The retail world is undergoing an interesting transformation. It is on the cusp of change from multiple directions as electronic and mobile commerce grow in popularity and new payment tools saturate the market. However, a recent Mashable article mentions that the next step in retail could be into the past.

According to the piece, many companies are starting to look into pop-up stores. These are small scale operations located either in larger department stores or in non traditional retail locations. Many of them also set-up shop temporarily like the One Direction store that travels with the band or online only custom suit company Indochino, which has launch events for a few weeks at a time before moving to a new city.

According to Angela Wang, the co-founder of Republic Spaces—a startup that allows merchants to rent out unused floor space for pop-up stores—this move by eCommerce and other non-traditional selling environments to brick-and-mortar locations will keep growing.

"Brands can reach new customers, sell more products, increase their brand exposure, launch new products, and test out new markets quickly and cheaply," Wang said. "The pop-up shop trend is the future of retail. It reflects a shift from the selling of goods and services to the value of experiences and transformations."

Many of these stores also need to use mobile devices as point of sales systems in order to take advantage of the small space or nomadic style. A tablet POS system is perfect for "future" retail systems, just as much as it is works for the current landscape.