Shipping in the Holiday Cheer
It’s officially fall and, for retailers, this means holiday shopping season is right around the corner. For most, the season is marked by increased sales, both on and offline, and an opportunity to tap the highly profitable demographic of holiday shoppers. Likewise, it’s a chance for merchants to explore new markets and test new locations for possible retail site development.
You may have already heard the buzz around shipping container retailers — no, I don’t mean retailers who sell shipping containers, but instead are retailers selling their goods from the inside of a shipping container. London’s Box Park and Johannesburg’s 27 Boxes have led this trend internationally, finding great success with retailers, artists and even restaurateurs who occupy the spaces, and it now seems like those successes have found their way to the United States.
Later this year, Tulsa, Oklahoma, will become home to a set of new businesses — a set of new shipping containers, that is. Called The Boxyard, this area downtown will act as a new venue for restaurants and retailers, as well as a place to host live local events.
The Boxyard will be outfitted just as any physical store location would be with electricity, running water, heating and air, but all at a fraction of the price. You see, for shop owners, shipping container locations can make the process of opening a store front location both cheap and quick whereas there are no delays and costs associated with building new structures.
For shop owners, shipping container locations make the process of opening a store front location both cheap and quick with no delays and costs associated with building new structures. In this way, they are similar to pop-up stores in malls. Unlike pop-up malls, however, as the name implies, shipping container stores travel well from site to site or city to city.
While the shipping container retail movement provides a cool and somewhat novel shopping and dining experience for customers, does it really offer the benefits consumers are looking for in their shopping experiences? Shipping container retail provides untapped opportunities for retailers that are currently being overlooked.
Consider this:
1. Research. Retail site selection is more than just finding an available lease. Businesses must consider a number of factors when considering their next site location, such as distance from target demographics, available parking, visibility from main streets, and proximity to local competitors. Rather than making a long-term commitment to a particular area, shipping containers could allow for a quick assessment of a site. Now store owners can combine location intelligence data with real world experience to determine the best next site location.
2. Showrooming. One of the greatest challenges for online shoppers is the inability to touch and feel a product. Showrooming has gained popularity among online shoppers—a behavior in which consumers test a product in a store, but purchase it online. Shipping container retailers are a perfect venue to showroom products to online shoppers who are not located near a local store. It’s an opportunity to educate consumers on products to encourage more online sales through a physical location.
3. Shipping options. We’ve seen E-tailers opening up distribution centers across the country to facilitate more timely delivery of products. We know from our research that shipping options matter to consumers (70% of Americans find shipping options to be the most important factor in their shopping experience). Shipping container locations can serve as an additional home to distribute packages or have “in store pickup” for online shoppers. Likewise, it offers an alternative for returning packages — and could save retailers those returned shipping costs.
Shipping container retail is just kicking off in the United States, but I believe we’re bound to see the trend continue popping up in more cities in the coming months and years.
For the consumer, this can mean more options for your shopping experience. But the impact can be felt best by retailers who look beyond face value at this opportunity.