According to statistics from the Australian census, the survival rate for small businesses stands at 77%, and this is primarily because the ventures lack enough cash to meet expenses. Part of these expenses includes rental space for the retail stores. It might explain why the number of online retail stores has been increasing steadily over the past few years. Notably, online retail stores often have to grapple with storage space, and some start-ups end up using the garage space in their homes for storage purposes. Unfortunately, there is only so much that your home can handle, and this is where self-storage proves essential for online stores. This article highlights vital benefits online stores stand to gain by renting self-storage space.

Avoid Council Tax and Business Rates

As mentioned earlier, most businesses fail because of lack of enough resources to meet expenses. For example, rent is a significant overhead cost, since business owners are forced to pay council tax as well as business rates on typical commercial buildings. Therefore, business owners end up paying a premium price for storage in the city centre where they can easily access their inventory. With self-storage, the liability for the storage space lies with the service provider, and not you. Additionally, since value-added tax is already included in the rent for the self-storage space, the charge has little effect on your expenses. The bottom line is that self-storage allows online retail stores to grow by helping them to save money.

Separate Business and Home Life

Most small traders running online retail stores from their houses find it difficult to separate their home life from work life. It is because everything, from preparation, storage and selling, is done from the house. Such an arrangement can be overwhelming to your family, especially if clients have to come to your home to pick up their products. Self-storage eliminates the mix-up and helps you to run most of your business operations away from home. Furthermore, you can easily ask your customers to visit your self-storage space, thereby ensuring you separate your work life and business life.

Readily Provided Security

The inventory for your online retail store must be kept safe, and you must be privy to the conditions at any given time. That is why businesses install security appliances such as CCTV in their commercial storage facilities. However, such installation requires a significant investment that a start-up online retail store might not have. As such, some business owners opt not to install security devices until much later. However, this is a dangerous approach because burglary incidences can happen at any time. Most self-storage facilities, on the other hand, already have security appliances installed by the service provider, which online retail businesses can take advantage of.