A Warehouse That Helps People Store Sundries Has A Market Of 100 Billion Behind It
Self-service storage, also known as mini storage, personal storage. To put it simply, the operator divides the large warehouse into small warehouses of different sizes to provide rental services, guarantees certain storage conditions and safety measures, and charges according to the space and rental duration.
Self-service warehouses have a history of decades in Europe and the United States. At the end of the 1960s, in Texas, a form of storage that was specially designed for small-sized users, simplified and broken down into pieces—mini warehouses . It has entered Asia in the past ten years and is relatively popular in Japan, Singapore and other places. It has only officially entered China in recent years. Currently, it is mainly concentrated in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The mini warehouse is essentially a storage room. The operator converts a closed space of 100-1000 square meters into several small warehouses or lockers that can provide rental services. Customers only need to pay two or three hundred yuan per month for rent to store those items that are not used temporarily or periodically at home.
The American industry leader in the mini storage industry, Public Storage, has 2,200 branches in the United States with a market value of nearly $32 billion; the British leader Safestore has 121 local branches with a market value of 600 million pounds; even Hong Kong, China, with a population of only 7 million , The No.1 store in the industry also has more than 130 branches with a market value of more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars.
According to the survey data, there are nearly 50 domestic companies engaged in the mini-storage business. Except for individual brands, most of these operators have only opened 1-3 stores, which are basically located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Compared with mature foreign markets, there is obvious room for growth. The domestic micro-warehousing market can completely achieve the scale of hundreds or even thousands of stores.
The operation principle of the mini warehouse is similar to that of the co-working and youth apartments that are popular today, both of which are optimizing the space. In my opinion, the significance of mini storage for real estate developers mainly lies in the following three points:
Liquidation of stock inefficient assets
Home or personal storage needs belong to rigid and low-frequency needs. It does not account for a high proportion of the complex demand carried by the residence, but through the market-oriented operation of community-based warehousing, the inefficient stock in the community has been activated.
Customers use personal storage to store items. On the one hand, they pursue an independent lifestyle and do not like to leave things in the homes of relatives and friends and disturb others. storage of items, storage of items that are not used in stages, etc.
The mini warehouse is actually an upgraded version of the storage room. Compared with the traditional warehouse, it has higher industry standard, such as temperature control and humidity control, 24-hour camera monitoring, special personnel, free insurance, etc.
In addition, according to the storage needs of different owners, there are mainly two types of lockers and storage bins. The lockers are small and can store clothes, books, toys, etc.; the storage bins are relatively large, and can store furniture and home appliances.
Occupy Community Entrance
The mini-storage, which is still in its infancy, needs to be widely promoted by various operators to find and lock its own customer sources. No matter in high-end residential areas or commercial central areas, domestic mini-storage operators need to explore and find their own customers. Currently, the customer base of the domestic mini-storage industry is mainly individual customers, and the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprise customers is only 20 to 30%. proportion.
Personal warehousing needs can be grafted into the property and become a part of the property upgrade and innovation, or bypass the property directly to C-end customers to serve the C-end and derive a variety of services, which has become a new business model.
Everyone knows that Treasure House 1.0 in Shanghai Center, and Treasure House 2.0 is a community version of the treasure house. It condenses the treasure house of 16,000 square meters in Shanghai Center into 500 square meters and enters the community, combining museum space and collection space to complement each other.
Just imagine, if there was a museum in front of your house, would you frequent it? If you have a safe downstairs in your house, do you open it frequently? Treasure 2.0 has acquired an unlimited number of community borrowed interfaces on a large scale, and it is a sticky interface.
Dig deep into the value of space
In the past, the profit scale of real estate was measured in square meters, and the value of a house was directly reflected in the unit price per square meter. The charging standard for warehousing services breaks this method. It is measured by space (cubic), and the spatial value of real estate is deeply excavated by matching demand.
Warehousing service helps users save space and expenses, and is a value-added service for developers. At home, people usually do not store items very compactly, but they can be arranged in a more organized manner in a mini warehouse. At home, they need 100 cubic meters of storage space, and in a mini warehouse, they may only need 50 cubic meters. For developers, while providing users with better life services, it can also maximize the value of the land.
In addition, the vast majority of users who use warehousing services can easily form a rigid need once they have tried it once. Because many people feel that their homes are crowded and the space is not enough, regardless of the living area, as long as they are willing to store their items outside, they will basically continue to use them.
In addition to the mini-storage in the community, office enterprises also need mini-storage. It is used to store industrial and commercial personnel files, exhibition equipment, publicity materials, office supplies, etc.
For example, the CBD mini warehouse is a mobile smart warehouse specially provided for co-working spaces. You can rent, renew, withdraw, manage positions directly online and through WeChat official account, and WeChat unlock and self-service access. Through the mobile terminal, you can easily grasp the dynamic.
Storing items should also be about quality
Mr. Wang’s Meicube self-service warehouse Sihui store, where Mr. Wang stores furniture, has an underground warehouse area of about 2,500 square meters. The interior is divided into small storage cabinets of various sizes ranging from a few cubic meters to dozens of cubic meters. According to the staff, this is the largest self-service warehouse in the urban area of Beijing.
Feng Qiang, director of the Asia Self Storage Association (SSAA) and chairman of China, believes that compared with traditional warehouses or safes, self-service warehouses have their own unique advantages. She said: “First of all, it is reflected in the location selection. Self-service warehouses are generally concentrated in central urban areas with excellent geographical locations, close to consumers’ work units and residences, so that consumers can access 24 hours a day. The second is to preserve quality, and self-service warehouses can Guaranteeing constant temperature and humidity, regular deworming, and the necessary anti-theft systems can also satisfy consumers’ need for privacy.”
Speaking of the difference between self-service warehouses and safes, Feng Qiang shared stories around her with reporters. She has a friend. After his wife passed away, he stored the items he used in his life in the safe as a souvenir. The security conditions of the community he lived in were quite good, but he did not expect that when his home was stolen, it was the safe that was stolen. Although there is some cash in the safe, the whole family is very sorry for the loss of his wife’s belongings. Later, when I learned that she was running a self-service warehouse, I told her that if I had known earlier, I should have put things in the self-service warehouse.
“Safe reinsurance always has the risk of being stolen at home. Even if the safe is not opened in the end, the loss of items is always an irreparable loss.” Feng Qiang said.
Meet the more personalized needs of consumers
Although the self-service warehouse has been quietly popular in recent years, not everyone can accept it, and some people choose to give up after learning about it. Ms. Chen is a student of a university in Beijing. According to the school’s requirements, she will move to the campus at the end of this semester. She and many of her classmates are thinking about how to pack and store the dormitory items, so they began to pay attention to the self-service warehouse, but she was still a little hesitant. She said: “I am mainly worried about the safety of the items. After all, I have to put the items in another warehouse. Even if there are no valuables, I am not very worried.”
According to the staff of the American cube self-service warehouse, the warehouse has infrared monitoring under the condition of airtightness, and a large number of camera devices are arranged, and an independent alarm system is placed inside each warehouse cabinet. The locks of the warehouse are also carefully designed, and the key is only in the hands of the consumer, so even if someone enters the warehouse, the warehouse cannot be opened casually. In case there is a problem with the item during the storage process, there are also quite complete compensation measures.
Ms. Sui also did not choose a self-service warehouse after learning about it. She believes that the items she stores do not need to be accessed 24 hours a day, but hopes that the logistics can be delivered to the door at one time. “If I could move them all at once and bring them back all at once, I wouldn’t have to go out,” she said.
In this regard, the staff of Beijing Bee Storage told reporters that most of the logistics of self-service warehouses are currently outsourced, and considering the safety of the warehouse, the method of “unmanned management, one person, one warehouse” is adopted, so it can only rely on consumers. Self storage. And bee storage will create a separate QR code for each consumer and each item when receiving items. When accessing, within Beijing, as long as you make an appointment 1 day in advance and provide a QR code for verification, you can wait for the logistics staff of the bee collection to come to your door for service.
“Of course, the needs of consumers are diverse. At present, the domestic market has not been fully developed, and the type of customers has not formed a particularly concentrated trend. Therefore, most enterprises can only provide the most basic standardized services. In the future, satisfying consumers More personalized needs are the direction of the development of self-service warehouses.” Feng Qiang said.
Emerging industries still need more attention and regulation
Self-service warehouses are still an emerging industry in China, and there are still many imperfections. Feng Qiang said that the self-service warehouse looks very easy, as long as there is a large warehouse, it is enough to make the large warehouse into a compartment. But in fact, there should be strict specifications for the pressure bearing and wear resistance of the warehouse, whether the fire protection has passed the customs, and even the width of the aisle between the warehouses. Many disputes are also due to these reasons. “But there is no perfect industry standard for self-service warehouses at present.” Feng Qiang admitted.
However, the self-storage branch of the China Warehousing Association was established in May this year, and the relevant standards are already under discussion.
China is still far from mature in the market construction of mini warehouses, and it is still a blue ocean. After all, the domestic mini-storage industry has developed for less than 10 years, but I believe that in the next 3-5 years, the number of domestic mini-storage stores will increase rapidly, the industry development will gradually be chained, and the number of stores will expand in scale.