When KEVIN CHAN founded STORE FRIENDLY he aimed to please. He created an easy-to-use, cost-competitive, secure and safe concept that’s made his facilities the ‘most-referred’, across Hong Kong.

Kevin Chan, Founder of StoreFriendly

With the prices of commercial property in Hong Kong soaring businesses are seeing more dollars and sense in using storage facilities of which there is not shortage in enterprising Hong Kong. The problem, this is, many aren’t in safe, secure buildings and few are user-friendly. Those that are, are way too pricey and yes…inconvenient.

According to the report The rise of self storage in Asia Pacific by JLL 2017, self-storage industry is an emerging market in Hong Kong compared with North America, Europe, and Australia.

“The number of self-storage facilities is continually increasing. One of the reasons is that Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo have the smallest average home sizes in Asia, people are looking for that “Extra Space” to store their stuff. As a result, self-storage market is steadily growing in Hong Kong,” says Kevin Chan, founder of Store-Friendly, adding that there are several factors to influence consumers choosing storage service providers.    

What Customers Want

Brand’s reputation is one, he says. “Customers worry that if the storage collapsed suddenly, could they retrieve their stuff successfully. Besides, if that happened they also need to find another storage to switch their stuff immediately.

Then there are safety issue and convenient access to the facility. Does it offer a 24hr security system, air-conditioning, customer services and 24-hr access?

As for the storage location, is it convenient to reach? Is it near to customers’ homes? Price-wise, is it reasonably priced? Some storages service providers maybe offer exceptional price but they might not provide 24 hr air-conditioning etc.” Customers today want value and we are able to provide that. This is what made Store-Friendly a market leader.

“Storage space can be increased up to 80% if we use Storefriendly GO. We can therefore reduce the rent to our customers, as we provide more storages in the same area. These elements allow Storefriendly create a win-win situation for our customers.” – Kevin Chan, Founder of StoreFriendly

New Era of Convenience

Storefriendly is proud to announce Storefriendly GO to be the first storage service in the world to introduce having intelligent robots to help manage the storing  service, reveals Chan.

“Each customer has the unique QR code for their personal storage. They can just simply show their QR code to the reader and our intelligent robots will bring the personal storage to them.

“There are three main advantages of Storefriendly GO (in customer aspect):

Firstly, customer enjoy cheaper prices to get bigger space. Storefriendly GO’s 16 sq ft storage only cost $888. In comparison, customer needs to pay $988 to get 16 sq ft from traditional storefriendly’s storage in Tsuen Wan.

“Secondly, the security level steps it up a notch by robotic management. It is a “no man Zone” of Storefriendly GO. In other words, no one can access into Storefriendly GO Storage area, except our staff if there is any emergency.

Thirdly, Storefriendly GO can optimize our storage area due to “no man zone”. We do not need to spare some corridors for customer use. To put it simply, we normally can only use 60% area for storage space. However, storage space can be increased up to 80% if we use Storefriendly GO. We can therefore reduce the rent to our customers, as we provide more storages in the same area. These elements allow Storefriendly create a win-win situation for our customers.”

Singapore Chapter

“We also have other strengths, compared to our competitors. We have a large scale of operations and can offer free delivery to new customers. Besides, we have advance technology like face-detection for customers to enter our branches and sensors to detect any hazards in inside the building, like smoke temperature, leakage etc,” Chan explains.

Speaking on expanding into other Asian markets, Chan says: “As for expansion, we have conducted a lot of research to identify that Singapore is a great potential market for self-storage industry. We are expanding our business into Singapore and going to launch the Storefriendly building in August 2019. Storefriendly building has 140k sq ft. It will provide different kind of services, such as Storefriendly GO, self-storage service and Workfriendly.”

Workfriendly is a co-working space provided by Storefriendly. It aims to support start-up companies.

“We understand that start-up companies might lack of capital to afford a modern office. As a result, we offer a valuable rent for Workfriendly users. What’s more, there will be different type of organizations in Workfriendly. It is the best platform for organization to communicate and even has a partnership with other company. We have grown exponentially since inception because we think like a customer. We anticipate their needs and provide tomorrow’s solutions today. We also believe in re-investing. So, we will continue to use the latest technology to make our customers profit from using Storefriendly.”   

For additional information, please visit www.store-friendly.com

Hong Kong’s Business Leaders share market and interest intelligence in the pages of HKMVC 2020

Tagged in: