With each passing year the self-storage industry grows in popularity and more people make use of this service for varying reasons. Last year, as part of the Self Storage Association’s industry report, a YouGov poll was conducted to assess different elements of the business and how customers currently view the industry.
Thousands of people were surveyed – all over 18 years of age – to find out how the public currently perceives the self-storage industry.
How Many People Have Heard Of The Service?
Because of the industry’s history across the pond, we’re probably a little behind on how many people are actually aware of the storage options available to them. Nearly a quarter of the people surveyed said that they hadn’t ever heard of the self-storage industry, while the answer from the majority of people was that they had heard of the service but didn’t know anything about it.
However, with 31% saying they had heard of the service and knew something about it and 7% saying they know the service well, there looks to be an increasing awareness which promises further room for take-up in the storage industry overall.
Where Do They Live?
From within the previous question, it’s interesting to find out where the group who “have heard of the storage industry and know something about it” actually reside within the UK. There is a slight lean towards the south, with the percentage getting lower the further north you travel. Northern Ireland has the lowest percentage of people aware and knowledgeable of the industry with only 19%.
How Many People Use The Service?
This part of the survey was based around the last 12 months and whether or not the individual had actually used, or considered using the storage industry at all. Surprisingly, with a whopping 83%, the largest category was for people who hadn’t used the service and had not considered using it in the past 12 months.
Of the people questioned, only 3% had used the service and a further 8% had considered using the service. This highlights that despite the rapid growth of the industry, there are still plenty of people who haven’t considered the options available to them when it comes to storing possessions.
What About Age?
So what about the people who have used self-storage in the last 12 months? Into which age categories do these people fall? Unsurprisingly it would seem that the users if the storage industry appear to be in the younger categories.
18-24 and 25-34 were the biggest percentages, indicating that it’s people of these ages who have less space in their homes and who are generally more aware of the industry itself.
Is Locale An Issue?
With the figures showing a stark gap in how many people are aware of the services and the industry, there were questions posed which delved deeper into the presence of self-storage providers. When asked how many storage facilities are in their local area, the majority of people could not say or answered “none”.
But in a subsequent question 66% of people who were aware of their local facility said they knew of it because it was visible from the road. This might signal that while plenty of people can see the facilities, perhaps not every town has a well placed storage facility.
If you’re looking for self storage in South West London then look no further than Simply Storage. Contact us today for more details and we’ll be happy to help find the right storage option for you.