Kembrel.com: online discount designer retailer opens pop-up shop in Center City

A couple of years ago, two Wharton MBAs, Stephan Jacob and Cherif Habib, took the members-only flash sales model, made famous by the Gilt Group, and made it even more convenient by starting Kembrel.com in September 2010, a membership-based discount designer fashion site that boasted the first ever private retail shop on Facebook. Technically Philly wrote about it here.

Despite the innovative retail model, Kembrel isn’t afraid to sell discounted designer apparel the traditional way, too, but they’ve got a twist — a new pop-up shop that opened this month near Rittenhouse Square.

Pop up shops are temporary retail establishments that occupy an open space for a short period of time, a concept that has been growing in interest. The newest Kembrel pop-up — the lease began in early February — is located in what seems like prime territory at 18th and Chestnut. The lease is good until spring of this year, but Jacob hopes to keep the shop open throughout the summer.

“We don’t share any money figures, but the first two weeks have been great,” said Jacob, who lives in Society Hill with his wife and dog. “We feel very fortunate to welcome so many of our Philadelphia-based online customers and new faces who happen to walk by or read about us recently.”

The idea behind the pop up shop is two-fold: first, to get more people to learn about Kembrel.com and second, to give customers access to steeply discounted designer style offline, where they can actually try the clothes, shoes and other accessories on.

Kembrel’s headquarters are located, at least for now, in the sometimes-named Midtown Village at 12th and Locust, where they also sell merchandise. They opened that space in November 2011, Jacob, 31, told Technically Philly. Despite the semi-permanent space, Habib, 30, who leads Kembrel’s tech and marketing team, is now based out of Montreal, where he grew up.

Technically Philly asked Jacob about plans to launch any other Kembrel pop-up shops in the city, but he wouldn’t say.

“We will stabilize operations first but stay tuned,” Jacob said. “We are still a startup and like to move fast.”

We guess that means Philly should keep an eye out, because the beauty of pop-up shops is that you never know where one could turn up next.