Retail collectives are changing how young entrepreneurs access storefront selling space

Collective retail spaces are changing the way young entrepreneurs are getting their brands in front of customers.

One local business owner says the retail collective model is helping Calgary's artist and creative community break into the physical retail space. 

Five years ago, Alice Lam opened her first collective store called Tigerstedt and Friends, on Centre Street North, and she says this has been a successful model. 

"Two of the businesses there grew so much that they ended up taking over the entire store."

Collective retail spaces are shops where local entrepreneurs can rent a shelf or sell their goods in a consignment-style arrangement, which many vendors say eliminates some of the biggest barriers of opening a business — especially for young people.

But the idea of a collective retail space isn't a new invention. Collective retail stores are popular in many major cities, which is what inspired Lam to bring it closer to home.

"Being a business owner myself, I know it's very hard to take on all the financial risk of opening a storefront by yourself, and so I really was attracted to this community model," said Lam.

Following the first storefront's success, Lam then co-founded Moonlight — a second collective retail space, but this time in downtown's Dragon City Mall — which opened in November. 

"It's just a chance to build up the entrepreneurial community among young Asian makers in Calgary, and it's a way for us to also revitalize Calgary's Chinatown and contribute to this community that we grew up enjoying so much."

According to the co-founder, the median age for Moonlight's vendors is under 30.

Lam says the name "Moonlight" came from the idea that collective retail could help young entrepreneurs test their business model, products and passions before diving head first into the career path.

"I think it allows them to moonlight as something that they'd like to try," said Lam.

"It allows you, whether you're in school or you're working full time, to kind of have a platform to pursue one of your passions and figure out, 'is this something that I want to pursue in the future?'"

Lam says she was shocked by how many people wanted to participate — from tea and trinkets to ceramics and candles, the collective retail spaces house goods from nearly 50 local vendors.

One of the vendors at Moonlight is 19-year-old Deni Hui, who owns Dear Bearie, a business that specializes in handmade polymer clay trinkets, earrings, charms and more. 

Hui says the collective retail space is a game changer for small businesses, especially when it comes to the overhead capital that young entrepreneurs might not have access to.

"To invest in a store is a very big risk to take, especially if I'm just selling little things like this. Like, how am I going to make enough to cover all of these shelves and fill up an entire store?"

One of the things that makes this experience so unique is being able to meet other vendors and share the highs and lows of being a small business with one another. 

"I think a shop like this brings together so many people and it's just one solid place that we can all meet," she said.

"It's like a little library of people."

And it's not just about the other retailers. Hui says it also gives customers better insight into what they're buying before their purchase, something she believes e-commerce lacks.

"Actually seeing people go, 'Oh my God, it's so cute,' is what really makes me so in love with this kind of place," she said. 

Right now, Hui is selling her products only at Moonlight, but she says collective retail is groundbreaking for small businesses and she hopes to get into more collective storefronts in the future.

But the collective retail space isn't new to every small business owner. Lucy Tan owns Lavish the Label, a handmade jewelry company, and she sells her products in two of Calgary's retail collectives.

Tan's jewelry is sold in both Moonlight and another retail collective located in Chinook Centre. She says the collective retail format takes some of the burden off of small business owners.

"It also kind of allows me to grow like the channels at which I distribute, which makes it easier on me," said Tan, adding that not having to spend a whole day standing at a market selling her product is a key benefit of the collective model.

But it's also about growing a business and connecting with people who may not know your products exist.

She says collective retail expedites the process of gaining brand recognition "because there are shoppers who just come into the store already."

And Craig Patterson, the founder and publisher of Retail Insider, agrees.

"People are still physically going into the malls or stores.… So these smaller brands can get a physical presence in a place where people may already be looking for those things."

And the in-person experience offered by a retail storefront is something Patterson believes is making an important comeback. 

"More people shifted online during the pandemic to shop, but we've seen online shopping levelling off and we've seen people still going into stores over the holidays," he said.

He says collective retail shops function like a department store. It's like a collaboration involving different products, brands and businesses. However, instead of mass production and big conglomerates, what's attractive about the retail collective is its local vendors with one-of-a-kind products and a low environmental impact, says Patterson.

"A lot of people are kind of tired of the mainstream products you can just get anywhere. If you're looking for something unique, you can go to one of these smaller retailers that's a bit more localized and find something you may not be able to get anywhere else."