E-commerce was already on the rise prior to 2020, but the pandemic skyrocketed online shopping and led to eCommerce businesses popping up everywhere.  

However, the majority of UK eCommerce start-up businesses end up failing within the first few months. The operational costs of running an e-commerce business can be pretty lofty. One of the reasons why so many new eCommerce businesses fail to succeed is that they get their pricing forecasts wrong and underestimate how much everything costs. 

A big part of eCommerce business storage is inventory management and keeping stocks replenished all year round. Don’t get into a habit of letting customers down by not adequately delivering the products you advertise on your website. Bad news spreads quickly in eCommerce and poor service will put people off using your services. eCommerce companies with high levels of sales, therefore, need somewhere to securely store their stock. 

Self storage units are an ideal storage solution for eCommerce businesses. Here at Now Storage, we are experts in self storage. We have decided to create this guide to self storage for eCommerce businesses for business owners.

Ideal for storing your eCommerce business stock

You will want somewhere to store your eCommerce stock securely, particularly if your products are of high value, and any damage or theft could have a detrimental knock-on effect on your business. 

Here at Now Storage, we prioritise security by providing 24/7 security monitoring. We ensure that we look after any items you decide to put into storage. Thereby, you will get the peace of mind you need as a business owner when you put your faith in Now Storage to store your eCommerce products. Please bear in mind that there are certain items we don’t allow you to store here at Now Storage, including food.

When you are a smaller-scale new eCommerce clothing store without many orders, you can create a storage setup and home and maybe get yourself a shed or some inbuilt wardrobes to store your stock. However, once you start scaling up a bit and taking on more orders, you will no longer be able to store all your clothing stock at home. Some eCommerce stock, such as large machinery, you will probably never be able to store at home.

Somewhere to keep your litter and packaging 

eCommerce businesses can churn out a fair bit of wastage and litter over time, especially if there is lots of waste created during the product’s production process or when delivering goods to customers with lots of packaging, something that is important if you sell fragile products to customers that are easily breakable during delivery. Storing mountains of packaging at your home address or company office can get in the way, so why not hire a self storage unit to store your litter and packaging?

Remember to try and recycle as much of your business’s litter as possible after it has spent a sufficient amount of time in a self storage unit, as it will be your way of doing your bit to look after the planet. 

An ideal workspace for packing orders 

A significant part of the practical side of sending out orders for delivery when you run an eCommerce business operation is packing orders, which includes packaging such as cardboard, plastic bags, paper gift wrapping, protective materials such as bubble wrap, polystyrene, styrofoam, labelling, and more. 

In fact, packing your orders can be a fairly labour-intensive process, especially if you are shipping valuable or fragile items that need that bit more protection when packaged. So, renting a spacious self storage unit could provide an ideal workspace for when you are packing orders. At Now Storage, we offer indoor storage units and larger-size storage containers which can be perfect workspaces for when you need to pack orders.

A location to create multimedia promotional content 

A large number of YouTubers and professional social media influencers decide to use self storage facilities as cheaper studio space to help them produce content. All it requires is a light, a good camera, and suitable background paper. 

So, want to create some multimedia promotional content to advertise your eCommerce business, such as podcasts, video clips, and so on? Then why not store filming and audio equipment in a large self storage container unit and start filming from there? 

A smart way to keep your home office decluttered 

Many successful eCommerce retail businesses start out from sole traders and one bright mind having a vision and a focus. Therefore, home offices are important places since they can be the very birthplace of eCommerce businesses and where bright product ideas and strategies on how to scale up are conjured up. Everybody has to start somewhere and for many eCommerce traders today that takes the form of the home office environment. 

The internet and changes in attitudes in the world of work towards remote working during the pandemic mean that working from home and running an online sales business from a home office should be no problem. However, in general, there are many distractions that can affect your focus and impact your productivity when you work from home. In a 2020 study on over 2,000 UK employees, 85% said they were more likely to engage in non-work related activities when working from home. This includes watching the television and streaming sites, browsing the internet, taking care of household chores, procrastination and more. 

There’s no point in shifting the clutter from your home office to other areas of your house. This is not a sensible storage idea in the long run. Renting an eCommerce business storage unit space is an ideal practical solution for storing anything that is cluttering up your home office and making it disorganised and far from the ideal place to work from.  

Provides great scope for business expansion

Did you start off small, but now sales are up and there are clear signs that your eCommerce business could successfully expand and upscale? Increased demand for customer sales will mean you need more stock. So, the opportunity of having eCommerce business storage at a self storage facility to store your stock will help you to explore expanding your business.

Office equipment storage

Once your eCommerce company starts growing, you may want to recruit more staff and get yourself and office premises. After all, an office can be a great place to form bonds and create a positive company culture, you never know how big your eCommerce business could become when it has a healthy working environment and the right people on board.  

However, office space in the UK can be quite pricey, especially in built-up urban areas, and you don’t want office equipment that you currently don’t use for business purposes to clog up vital office space.  A solution that will help to alleviate this is to rent an eCommerce business storage space that can easily house office equipment and supplies such chairs, tables, desks and workstations, stationery, printers, electrical leads, whiteboards, and so on. 

At Now Storage, you can rent storage containers up to 320 sq ft, more than big enough to store your office equipment. We are well accustomed to providing our customers with both business and personal storage solutions. 

Storage for seasonal lines and special discounts 

Adequate inventory replenishment and satisfying peaks in demand at different of the year will require your business to have access to storage facilities. Do you sell eCommerce products which are particularly seasonal? For example, Christmas-themed gifts, summer garden furniture, Halloween items, or winter clothing. 

If you do, then you can expect there to be certain peaks and troughs in your sales performance, where at times you will sell a lot in a short space of time and must be prepared for it. So, once you have finished your Christmas line, put these stock items in a self storage unit. 

Having easy access to a self storage unit space will also come in handy for order replenishment of your stock when you are offering promotional with specials discounts and price cuts. During discount campaigns, you may well see a surge in sales figures from your customers after a good bargain.

Part of your strategy to ensure you have a sufficient amount of supplies and stock stored away to deliver your eCommerce customers the discounted items they are after could be to make the most of hiring self storage units. Loyal customers will love to be rewarded for their repeated custom to your eCommerce store with discounts, so make sure you don’t let them down and get your stock in order by thinking ahead and using smart storage solutions.

Self storage can help you get rid of stock that needs shifting

Do you have mountains of stock that you need to get off your hands and sell? Perhaps you have come up with fresh new product ideas and are thinking about discontinuing a certain line of products? Storing it in an eCommerce business storage unit will mean it is somewhere safe and sound and you can have a shot at getting rid of it in one sweep. Why not try running a price slashing deal on your eCommerce store that will grasp online shoppers? You could offer a buy two get the third one free deal. 

Insure your belongings in eCommerce business storage

In business, it is also crucial to make sure you have got your back covered, and also this goes for when you use self storage to store your eCommerce stock. So, at Now Storage, although our facilities are extremely secure and your business items will be well monitored,  we will ask to see your insurance policy number before allowing you to use our storage facilities. We do offer our own Now Storage insurance policies, starting from £2 per week.

Ask the storage facility the right questions

When considering putting your eCommerce business’s stock in self storage, you need to make sure you first ask the storage facility a good number of relevant questions, When will you be able to access your stock in storage? Are the units and containers clean and well-maintained? Do they have insulation? Questions like this are important. For instance, poorly insulated units may become damp and this could damage the material of your clothes and cause you to lose a lot of money on deteriorated stock if you run an eCommerce business. At Now Storage, our containers are steel enforced and well-insulated. 

Asking the right questions is all part of you figuring out whether it is worth your while to spend your eCommerce business’s money on using a storage provider’s services. Here at Now Storage, we are proud to be a self storage company that values providing customers with high levels of customer service, so our team will be attentive to any of your storage queries.

So, are you intrigued by the idea of using a self storage service for your eCommerce business storage needs? We have you covered here. Get in touch with Now Storage today by calling 0333 259 4343 or sending us a message in our online form.