Gilt Trying 28-Day Pop-Up Store

Gilt Groupe (New York), the fashionable online retailer, will open its first long-term pop-up store this week, in Louisville, Ky.

The Internet purveyor of luxury brands has been experimenting with two-day Gilt City pop-up stores for a little while in some of its major consumer markets, like New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.

But this store, in an abandoned 26,000-square-foot Borders space, will be open for nearly the entire month of July.

“The bigger a company gets, the more need it has to find ways to sell product,” said Chris Halkyard, Gilt’s chief supply officer. “And we’re growing.”

The reason for the Louisville selection, Halkyard noted, is its proximity to one of Gilt’s largest distribution and fulfillment warehouses, in nearby Shepherdsville, Ky. That site is close to Louisville Intl. Airport, the home of UPS’s WorldPort distribution hub.