An underrated play in eCommerce

When people talk about how warehouses are the way to profit from the growing eCommerce industry, I always thought that all eCommerce stores, big and small, would lease out a huge space just to store their inventory.

In reality, it’s only the big players that continue to expand that take up more and more warehouse spaces. As eCommerce grows, there will be more inventory that needs to be stored in different places whether it be the warehouses, garages, vans, and even self-storage facilities.

As I thought more about investing in warehouses as a way to play the growing eCommerce industry, a thought came to my mind: how would I capitalize on the growth of many smaller eCommerce businesses? To capitalize on the bigger eCommerce stores and their growth, warehouses are the way to do it as they have a lot of inventory to store. That’s when I realized that self-storage facilities will be the business that caters to smaller eCommerce businesses.

While leasing the whole warehouses costs a lot of money, if they’re only going to use up some of the space and not most of it, then they’ll need to either find a smaller warehouse or go to a self-storage facility. With self-storage, there are a variety of sizes that can cater to a garage full of inventory and more. Plus, some self-storage facilities even have temperature-controlled units for items that need to be stored at a certain temperature.

Overall, I can see many smaller eCommerce stores leasing self-storage space as a place to hold their inventory. Homes have a limited amount of space and sometimes, the inventory can make a person’s home look like they’re a hoarder. With the eCommerce industry growing and more and more people joining the bandwagon, I can see self-storage demand increasing in the common years.