Table of Contents

1. Key Highlights:
2. Introduction
3. How The Storefront Project Works: Cohorts, Durations and Financial Terms
4. Why Physical Retail Still Matters for Emerging Brands
5. Partnerships and Infrastructure: Logistics, Technology and Real Estate
6. From Pilot to National Scale: Metrics, Markets and Milestones
7. Case Study: Cesta Collective and the Power of Tactile Storytelling
8. The Economics Behind No Upfront Cost and Full Revenue Retention
9. What This Means for Landlords, Communities and Urban Retail
10. Operational Lessons from Cohort-Based Residencies
11. Data and Measurement: What Brands Should Track During an Activation
12. Risks and Limitations to Consider
13. Practical Guidance for Brands Interested in Applying
14. The Role of Storytelling and Community in Short-Form Retail
15. Scaling Impact: What 2,000 Brands Could Mean for the U.S. Retail Ecosystem
16. What Landlords and Cities Should Know Before Hosting Activations
17. Early Indicators from the Pilot and Expectations for Growth
18. The Founder’s Lens: Why Áwet Built This Platform
19. International Comparisons: Short-Run Retail Models Abroad
20. Long-Term Opportunities and Potential Extensions
21. Practical Example: How a Brand Should Set Goals for a Week-Long Residency
22. Measuring Community and Non-Financial Impact
23. What Success Looks Like for Different Stakeholders
24. Preparing for the Future of Small-Scale Physical Retail
25. FAQ

Key Highlights:

• Áwet New York launched The Storefront Project, a national initiative converting vacant retail space into fully supported short-term storefront activations; goal: support 2,000 emerging brands across the U.S. by 2030.
• The model eliminates upfront costs for brands, lets them retain 100% of revenue, and pairs each activation with logistics, POS technology and marketing support via partners including UPS and Shopify.
• The program scales from a pilot that helped more than 200 brands to city-specific, cohort-based residences beginning in New York with planned expansion to Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.

Introduction

For many digitally native labels, the path from online traction to physical storefront remains blocked by steep rents, complex operations and uncertain returns. Áwet New York is addressing that barrier through a program that treats short-term retail not as a stopgap but as a strategic channel: a curated pipeline of pop-up residencies that give emerging designers and beauty brands access to professionally run storefronts, marketing muscle and logistics support—without signing a long-term lease or handing over revenue.

The Storefront Project reframes underused commercial real estate as a resource for brand growth. Early results from a pilot partnership with UPS—supporting more than 200 brands—demonstrated that brief, intense in-person activations can create real customer relationships, press moments and measurable revenue for brands that otherwise could not afford to show up in physical retail. Áwet Woldegebriel, the program’s founder, built the initiative on a personal conviction: a single storefront opportunity was transformational for his own brand; replicating that access can accelerate many more companies.

This article examines how The Storefront Project works, why the format matters, how partnerships underpin the model, and what participating brands and landlords can expect. It also provides practical guidance for emerging labels considering an application and outlines the program’s potential impact on local retail ecosystems.

How The Storefront Project Works: Cohorts, Durations and Financial Terms

The Storefront Project converts vacant retail units into turn-key retail activations that host curated groups of brands in short-term "residences." Core elements of the model:

• Duration flexibility: Residences typically last three to five days, though activations can run from a single day to as long as a month. This cadence balances intensity and accessibility—short schedules reduce financial exposure while creating urgency that helps drive foot traffic.
• Cohort-based selection: Brands enter the program in curated cohorts, usually organized by city and by category (fashion, jewelry, beauty). Cohorts train and support one another, while the program centralizes operations.
• Zero upfront fees: Participating brands pay no upfront costs and retain 100% of the revenue they generate during their activation. This departs from conventional retailer arrangements such as wholesale, consignment or revenue-sharing pop-ups.
• Full operational support: Hosts supply the physical space, point-of-sale systems, on-site staffing templates and marketing support. Technology integrations (Shopify for POS) and logistics providers (UPS) are embedded to handle transactions and fulfillment.
• Marketing and PR integration: Each activation receives coordinated marketing support—social promotion, local press outreach and curated events—to amplify visibility beyond the brand’s existing channels.

The intent is to remove the most common financial and operational barriers that prevent small brands from testing physical retail. By bundling venue, technology, logistics and promotion into a managed program, Áwet New York offers a lower-risk environment for experimentation and customer acquisition.

Why Physical Retail Still Matters for Emerging Brands

Digital channels have lowered entry barriers to market, but online presence alone rarely replaces the trust and sensory experience of an in-person encounter. Brick-and-mortar experiences provide three advantages digital channels struggle to match:

• Sensory validation: Products that rely on texture, fit, fragrance or craftsmanship—handwoven handbags, leather goods, scent houses and artisan jewelry—benefit from tactile inspection. Founders such as the team behind Cesta Collective stress that customers grasp the craft and human story more readily when they can touch the product.
• Trust and credibility: Physical activations signal permanence and legitimacy. A storefront—if well-executed—reduces buyer hesitation and shortens the path to purchase.
• Rich customer data and relationships: In-store interactions generate information beyond clicks and time-on-page. Staff-led conversations, email captures and event sign-ups produce higher-quality leads and richer storytelling opportunities that support lifetime value.

Historical examples reinforce these effects. Brands that used pop-ups and small-format retail thoughtfully—Glossier, Warby Parker and Bonobos among them—translated early physical experiences into lasting customer relationships and brand loyalty. Glossier used pop-ups to create community moments and test merchandising strategies before committing to permanent stores. Warby Parker paired direct consumer contact with data-driven store rollouts. In each case, short-term physical presence provided proof that a brand could convert IRL interest into sustainable demand.

Short-duration activations also fit contemporary consumer behavior. Many shoppers respond to scarcity and curated experiences. Limited-time residencies create a sense of urgency and eventization—drivers of footfall and social sharing. For brands without the capital for long leases or build-outs, these benefits are otherwise out of reach.

Partnerships and Infrastructure: Logistics, Technology and Real Estate

The Storefront Project relies on an ecosystem of partners that handle critical pain points for small brands.

• Logistics: UPS supported the initial pilot and remains a logistics anchor. For emerging brands, fulfillment complexity—inventory routing, shipping speed, reverse logistics and international handling—creates friction. A logistics partner built into the activation eliminates margin-sapping post-sale work and ensures a professional customer experience.
• Point-of-sale and payments: Shopify powers POS infrastructure for the project. A common, integrated POS enables fast transactions, unified inventory management, and reliable reporting. For brands accustomed to e-commerce-first tools, the Shopify ecosystem reduces the learning curve for in-person selling.
• Real estate partners: The program converts vacant retail into cultural and commercial spaces. For landlords, short-term activations reduce vacancy-related losses and can increase long-term visibility for the property. For communities, curated storefronts can support neighborhood activation, foot traffic and local hiring during activations.
• Marketing and media: Integrated marketing amplifies each residency. The program provides press outreach, content support and social amplification to extend the activation’s reach outside direct foot traffic.

This combination of services addresses the operational realities that make running even a temporary store expensive and time-consuming. The pre-built infrastructure streamlines onboarding for brands and provides consistent standards across activations—critical for both customer experience and measurement.

From Pilot to National Scale: Metrics, Markets and Milestones

The Storefront Project originated as a pilot developed in partnership with UPS. That early phase supported more than 200 brands across key markets and revealed two key insights:

1. Physical retail remains a powerful driver of trust, discovery and revenue.
2. The necessary barriers—cost, operations and short-term access—are solvable when infrastructure and partnerships are aligned.

Áwet New York designed a measurable expansion plan built around quarterly application cycles and city-specific activations. The initial rollout begins in New York, with planned expansion to Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta. These cities are logical first phases: they combine dense consumer populations, media centers and sizable communities of fashion and beauty startups.

Success metrics the program will track include:

• Revenue per activation: total dollars generated during a brand’s residency.
• Conversion rate: the percentage of visitors who make purchases.
• Average transaction value (ATV): descriptive of upsell and merchandising effectiveness.
• Customer acquisition: number of new email subscribers, sign-ups and loyal customers acquired during the residency.
• Media and social reach: press mentions, influencer activity and social impressions generated.
• Repeat purchasing behavior: subsequent purchases attributable to in-store acquisition.

Áwet New York intends to measure not only immediate financial outcomes but also long-term brand growth. For example, an activation that yields one high-value, long-term customer may be as valuable as those that produce strong day-one revenue. The cohort model enables comparative analysis—brands with similar profiles can be benchmarked against one another to refine merchandising, staffing and marketing strategies.

Scaling to 2,000 brands by 2030 will require a repeatable playbook, an expanding partner network and efficient real estate relationships. The program’s quarterly cycles and cohort strategy aim to create predictable throughput and to establish a recognizable platform that landlords and brands trust.

Case Study: Cesta Collective and the Power of Tactile Storytelling

Cesta Collective, a handcrafted handbag label cofounded by Courtney Fasciano and Erin Ryder, exemplifies the kinds of brands The Storefront Project targets. Their baskets are woven by female artisans in Rwanda and finished in Italy—products whose craftsmanship and materiality are central to the value proposition.

For Cesta Collective, a storefront presented three practical advantages:

• Sensory engagement: Customers could feel the weave, examine the leather trim and assess proportions in person—elements that are difficult to convey digitally.
• Storytelling currency: In-person conversations allow founders to share the product’s origin story—artisan narratives, supply-chain ethics and production details—that deepen perceived value and justify price points.
• Business feasibility: A permanent storefront was not financially viable for a two-person team. The Storefront Project lowered the threshold for a month-long retail experiment, generating direct revenue and real-world feedback.

Courtney Fasciano described the opportunity as "incredibly meaningful," and Erin Ryder framed the program as a reflection of Áwet’s ethos: creating access with purpose. Cesta Collective’s activation at 122 Madison Avenue demonstrates how the residency model supports tactile brands and indicates how carefully curated pop-ups can amplify craft, community and commerce.

Other brands with similar profiles—artisan leather goods, jewelry designers, fragrance houses—stand to benefit in comparable ways. For product categories where matter and method are part of the sales argument, short-term physical retail can be the difference between a tentative online conversion and a committed customer relationship.

The Economics Behind No Upfront Cost and Full Revenue Retention

The Storefront Project diverges from typical pop-up models by eliminating upfront fees and allowing brands to retain 100% of their sales during activations. That arrangement raises questions about how the program sustains operations and what strings, if any, attach to the revenue.

The program’s financial model relies on several mechanisms:

• Partner contributions and sponsorship: Logistics, POS and marketing partners contribute infrastructure or discounted services as part of strategic partnerships. Early partner commitments reduce operating expenses for individual activations.
• Landlord arrangements and revenue opportunities: Landlords may accept nominal payments or agree to promotional partnerships in exchange for activation-driven foot traffic and property visibility. Owners of otherwise vacant units avoid vacancy carrying costs while experimenting with alternative leasing strategies.
• Platform-as-service economics: As the program scales, a standardized playbook and predictable scheduling increase throughput and efficiency. Economies of scale lower per-activation costs across staffing, marketing and logistics.
• Ancillary revenue streams: While brands retain in-store sales, the program can generate income through service fees for premium services, branded events, sponsorships and data licensing (with consent). These channels subsidize the no-fee model while preserving revenue upside for brands.

For participating brands, the financial calculus is straightforward: low risk, potential for high reward. The program reduces sunk costs, preserves margins, and removes friction to experimentation. For the platform, success depends on building a reliable network of partners and co-investing entities that value activation-driven visibility and community activation.

What This Means for Landlords, Communities and Urban Retail

Vacant storefronts exact economic and social costs on neighborhoods: they depress foot traffic, lower perceptions of safety and reduce adjacent retail performance. The Storefront Project positions short-term activations as a tool to transform dormant properties into dynamic community-facing spaces.

Benefits for landlords:

• Reduced vacancy costs: Short-term activations generate rental or promotional value where otherwise the asset sits idle.
• Testing ground for tenants: Residencies act as low-risk pilots that can surface high-performing concepts for permanent tenancy.
• Community goodwill: Well-curated activations draw footfall, diversify local offerings and support neighborhood vibrancy.

Benefits for communities:

• Cultural programming: Curated activations can include talks, workshops and events that bring cultural content to neighborhoods beyond traditional retail.
• Local hiring: Short residencies create temporary staffing opportunities and can cultivate future local employers.
• Small business incubation: The program channels entrepreneurial activity into visible community-facing experiences.

The model does not eliminate the structural challenges of retail—market fundamentals still matter—but it provides a flexible mechanism for property owners and municipalities to repurpose space and test new uses. In cities grappling with high vacancy rates, such programming can serve as a transitional strategy while long-term plans for mixed-use development or permanent tenancy are explored.

Operational Lessons from Cohort-Based Residencies

Áwet New York structures activations as cohorts—multiple brands sharing a residence, often with overlapping promotional and experiential programming. This design yields operational and marketing advantages:

• Shared overhead and audience pooling: Cohorts amplify foot traffic because each brand brings its own audience; combined, they create more reasons for consumers to visit.
• Cross-promotion opportunities: Brands can co-create events and merchandise pairings that increase average basket size and dwell time.
• Peer learning and feedback loops: Founders exchange tactics on merchandising, staffing and customer conversations; the program can aggregate data to produce best-practice playbooks for successive cohorts.
• Eventization and press appeal: A multi-brand residency creates a fuller narrative for press and local influencers than solitary pop-ups, making media outreach more compelling.

Successful cohort programming requires careful curation—brands should complement rather than directly compete with one another. The editorial aspect of selection drives shopper experience quality and helps ensure that visits convert at higher rates.

Data and Measurement: What Brands Should Track During an Activation

Physical retail generates a wide range of data that brands can use to refine products, marketing and operations. Core metrics to capture:

• Foot traffic: raw visitor numbers and peak visitation times.
• Conversion rate: purchases divided by visitors.
• Average transaction value (ATV): helpful for merchandising and promotion assessment.
• Units per transaction: indicates bundling and cross-sell potential.
• New customer capture: email sign-ups, loyalty registrations or phone numbers collected.
• Repeat visitation: ideally tracked via email or loyalty program signals post-activation.
• Channel attribution: what drove the visit—social, influencer, press, walk-by, paid ads?
• Post-sale behavior: online conversions, returns, and repurchase rates among activation customers.

Collecting robust data requires integration between POS, customer registration, and marketing tools. Shopify POS, used by The Storefront Project, provides a centralized dashboard for many of these metrics. Brands should create clear processes for capturing contact information at the point of sale and for following up with post-visit communications that convert new customers into repeat buyers.

Risks and Limitations to Consider

Short-term activations reduce certain risks but introduce others. Brands and program operators must manage:

• Inventory allocation: Too little inventory results in missed sales; too much ties up capital. Predicting demand for a concentrated event requires analysis of online conversion data and cohort audience expectations.
• Staffing and training: Well-briefed staff who can tell the brand story are critical. Brands must provide succinct talking points and product demonstrations for temporary staff or rely on platform-supported staffing.
• Brand experience consistency: Short activations must reflect the brand’s identity. Poor merchandising or mismatched in-store aesthetics can confuse customers and damage brand perception.
• Logistics and returns: Post-sale fulfillment, returns and exchanges must be handled professionally to avoid eroding customer trust. Integrating logistics partners like UPS mitigates these issues.
• Regulatory and insurance requirements: Temporary retail is subject to local permitting, taxes and insurance requirements. Programs should clarify responsibilities upfront.

The Storefront Project addresses many of these areas through centralized support, yet brands should enter activations with a clear plan: inventory strategy, staffing brief, communication plan and post-visit follow-up cadence.

Practical Guidance for Brands Interested in Applying

For brands considering an application, preparation can maximize the value of a residency. Recommended steps:

1. Clarify objectives: Define what success looks like—direct revenue, email captures, press coverage, product testing, or retailer interest.
2. Inventory planning: Prepare a conservative-to-optimistic inventory plan, including best-selling SKUs and reserves for restock.
3. Staff training materials: Create short scripts, product demos and story cards to train temporary staff in less than an hour.
4. Visual merchandising kit: Prepare a portable display plan—racks, tables, signage and lighting—that fits a small footprint and communicates brand identity.
5. Marketing plan: Coordinate pre-activation promotion—email blasts, social posts, and partnerships with local influencers or community groups.
6. Data capture systems: Ensure POS and email collection mechanisms are configured to tag customers as "storefront activation" for accurate attribution.
7. Post-activation funnel: Draft follow-up messages—special offers, product education or invitations to online events—to convert first-time visitors into repeat buyers.

These operational steps increase the odds of a productive activation and produce measurable outcomes that justify future physical retail efforts.

The Role of Storytelling and Community in Short-Form Retail

The Storefront Project is as much about storytelling as it is about transactions. For many emerging brands, the narrative—craft provenance, social mission, founder journey—creates emotional value that translates into higher perceived worth and loyalty when experienced in person.

Events, workshops, and founder appearances work particularly well within the residency model. A brand can pair product displays with live demos, artisan talks, or small workshops that deepen engagement. These formats encourage dwell time, increase conversion rate and produce shareable content for brand and platform channels.

Curation is essential: programming should feel authentic to each brand while contributing to a cohesive residency theme. When done well, storytelling-driven activations transform customers into advocates who amplify the brand beyond the footprint of a single storefront.

Scaling Impact: What 2,000 Brands Could Mean for the U.S. Retail Ecosystem

Áwet New York’s target of supporting 2,000 brands by 2030 is ambitious. If achieved, the program would have several systemic effects:

• Improved access to physical retail for underrepresented founders: Particularly for brands founded by people of color, immigrants and entrepreneurs with limited capital, repeat activation opportunities provide essential exposure.
• New talent pipelines for permanent retail: Successful residencies create evidence for landlords and investors to support permanent leases or longer-term arrangements.
• Revitalization of urban retail corridors: Frequent activations can sustain foot traffic, support adjacent businesses and change neighborhood perceptions.
• Expanded data on physical consumer behavior: Aggregated activation data will produce insights about conversion dynamics for specific product categories, informing a new playbook for in-person retail for small brands.

Those outcomes depend on reliable measurement, long-term partnerships and a platform that maintains standards across markets. The pilot phase shows promise; scaling will require the program to codify processes, build repeatable landlord relationships and attract additional strategic partners.

What Landlords and Cities Should Know Before Hosting Activations

Landlords and municipal leaders often have questions when approached with short-term activation proposals. Key considerations:

• Contract clarity: Define use periods, responsibilities for utilities, cleaning and basic maintenance. Clearly state liability, insurance and damage procedures.
• Community alignment: Ensure the residences reflect neighborhood needs and identity. Partnerships with local nonprofits, makers and cultural institutions can deepen community benefit.
• Security and logistics: Temporary activations require move-in/out logistics, staging zones for deliveries and clear signage for visitors.
• Measuring impact: Track local economic indicators—adjacent store sales lifts, foot traffic changes, local employment—and share findings with stakeholders.
• Long-term strategy: Use residencies as part of a broader placemaking plan, especially for corridors undergoing redevelopment.

Well-managed activations create win-win outcomes: landlords reduce vacancy costs and communities get energizing programming while brands gain access and customers.

Early Indicators from the Pilot and Expectations for Growth

The pilot with UPS delivered important signals. More than 200 brands participated, demonstrating demand for a managed short-term retail program. Several patterns emerged:

• Tactile and craft-driven brands derived disproportionate value from in-person events.
• Cohorts with complementary curations outperformed single-brand activations in terms of media coverage and sustained foot traffic.
• Integration with dependable POS and logistics partners materially improved customer satisfaction and reduced operational hiccups.

As Áwet New York expands, expectations should be pragmatic. Not every activation will produce blockbuster revenue. The program’s value proposition lies in product validation, customer relationship building and brand education. For brands, repeating activations across markets may be the pathway to sustainable physical retail, especially when combined with data-driven iteration.

The Founder’s Lens: Why Áwet Built This Platform

Áwet Woldegebriel traces the project back to his own experience: an early opportunity to open a storefront on Bond Street, made possible by Kenneth Cole, fundamentally accelerated his business. That physical touchpoint created relationships and momentum that could not have been replicated through online channels alone.

The Storefront Project is an institutionalization of that insight: turning a single founder’s pivotal moment into a repeatable, accessible program. Woldegebriel frames this as an intervention—an intentional shift in how the industry provides access to physical retail for emerging creators.

Elizabeth Clark Zoíá, head of partnerships, frames the initiative as an industry solution: connecting logistics, finance, technology and real estate to create a new path into permanent retail. The program’s emphasis on partnership and infrastructure is visible in its early collaborator list and in the operational model that offsets costs for participating brands.

International Comparisons: Short-Run Retail Models Abroad

Short-term retail residency models are not uniquely American. In cities such as London, Paris and Tokyo, curated pop-ups and temporary market spaces have become instruments for market testing and cultural programming. Examples:

• Market-style incubators have flourished in global fashion capitals, often run by cultural institutions or local governments to support emerging designers.
• Temporary retail marketplaces, sometimes organized around seasons or festivals, provide concentrated foot traffic for participating brands.
• Collaborative retail incubators—spaces where multiple micro-brands share a single footprint—have been used by creative districts to keep storefronts active while supporting cultural industries.

Áwet New York’s model aligns with these global practices but emphasizes scale, technology partners and a revenue-retention structure designed specifically for U.S. market dynamics.

Long-Term Opportunities and Potential Extensions

If the program scales successfully, several logical extensions emerge:

• Trade and wholesale bridges: Host buyer days that connect brands with wholesale buyers, accelerating B2B relationships born from in-person retail proof-points.
• Education and acceleration: Pair residencies with business education—pricing workshops, inventory management and retail operations training—so brands can translate activation learnings into sustainable strategies.
• Permanent tenancy pathways: Create a pathway where high-performing brands get preferential consideration for longer leases or shared permanent spaces with favorable terms.
• Data products: Aggregate anonymized data into a benchmark tool that helps small brands understand how their performance stacks up against peers in similar categories and cities.
• Sector-specific programming: Curate beauty-only or jewelry-only residencies optimized for product-specific experiences and trade audiences.

Those opportunities depend on building robust measurement systems and on the ability to reproduce quality experiences across disparate markets.

Practical Example: How a Brand Should Set Goals for a Week-Long Residency

A practical plan helps frame expectations. Example objectives for a week-long activation:

• Revenue target: $15,000–$30,000 depending on category and price points.
• New customers: 300–600 email captures.
• Conversion target: 6–12% of foot traffic.
• Media: one local features story, two targeted influencer posts.
• Post-activation: 10% conversion of email captures into purchases within 90 days.

To support these objectives, a brand would allocate inventory, schedule founder hours for peak days, plan two in-store events (a launch and a workshop), and coordinate pre-activation marketing to local audiences.

These numbers are illustrative; brand size, category, price points and market density determine realistic objectives. Even if revenue falls short, achieving significant email captures and high-quality product feedback can still mark a successful activation.

Measuring Community and Non-Financial Impact

Not all value from retail activations registers in sales. Community impact measurements include:

• Participation metrics: attendance at events, local vendor involvement and workforce hours created.
• Cultural outcomes: coverage by arts and culture outlets, partnerships with local institutions, and cross-pollination with neighborhood programming.
• Long-term activation outcomes: reductions in vacancy rates, upticks in adjacent foot traffic, and lease conversions following successful residencies.

Capturing these metrics helps justify partnerships with municipal stakeholders and supports grant or sponsorship funding for future programs.

What Success Looks Like for Different Stakeholders

• For brands: immediate revenue, new customer acquisition, and a clearer sense of product-market fit for in-person retail.
• For landlords: increased foot traffic, property visibility, and a pipeline of vetted tenant prospects.
• For partners: proof that logistical and technology integrations can support small-scale commerce reliably.
• For cities and communities: activation of retail corridors, cultural programming and support for local entrepreneurship.

Success requires aligning incentives across stakeholders and maintaining transparent measurement practices.

Preparing for the Future of Small-Scale Physical Retail

Short-term, professionally supported retail activations are likely to remain an important tool for brand growth. The Storefront Project’s model—no upfront costs, full revenue retention and embedded operational support—offers a clear alternative to traditional leasing and consignment models for startups.

Brands that learn to treat each activation as a data-generating experiment will be best positioned to translate pop-up wins into lasting customer relationships, wholesale partnerships and eventual permanent retail strategies. Landlords that see short-term activation as part of a longer-term placemaking toolkit will find new ways to monetize property while contributing to neighborhood vitality.

The Storefront Project seeks to institutionalize a pathway into physical retail that historically has been uneven and gatekept. If it delivers on its promise to scale access for 2,000 brands by 2030, it will have established a new infrastructure for the early-stage retail economy.

FAQ

Q: Who is eligible to apply for The Storefront Project? A: The program’s initial focus is on fashion and beauty brands—emerging ready-to-wear designers, handbag and accessories makers, jewelry designers, skincare and fragrance companies, and beauty concepts seeking in-person experiences without a long lease. Brands should have strong product-market fit, clear storytelling, and an engaged customer base, often built online or through wholesale.

Q: How long do activations last? A: Activations typically span three to five days, but can range from a one-day pop-up to a month-long residency. Duration is selected to balance energy, urgency and operational feasibility for the brand and program.

Q: What does it cost a brand to participate? A: There are no upfront fees for participating brands. The model allows brands to retain 100% of the revenue they generate during the activation.

Q: How does the program handle logistics, inventory and returns? A: The Storefront Project integrates logistics partners—UPS supported the pilot—to provide fulfillment and reverse logistics services. Shopify powers POS and inventory tracking during activations, reducing friction around transactions and post-sale processes.

Q: Who staffs the storefronts? A: Staffing arrangements can vary. The program provides operational templates and can help coordinate staffing; brands may supply their own staff during key hours, or work with program-supported staff depending on the activation structure.

Q: Are brands required to give up sales data or customer lists to Áwet New York? A: The program tracks activation performance—revenue, conversion, customer engagement metrics—to measure impact. Specific data-sharing practices and any anonymized aggregation for benchmarking are subject to program terms and brand consent.

Q: How are brands selected? A: Brands enter via quarterly application cycles and are curated into cohorts per city. Selection criteria prioritize product quality, storytelling, audience engagement, and readiness to connect directly with customers through physical retail.

Q: What cities are targeted for expansion? A: The rollout begins in New York, with planned expansion to Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta before adding additional U.S. markets.

Q: What benefits do landlords receive? A: Landlords gain reduced vacancy exposure, property activation, and opportunities to test concepts for permanent tenancy. Activations also generate community engagement and foot traffic beneficial to adjacent tenants.

Q: Can international brands participate? A: Program eligibility and logistics for international brands depend on local regulations, inventory logistics and customs. Brands with established U.S. operations or reliable logistics support are better positioned to participate.

Q: How does the program support marketing and PR? A: Each activation receives coordinated marketing support that includes social promotion, local press outreach and event programming to amplify the residency’s reach beyond in-store foot traffic.

Q: What should a brand bring to maximize success? A: Brands should define clear goals, prepare portable visual merchandising, allocate optimized inventory, provide staff training materials, and have post-activation follow-up plans for new contacts captured during the residency.

Q: How will success be measured over time? A: The program measures immediate and long-term indicators: revenue, conversion rates, average transaction value, customer acquisition counts, media reach and repeat purchase behavior attributable to activation customers.

Q: How can cities or cultural organizations get involved? A: Cities and cultural organizations can partner by identifying suitable spaces, supporting community programming, and co-sponsoring activations that align with neighborhood objectives and cultural missions.

Q: Is there potential for permanent retail placement after a successful activation? A: High-performing activations can inform landlords and investors about a brand’s viability for permanent tenancy. The program aims to create pathways to longer-term leases for brands that demonstrate fit and demand.

Q: Where can brands apply or learn more? A: Brands should consult Áwet New York’s official channels for application details, upcoming cohort deadlines and city-specific opportunities. Application cycles are quarterly and city activations are scheduled on a rolling basis.

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The Storefront Project reframes vacant storefronts as launchpads rather than liabilities. By combining a no-upfront-cost model, cohort curation and embedded operational partners, Áwet New York is building a repeatable pathway into physical retail for brands that have built momentum online but lack access to in-person customer relationships. For emerging designers and beauty founders, the program offers a pragmatic bridge to a more tangible, trust-driven commerce—one extra touchpoint that can transform a brand’s trajectory.