An Australian entrepreneur is leading the way in the lucrative pop-up market, finding widespread success selling high-end cosmetics at low-end prices across Sydney.

Gold Coast born and raised businesswoman Michelle Young is taking advantage of empty retail spaces by using them to hold pop-up sales where she sells high-end cosmetics brands at low-end prices.

It’s this trending pop-up business model that has seen her business POP UP Cosmetics grow from one store just a year and a half ago to five stores across Sydney today where she now sells millions of dollars worth of cosmetics.

But the success was all a happy coincidence, with Michelle first holding a pop-up to on-sell excess stock from a wholesale cosmetics company she created 12 years ago. But after holding her very first pop-up store in Rosebery two years ago, she was taken aback by its success, prompting her to heed the call to start a standalone pop-up business.

“I had an oversupply of stock and I needed to pay a supplier so I held my very first pop up sale in Rosebery about 3 years ago to clear some stock and it went really well and so we did a lot of advertising and moved to new location in Alexandria and proceeded to decide to turn it into a business itself.”

It’s the attractive price point of the high-end cosmetics she sells combined with the hype around the short-term nature of the sales that has really resonated with customers.

“Selling big-name cosmetics at 85 per cent off customers really respond to that because the only other place they can get that price is online,” she said.

“Our sales are quite short in that we run 7 day pop-up sale so that call to action get those products at that price in location is quite powerful.”

The now lucrative pop-up business model was only emerging when Michelle caught onto it. But two years ago, she knew she was onto something good.

“It was just really emerging, I’d seen some pop-ups food carts, some pop-up fashion warehouse sales in Alexandria and Rosebery and we started running just four day pop up and was popular then I knew I was onto something so I registered the trademark POP UP Cosmetics.”

The pop-up model offers customers a unique hype-filled experience that not even online can offer, Michelle says.

“I definitely feel and I know shopping centres are revaluating their offering because need to give customers a unique experience. Pop up I feel is great way to give customers that excitement.”

But Michelle’s pop-up fame was also carefully curated, with the brand’s marketing strategy a huge part of the businesses’ success.

“We have an email database, every single person is offered to sign up to email, we also track where every single customer came from so know how every person arrived at a pop-up sale, because other ad do is 10,000 flyer drop, we have two Facebook accounts there’s over 15,000 people. We know when there we’ve had sales where 45% have come purely from advertising.”

The expansion has been so successful that the young entrepreneur has plans to expand her pop-up model nationally.

“We definitely want to expand nationally, we’re using Sydney metro as the model to expand, we’re streamlining everything and making sure model solid and definitely national expansion is what looking for in the coming years.”