The days of dusty and dark storage facilities are over. In the past few years, the reinvention of the self-storage industry has ushered in new tech trends with services geared toward customers. New modern designs of facilities, automated services, and ease of storage are all features the reinvented storage industry now boasts.
These shifts in the self-storage industry are innovative, fresh, and a long time coming. Storage facilities are no longer an eyesore on urban landscapes. Instead, they are almost like communities helping people store their stuff securely and smartly.
Self-Storage Industry Growth
The growth of the self-storage industry is a testament to the changes that have come to fruition. For instance, the self-storage industry grew from 18+ million square feet in 2015 to 36 million square feet in 2017. That’s quite a large leap in physical growth for any industry.
There are more people storing their stuff in storage units than ever before, mainly due to shifts in living trends, as well as ease of use. Interestingly, even people with garages used storage facilities. In fact, nearly 10 percent of households use storage facilities, according to a study by the Self-Storage Association (SSA). That’s 12.6 million people storing stuff in the US.
What specifically is driving these self-storage industry trends? Let’s take a deeper look.
Ease of Storage
Today’s digital age is connecting people and businesses in new ways. People simply don’t need to do the legwork anymore. They simply hop online, find what they’re looking for, purchase it, and go about their day. This is true for almost every industry, especially this one.
Before you would need to find a storage facility in some dark corner of your city, go have a look and get pricing, check to see how secure it was, and then go home to box up your stuff and move it to the facility. Not anymore. There are businesses that have taken all the guesswork, and physical work out of the equation.
Now you can go online, book a time for a storage rep to show up to your home and take care of pretty much everything. And this is also very affordable. You can check out websites like https://www.livible.com/ to get a better idea of just how easy it is to get your stuff stored, whether for your home or business.
There’s An App For That
Technology has long been an issue for the self-storage industry, but not anymore. The tech trends in the industry are innovative and can be found online and, in the facilities, too. In fact, the customer-facing tech storage business owners and brands are implementing is one of the major catalysts for the industry’s growth.
Why? Businesses and brands are able to highlight the new facilities, security, ease of use, and more. This has caused a shift in the way customers are thinking about storage. Apps are part of this shift. You can now download an app for nearly all storage businesses and brands in order to connect, hire, pay, and store. All from one app. You may even get better rates as an app user.
Storage Is Now Social
As the self-storage industry grew exponentially, so did their online visibility and focus on brand awareness. No longer are storage businesses and brands disconnected. They are now social businesses enticing customers through every social media channel.
Using social media makes sense and you can research and compile a list of self-storage businesses you would like to store your stuff with. And self-storage businesses are not just posting bland social messages. They are as hip as a lot of other industries.
For instance, they are using videos to showcase facilities and the process involved in renting a storage unit. They are also showing off company culture, making a more personal and human connection with potential customers. Whether they are using an agency to manage their social networks or not, you can really get a sense for a storage business now via social media.
Wrapping Up . . .
The self-storage industry has come out of the shadows and is booming. You can almost not even call it “self” storage anymore since the offerings pretty much take care of the entire storage process for the customer nowadays. The above highlights a few reasons why this industry is trending and will continue to do very well down the road if it continues to innovate. If you’re looking for storage, you can shed the idea of what that meant in the past and check out a whole new hip and trendy industry.
