I am an absolute shopaholic. I spend a lot of time patronizing literally every type of business under the sun. As an avid consumer, I believe that I have advice that I can give businesses that can help them become more successful and serve there customers better. Even though I am the only one working on this blog, much of what I write comes from endless conversations with friends and family members who have experienced frustrations when patronizing businesses, big and small. My name is Alice Stark and I hope you enjoy the journey that we will be going on together!
Running an online store, whether it's on an auction-style site or a locally orientated sales system instead, is one of the most flexible ways to become your own boss. Many sellers start out by storing their inventory at home, especially if they're crafting the products or at least repackaging items for shipping on their own. However, upgrading to a nearby storage unit can improve your online store without requiring a major investment on your part.
Reclaiming Family Space
Are you turning down invitations to visit from family members and distant friends because your guest rooms and all other available space is packed with empty boxes, products to sell, and other business-related materials? Moving your inventory out to another location frees up space for hosting guests, expanding your family, or just making more space for enjoying your home. If you're already having trouble keeping your family out of your inventory storage areas, you definitely should prioritize finding at least a small commercial storage space to free up your home for its primary purpose once again.
Streamlining Order Fulfillment
When you rent a storage unit with plenty of extra space, you can set up a complete packaging and shipping station complete with a weigh station, metering postage printer, and shipping material organization system. This kind of equipment can take up an entire home office or guest room alone, so it's well worth renting a slightly larger storage unit since the extra monthly cost is far less than adding a whole new room to your home. Your customers will also notice the difference when you can get your orders out faster thanks to the combination of a streamlined shipping process and an easier time finding the product in question thanks to an organized storage unit.
Outsourcing Labor
It doesn't take long for an online store to grow large enough that you can justify hiring at least a part-time employee to help with packaging orders, answering customer inquiries, and processing deliveries of products. Running the business entirely from home means you'll have to invite the employee into your house, while keeping everything at a separate location creates a barrier between your personal life and your business. Commercial storage units are easily configured to allow multiple users to securely and separately access the space, allowing you to track who's coming when and where. If something goes missing, you'll know if it was your employee or a stranger who broke into the unit.
Separating Inventory
For faster shipping response times, it's best to separate your stock by the likelihood of the item selling in the immediate future. Since in the average eCommerce shop only 20% of the stock accounts for around 80% of sales, you should be able to store the majority of your stock in a storage unit while keeping just the most popular items at home. This means you can make quick shipments of popular items that sell on a daily basis while only taking a few trips a week to the storage unit as less popular items sell.
Increasing Security
Keeping your inventory at a storage facility with extra security features, such as closed circuit television and coded access gates, reduces the chances of a burglar making off with thousands of dollars worth of stock. Home burglaries are stressful enough without your business becoming impacted in the process. You may also find it easier to get an affordable insurance policy to cover your eCommerce inventory after moving everything to a location you can demonstrate is secure. Investing in commercial grade security equipment for your home is usually far more expensive than renting a storage unit.
Contact a storage facility like I-70 Self Storage to learn more.
Share17 October 2017
