SEASONALITY STORAGE AND HALLOWEEN RETAILERS

Retailers of seasonal items have high storage costs and while there is opportunity throughout the year to sell costumes for Fancy Dress parties, Cosplay events or Character costumes for events promotions, there is usually only a sales spike around September and October.

The rest of the year, most items are stored away until next season. Or worse, surplus stock is sold off at a substantially reduced cost just to offload them in order to free up storage space for merchandise that is in more demand.

Self-Storage facilities are a cost-effective storage solution for small and emerging businesses who do not have or need to rent warehouse storage.

This is ideal for local retailers and e-commerce sellers, as you can store your stock within driving distance to make it easier and more cost-efficient to ship your products reliably.

For seasonality storage, the costs of renting warehouse space by the square foot or partnering with any fulfilment service can have such high costs which emerging businesses cannot realistically afford the overheads it brings.

4 WAYS SELF-STORAGE HELP BUSINESSES WITH SEASONAL STOCK

1 – Expand Your Reach Far Beyond Local

No matter which city you are based in, online sales are the dominant force that drives businesses forward which is increasing year on year. With the rise of social media, there is no reason your business can not reach just part of the 18.6% of all retail sales that happen on the internet.

Image Source: ONS.gov.uk

Halloween, Cosplay and Fancy-Dress costumes are prime merchandise to advertise on social media due to their visual nature. Instagram and Pinterest allow store owners to sell directly from your posts giving you another sales channel. All you require are pictures to post on your accounts to reach a broader audience.

Any business owner who is ready to expand beyond the local market needs sufficient stock so that items are ready to ship. Wholesale buyers can negotiate reduced unit pricing on merchandise and partner with a storage company to store surplus stock ready to ship. With cost-efficient storage space and decreased unit pricing, scaling your business becomes more attainable.

2 – Reduce Your Inventory Expenditure

The cost of Halloween costumes or any other Fancy-Dress costumes are becoming more expensive. Likely due to the high cost of storage for seasonal merchandise as businesses look to recoup as much of their expenditure as possible.

For savvy price-shopping consumers, businesses need to remain competitive with pricing. Otherwise, the marketing you do will just lead customers to be aware of the merchandise, then price-shop it online for a better deal.

The simplest way to keep your prices competitive is to control your overheads better than your competitors.

Whatever surplus Halloween stock you have left this November, don’t write it off to a discount job-lot. Talk to us about our Self-Storage Service and you will likely find it is more cost-effective to hold onto your stock, then ship more volume next season, with less inventory cost.

Instead of being on the losing end of out of season sales, you can start to take advantage of reduced stock prices by storing it until it comes back in season.

3 – Reduce Equipment Rental Costs

Rental costs for specialist equipment required for Halloween events, pop-up seasonal businesses and haunted house operators can be high. Very few haunted house operators are open year-round. Most are pop-up businesses as the Halloween season is just a few weeks long. However, the prep work and setup for a truly spooky haunted house experience takes months to plan, stage and execute.

In-between openings, annual storage needs accounted for. There are props, mannequins, backdrops, lighting equipment, sound machines and various other items that will be needed for the open season but do nothing for the rest of the year.

The scenes and experiences in various haunted houses vary but much of the props used do not. What you use this season will be just as effective next season so haunted house operators or events management companies are able to put their props, mannequins, costumes, and electrical items into storage, cutting the cost of rental equipment or re-stocking.

4 – Expand Start-Up E-Commerce Businesses

The rise of E-Commerce has opened avenues for anyone to start a business selling anything online. E-Bayer’s and Amazon sellers doing their own order fulfilment need storage space because a spare bedroom can soon become overwhelming. Self-Storage facilities let you put your stock into safe & secure storage and with Top Box Self Storage our customers can access their units 24/7 with no out-of-hours access charges.

For market traders and online sellers of merchandise, whether bought wholesale or home-crafted to be sold on platforms like Etsy, our Container Storage Facilities are ideal for storing your stock cost-efficiently while having access to your unit anytime. This allows you to manage your shipping on your schedule instead of your storage partners opening times.

For businesses with seasonal stock, there is a very high likelihood that self-storage facilities could save you money and help you ship more efficiently.

Get in contact with us today to find out how we can help with your storage requirements.