!

You can find a more detailed version of their talk on their website at uniekliving.com.