on โ25-04-2015 12:17 AM
Hi all, soon i want to have about 1000 items listed, but i am curious to know if one has about 5000 items of jeans or pants how much storage would be needed, 3 bed room house with garage or could this be stored in a self storage shed, please if anyone knows please let me know ๐
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โ25-04-2015 10:57 PM - edited โ25-04-2015 10:58 PM
You have been selling a reasonable number of items each month including jeans so you must have a bit of an idea what you are going into. But wow, five thousand pairs of jeans is going to take some serious industrial style storage.
I have around 2000 listings of mainly small items and currently use one room in the house and a two car garage fitted with industrial shelving. This covers the listed items. I also have a rented storage shed and a shipping container fitted with industrial shelving to store surplus unlisted items.
My suggestion would be to find out how large clothing shops, store their unsold items in the back rooms. Go to closing down sales or auctions and buy up the storage systems to fit into your shed, house or whatever you decide to use. There is a lot of thought gone into the design of these systems so why re-invent the wheel.
As others have mentioned, keeping stock organised and easily accesable is essential to running an efficient ebay business. Good luck with the business expansion.
on โ25-04-2015 01:49 AM
It is easy enough to work out for yourself.
If you want to hang the items just hang say 10 of the item on a rack and measure how much space they take up. Multiply that by 500 and you will have the length of hanging rail you will need for all the items.
If that is not practical then work out the amount of space you need to stack them on a shelf. Or you could store them in boxes, which is probably the way they will be delivered to you. The boxes would be the most space effective I would think.
You are the only one who knows the size and thickness of the items so you need to work it out for yourself.
โ25-04-2015 04:24 AM - edited โ25-04-2015 04:27 AM
Lyn's right. Without knowing if you are planning on storing ladieswear, menswear, child or baby clothes it is difficult for anyone to be able to give you an accurate idea from their own stock arrangements...as it could vary a lot ๐
I viewed your current listings to see if I could get a hint but you are selling adult and kids things so...do as Lyn suggests. Boxes are the most practical.
on โ25-04-2015 07:10 AM
I can manage 40-50 items piled up in the corner of my bedroom & in half of my wardrobe. Any more than that and I'd have to take on the spare bedroom - so 1000? Hard to say, but I'm thinking I'd have to throw in the garage and the study as well.
on โ25-04-2015 07:15 AM
Hmm yeah a garage sounds like a plan but i think a garage would only fit say 500 pairs of adult jeans ?
on โ25-04-2015 07:42 AM
How much access you need will also affect how much space you need. I sell skiwear and it's very bulky. I can fit it in a space but if someone wants to come and have a look/try on for a family of 5, it's like a Chinese puzzle for me to move it around so they can easily see what I have. Having space that's just dedicated to 1 use would be a luxury to me - I function out of a granny flat we have but rotten grannies (and others) keep coming to stay!
However you do it, to me it seems organisation is the most important thing (and keeping the grannies away!).
Good luck,
Marina.
on โ25-04-2015 10:31 AM
Just remember with that amount of clothing to leave yourself room to move as well. Sods law says that the little blue top with the flower on it in the box at the bottom at the very back behind the other 40 boxes ....is the one that someone will want to buy !
on โ25-04-2015 10:35 AM
You have to factor in whether something can be folded. eg jeans or needs to be hung up so it can be reletavely crease free eg dresses.
Also how easty it is to retreive and search your stock. Something will always be in the wrong place. if everything is folded and boxed it wil be a nightmare to search for it. If items are hanging on racks it is way easier to find misplaced items.
Your storage system needs to be flexible, are you storing by item #, brand, style, etc. Again the stacks,/boxes/racks will need to have flexibility as certain catagories grow and others reduce. Otherwise some will be overflowing and others half empty.
Always have spare storage ready otherwise your "pending space to sort" pile will grow and become a nightmare and you will spend hours cussing and swearing over that item that is barely turning a profit anyway.
Dont try packing and posting everything in a rush to make last post. You wil get flustered and make a mistake. Only to realize the mistake as soon as you have posted it. Far better to do it early or leave posting to next day. You wont get a defect for posting next day, but mixing two shipping labels leads to 2x item not as described reports=2 defects
on โ25-04-2015 10:39 AM
Keep in mind shipping costs if over 500gm, then unless they are hot items, it will cripple your margin. I used to specialize in jeans but the cost of shipping killed it
on โ25-04-2015 11:59 AM