“Self Storage Is Sexy”

Founder of the industry marketplace, Explorage.com, shares why.

If they could only hear the stories we hear; from people who “don’t know how they ever lived without it”, to people for whom it has provided an urgent sanctuary for their things in a time of crisis; businesses who have been able to remain lean and expand because of it. The Sunday Times style magazine recently shared how self storage is connected to people at an emotional level, and as any good marketer will tell you, connect with people’s emotions first and their head will follow.

to be worth $89bil annually by 2028, and their definition could even be constrained. It is acknowledged that what constitutes “self storage” continues to evolve with various types of storage offerings surfacing.

Tech start-up founders are often met with excitement, but trust me, when you add the words “self storage” into your pitch, you see the glimmer of anticipation dim from people’s eyes. Unless they have experienced the joy and freedom it can give, for most people self storage is about as exciting as discussing shades of steel cladding… Goose Wing Grey anyone?

When you put that “sentimental rubbish” to one side though, self storage stacks up as a business too. In 2016 the UK Self Storage Association were reporting an annual industry turnover of £540mil. Forward to 2023 and the forecast for this year is £1bil. The USA has grown from $23bil in 2013 to $43.3bil in 2023. Reportedly the industry is “recession proof”; and speak to almost any storage operator in the UK and they are usually looking to expand their portfolio, with access to real estate being a constraining factor on the pace of growth here. I could harp on all day about future trends and possible demographics, but people qualified in forecasting, are estimating the global industry

Explorage.com, the online self storage marketplace focused on serving both customers and the industry in which it operates, recently announced the launch of a new and improved platform.

Dean Daley, Commercial Operations Manager at Blue Self Storage in Cardiff, said: “The new Explorage.com site looks great, and we’re looking forward to hopefully reaping the future benefits that the platform offers operators within the storage industry.”

Explorage.com is quickly becoming the go-to marketplace for customers looking for self storage, and the new and improved website is sure to solidify its position as a leader in this space.

The marketplace is just one aspect of the Explorage.com offering. Anna continued, “We are pleased to be working with several storage owners directly, offering remote management services, so that they can step away from the day-to-day operations of running their sites. For smaller sites, self storage is often not their main focus of business, so putting it in the hands of a reliable and pro active team, means they can free up their time and offer a more consistent service to customers”.

Like any industry, technology continues to advance the potential for self storage; and I am pleased to throw our hat at Explorage. com, into that arena. We are seeing increasingly more manless self storage sites, but lets remember where we started this journey; people, emotion. These are inextricably linked to much of the demand. Yes, let’s serve people how they want to be served, often contactless and remote these days, but let’s do it in a way that keeps the human at the centre of the design, and be there for them when they do want us. Inefficient user experiences are about as relevant today as a cassette player in a Tesla. Right now, we are in the midst of a technological revolution; let’s pull together and get it right to build a sustainable industry and service.

Anna Roberts, CEO, Explorage.com