diff --git a/src/Spout/Common/Helper/GlobalFunctionsHelper.php b/src/Spout/Common/Helper/GlobalFunctionsHelper.php
index eb02c3f..feeb782 100644
--- a/src/Spout/Common/Helper/GlobalFunctionsHelper.php
+++ b/src/Spout/Common/Helper/GlobalFunctionsHelper.php
@@ -106,6 +106,19 @@ class GlobalFunctionsHelper
         return fputcsv($handle, $fields, $delimiter, $enclosure);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Wrapper around global function fwrite()
+     * @see fwrite()
+     *
+     * @param resource $handle
+     * @param string $string
+     * @return int
+     */
+    public function fwrite($handle, $string)
+    {
+        return fwrite($handle, $string);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Wrapper around global function fclose()
      * @see fclose()
diff --git a/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyFactory.php b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyFactory.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bd7e76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyFactory.php
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching;
+
+/**
+ * Class CachingStrategyFactory
+ *
+ * @package Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching
+ */
+class CachingStrategyFactory
+{
+    /**
+     * To avoid running out of memory when extracting the shared strings, they will be saved to temporary files
+     * instead of in memory. Then, when accessing a string, the corresponding file contents will be loaded in memory
+     * and the string will be quickly retrieved.
+     * The performance bottleneck is not when creating these temporary files, but rather when loading their content.
+     * Because the contents of the last loaded file stays in memory until another file needs to be loaded, it works
+     * best when the indexes of the shared strings are sorted in the sheet data.
+     * 10,000 was chosen because it creates small files that are fast to be loaded in memory.
+     */
+    const MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE = 10000;
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the best caching strategy, given the number of unique shared strings
+     * and the amount of memory available.
+     *
+     * @param int $sharedStringsUniqueCount Number of unique shared strings
+     * @param string|void $tempFolder Temporary folder where the temporary files to store shared strings will be stored
+     * @return CachingStrategyInterface The best caching strategy
+     */
+    public function getBestCachingStrategy($sharedStringsUniqueCount, $tempFolder = null)
+    {
+        // TODO add in-memory strategy
+        return new FileBasedStrategy($tempFolder, self::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyInterface.php b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyInterface.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4334d86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/CachingStrategyInterface.php
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching;
+
+/**
+ * Interface CachingStrategyInterface
+ *
+ * @package Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching
+ */
+interface CachingStrategyInterface
+{
+    /**
+     * Adds the given string to the cache.
+     *
+     * @param string $sharedString The string to be added to the cache
+     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function addStringForIndex($sharedString, $sharedStringIndex);
+
+    /**
+     * Closes the cache after the last shared string was added.
+     * This prevents any additional string from being added to the cache.
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function closeCache();
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the string located at the given index from the cache.
+     *
+     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     * @return string The shared string at the given index
+     * @throws \Box\Spout\Reader\Exception\SharedStringNotFoundException If no shared string found for the given index
+     */
+    public function getStringAtIndex($sharedStringIndex);
+
+    /**
+     * Destroys the cache, freeing memory and removing any created artifacts
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function clearCache();
+}
diff --git a/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/FileBasedStrategy.php b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/FileBasedStrategy.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9374e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsCaching/FileBasedStrategy.php
@@ -0,0 +1,188 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching;
+
+use Box\Spout\Common\Helper\FileSystemHelper;
+use Box\Spout\Common\Helper\GlobalFunctionsHelper;
+use Box\Spout\Reader\Exception\SharedStringNotFoundException;
+
+/**
+ * Class FileBasedStrategy
+ *
+ * This class implements the file-based caching strategy for shared strings.
+ * Shared strings are stored in small files (with a max number of strings per file).
+ * This strategy is slower than an in-memory strategy but is used to avoid out of memory crashes.
+ *
+ * @package Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching
+ */
+class FileBasedStrategy implements CachingStrategyInterface
+{
+    /** Value to use to escape the line feed character ("\n") */
+    const ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER = '_x000A_';
+
+    /** @var \Box\Spout\Common\Helper\GlobalFunctionsHelper Helper to work with global functions */
+    protected $globalFunctionsHelper;
+
+    /** @var \Box\Spout\Common\Helper\FileSystemHelper Helper to perform file system operations */
+    protected $fileSystemHelper;
+
+    /**
+     * @var int Maximum number of strings that can be stored in one temp file
+     * @see CachingStrategyFactory::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE
+     */
+    protected $maxNumStringsPerTempFile;
+
+    /** @var resource Pointer to the last temp file a shared string was written to */
+    protected $tempFilePointer;
+
+    /**
+     * @var string Path of the temporary file whose contents is currently stored in memory
+     * @see CachingStrategyFactory::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE
+     */
+    protected $inMemoryTempFilePath;
+
+    /**
+     * @var string Contents of the temporary file that was last read
+     * @see CachingStrategyFactory::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE
+     */
+    protected $inMemoryTempFileContents;
+
+    /**
+     * @param string|null $tempFolder Temporary folder where the temporary files to store shared strings will be stored
+     * @param int $maxNumStringsPerTempFile Maximum number of strings that can be stored in one temp file
+     */
+    public function __construct($tempFolder, $maxNumStringsPerTempFile)
+    {
+        $rootTempFolder = ($tempFolder) ?: sys_get_temp_dir();
+        $this->fileSystemHelper = new FileSystemHelper($rootTempFolder);
+        $this->tempFolder = $this->fileSystemHelper->createFolder($rootTempFolder, uniqid('sharedstrings'));
+
+        $this->maxNumStringsPerTempFile = $maxNumStringsPerTempFile;
+
+        $this->globalFunctionsHelper = new GlobalFunctionsHelper();
+        $this->tempFilePointer = null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Adds the given string to the cache.
+     *
+     * @param string $sharedString The string to be added to the cache
+     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function addStringForIndex($sharedString, $sharedStringIndex)
+    {
+        $tempFilePath = $this->getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex);
+
+        if (!$this->globalFunctionsHelper->file_exists($tempFilePath)) {
+            if ($this->tempFilePointer) {
+                $this->globalFunctionsHelper->fclose($this->tempFilePointer);
+            }
+            $this->tempFilePointer = $this->globalFunctionsHelper->fopen($tempFilePath, 'w');
+        }
+
+        // The shared string retrieval logic expects each cell data to be on one line only
+        // Encoding the line feed character allows to preserve this assumption
+        $lineFeedEncodedSharedString = $this->escapeLineFeed($sharedString);
+
+        $this->globalFunctionsHelper->fwrite($this->tempFilePointer, $lineFeedEncodedSharedString . PHP_EOL);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the path for the temp file that should contain the string for the given index
+     *
+     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     * @return string The temp file path for the given index
+     */
+    protected function getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex)
+    {
+        $numTempFile = intval($sharedStringIndex / $this->maxNumStringsPerTempFile);
+        return $this->tempFolder . '/sharedstrings' . $numTempFile;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Closes the cache after the last shared string was added.
+     * This prevents any additional string from being added to the cache.
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function closeCache()
+    {
+        // close pointer to the last temp file that was written
+        if ($this->tempFilePointer) {
+            $this->globalFunctionsHelper->fclose($this->tempFilePointer);
+        }
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the string located at the given index from the cache.
+     *
+     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     * @return string The shared string at the given index
+     * @throws \Box\Spout\Reader\Exception\SharedStringNotFoundException If no shared string found for the given index
+     */
+    public function getStringAtIndex($sharedStringIndex)
+    {
+        $tempFilePath = $this->getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex);
+        $indexInFile = $sharedStringIndex % $this->maxNumStringsPerTempFile;
+
+        if (!$this->globalFunctionsHelper->file_exists($tempFilePath)) {
+            throw new SharedStringNotFoundException("Shared string temp file not found: $tempFilePath ; for index: $sharedStringIndex");
+        }
+
+        if ($this->inMemoryTempFilePath !== $tempFilePath) {
+            // free memory
+            unset($this->inMemoryTempFileContents);
+
+            $this->inMemoryTempFileContents = explode(PHP_EOL, $this->globalFunctionsHelper->file_get_contents($tempFilePath));
+            $this->inMemoryTempFilePath = $tempFilePath;
+        }
+
+        $sharedString = null;
+        if (array_key_exists($indexInFile, $this->inMemoryTempFileContents)) {
+            $escapedSharedString = $this->inMemoryTempFileContents[$indexInFile];
+            $sharedString = $this->unescapeLineFeed($escapedSharedString);
+        }
+
+        if ($sharedString === null) {
+            throw new SharedStringNotFoundException("Shared string not found for index: $sharedStringIndex");
+        }
+
+        return rtrim($sharedString, PHP_EOL);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Escapes the line feed characters (\n)
+     *
+     * @param string $unescapedString
+     * @return string
+     */
+    private function escapeLineFeed($unescapedString)
+    {
+        return str_replace("\n", self::ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER, $unescapedString);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Unescapes the line feed characters (\n)
+     *
+     * @param string $escapedString
+     * @return string
+     */
+    private function unescapeLineFeed($escapedString)
+    {
+        return str_replace(self::ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER, "\n", $escapedString);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Destroys the cache, freeing memory and removing any created artifacts
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function clearCache()
+    {
+        if ($this->tempFolder) {
+            $this->fileSystemHelper->deleteFolderRecursively($this->tempFolder);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelper.php b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelper.php
index 1a73fbb..0653e1b 100644
--- a/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelper.php
+++ b/src/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelper.php
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ namespace Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX;
 use Box\Spout\Common\Exception\IOException;
 use Box\Spout\Common\Helper\FileSystemHelper;
 use Box\Spout\Reader\Exception\SharedStringNotFoundException;
+use Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching\CachingStrategyFactory;
+use Box\Spout\Reader\Helper\XLSX\SharedStringsCaching\CachingStrategyInterface;
 
 /**
  * Class SharedStringsHelper
@@ -20,43 +22,14 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
     /** Main namespace for the sharedStrings.xml file */
     const MAIN_NAMESPACE_FOR_SHARED_STRINGS_XML = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main';
 
-    /**
-     * To avoid running out of memory when extracting the shared strings, they will be saved to temporary files
-     * instead of in memory. Then, when accessing a string, the corresponding file contents will be loaded in memory
-     * and the string will be quickly retrieved.
-     * The performance bottleneck is not when creating these temporary files, but rather when loading their content.
-     * Because the contents of the last loaded file stays in memory until another file needs to be loaded, it works
-     * best when the indexes of the shared strings are sorted in the sheet data.
-     * 10,000 was chosen because it creates small files that are fast to be loaded in memory.
-     */
-    const MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE = 10000;
-
-    /** Value to use to escape the line feed character ("\n") */
-    const ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER = '_x000A_';
-
     /** @var string Path of the XLSX file being read */
     protected $filePath;
 
     /** @var string Temporary folder where the temporary files to store shared strings will be stored */
     protected $tempFolder;
 
-    /** @var \Box\Spout\Writer\Helper\XLSX\FileSystemHelper Helper to perform file system operations */
-    protected $fileSystemHelper;
-
-    /** @var resource Pointer to the last temp file a shared string was written to */
-    protected $tempFilePointer;
-
-    /**
-     * @var string Path of the temporary file whose contents is currently stored in memory
-     * @see MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE
-     */
-    protected $inMemoryTempFilePath;
-
-    /**
-     * @var string Contents of the temporary file that was last read
-     * @see MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE
-     */
-    protected $inMemoryTempFileContents;
+    /** @var CachingStrategyInterface The best caching strategy for storing shared strings */
+    protected $cachingStrategy;
 
     /**
      * @param string $filePath Path of the XLSX file being read
@@ -65,10 +38,7 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
     public function __construct($filePath, $tempFolder = null)
     {
         $this->filePath = $filePath;
-
-        $rootTempFolder = ($tempFolder) ?: sys_get_temp_dir();
-        $this->fileSystemHelper = new FileSystemHelper($rootTempFolder);
-        $this->tempFolder = $this->fileSystemHelper->createFolder($rootTempFolder, uniqid('sharedstrings'));
+        $this->tempFolder = $tempFolder;
     }
 
     /**
@@ -108,7 +78,6 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
     {
         $xmlReader = new \XMLReader();
         $sharedStringIndex = 0;
-        $this->tempFilePointer = null;
         $escaper = new \Box\Spout\Common\Escaper\XLSX();
 
         $sharedStringsFilePath = $this->getSharedStringsFilePath();
@@ -116,6 +85,9 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
             throw new IOException('Could not open "' . self::SHARED_STRINGS_XML_FILE_PATH . '".');
         }
 
+        $sharedStringsUniqueCount = $this->getSharedStringsUniqueCount($xmlReader);
+        $this->cachingStrategy = $this->getBestSharedStringsCachingStrategy($sharedStringsUniqueCount);
+
         while ($xmlReader->read() && $xmlReader->name !== 'si') {
             // do nothing until a 'si' tag is reached
         }
@@ -140,12 +112,7 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
             }
 
             $unescapedTextValue = $escaper->unescape($textValue);
-
-            // The shared string retrieval logic expects each cell data to be on one line only
-            // Encoding the line feed character allows to preserve this assumption
-            $lineFeedEncodedTextValue = $this->escapeLineFeed($unescapedTextValue);
-
-            $this->writeSharedStringToTempFile($lineFeedEncodedTextValue, $sharedStringIndex);
+            $this->cachingStrategy->addStringForIndex($unescapedTextValue, $sharedStringIndex);
 
             $sharedStringIndex++;
 
@@ -153,10 +120,7 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
             $xmlReader->next('si');
         }
 
-        // close pointer to the last temp file that was written
-        if ($this->tempFilePointer) {
-            fclose($this->tempFilePointer);
-        }
+        $this->cachingStrategy->closeCache();
 
         $xmlReader->close();
     }
@@ -169,6 +133,30 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
         return 'zip://' . $this->filePath . '#' . self::SHARED_STRINGS_XML_FILE_PATH;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns the shared strings unique count, as specified in <sst> tag.
+     *
+     * @param \XMLReader $xmlReader XMLReader instance
+     * @return int Number of unique shared strings in the sharedStrings.xml file
+     */
+    protected function getSharedStringsUniqueCount($xmlReader)
+    {
+        $xmlReader->next('sst');
+        return intval($xmlReader->getAttribute('uniqueCount'));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the best shared strings caching strategy.
+     *
+     * @param int $sharedStringsUniqueCount
+     * @return CachingStrategyInterface
+     */
+    protected function getBestSharedStringsCachingStrategy($sharedStringsUniqueCount)
+    {
+        $factory = new CachingStrategyFactory();
+        return $factory->getBestCachingStrategy($sharedStringsUniqueCount, $this->tempFolder);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Removes nodes that should not be read, like the pronunciation of the Kanji characters.
      * By keeping them, their text content would be added to the read string.
@@ -219,42 +207,7 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
     }
 
     /**
-     * Writes the given string to its associated temp file.
-     * A new temporary file is created when the previous one has reached its max capacity.
-     *
-     * @param string $sharedString Shared string to write to the temp file
-     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
-     * @return void
-     */
-    protected function writeSharedStringToTempFile($sharedString, $sharedStringIndex)
-    {
-        $tempFilePath = $this->getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex);
-
-        if (!file_exists($tempFilePath)) {
-            if ($this->tempFilePointer) {
-                fclose($this->tempFilePointer);
-            }
-            $this->tempFilePointer = fopen($tempFilePath, 'w');
-        }
-
-        fwrite($this->tempFilePointer, $sharedString . PHP_EOL);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Returns the path for the temp file that should contain the string for the given index
-     *
-     * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
-     * @return string The temp file path for the given index
-     */
-    protected function getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex)
-    {
-        $numTempFile = intval($sharedStringIndex / self::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE);
-        return $this->tempFolder . '/sharedstrings' . $numTempFile;
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Returns the shared string at the given index.
-     * Because the strings have been split into different files, it looks for the value in the correct file.
+     * Returns the shared string at the given index, using the previously chosen caching strategy.
      *
      * @param int $sharedStringIndex Index of the shared string in the sharedStrings.xml file
      * @return string The shared string at the given index
@@ -262,63 +215,18 @@ class SharedStringsHelper
      */
     public function getStringAtIndex($sharedStringIndex)
     {
-        $tempFilePath = $this->getSharedStringTempFilePath($sharedStringIndex);
-        $indexInFile = $sharedStringIndex % self::MAX_NUM_STRINGS_PER_TEMP_FILE;
-
-        if (!file_exists($tempFilePath)) {
-            throw new SharedStringNotFoundException("Shared string temp file not found: $tempFilePath ; for index: $sharedStringIndex");
-        }
-
-        if ($this->inMemoryTempFilePath !== $tempFilePath) {
-            // free memory
-            unset($this->inMemoryTempFileContents);
-
-            $this->inMemoryTempFileContents = explode(PHP_EOL, file_get_contents($tempFilePath));
-            $this->inMemoryTempFilePath = $tempFilePath;
-        }
-
-        $sharedString = null;
-        if (array_key_exists($indexInFile, $this->inMemoryTempFileContents)) {
-            $escapedSharedString = $this->inMemoryTempFileContents[$indexInFile];
-            $sharedString = $this->unescapeLineFeed($escapedSharedString);
-        }
-
-        if ($sharedString === null) {
-            throw new SharedStringNotFoundException("Shared string not found for index: $sharedStringIndex");
-        }
-
-        return rtrim($sharedString, PHP_EOL);
+        return $this->cachingStrategy->getStringAtIndex($sharedStringIndex);
     }
 
     /**
-     * Escapes the line feed character (\n)
-     *
-     * @param string $unescapedString
-     * @return string
-     */
-    private function escapeLineFeed($unescapedString)
-    {
-        return str_replace("\n", self::ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER, $unescapedString);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Unescapes the line feed character (\n)
-     *
-     * @param string $escapedString
-     * @return string
-     */
-    private function unescapeLineFeed($escapedString)
-    {
-        return str_replace(self::ESCAPED_LINE_FEED_CHARACTER, "\n", $escapedString);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Deletes the created temporary folder and all its contents
+     * Destroys the cache, freeing memory and removing any created artifacts
      *
      * @return void
      */
     public function cleanup()
     {
-        $this->fileSystemHelper->deleteFolderRecursively($this->tempFolder);
+        if ($this->cachingStrategy) {
+            $this->cachingStrategy->clearCache();
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelperTest.php b/tests/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelperTest.php
index c868863..a89017d 100644
--- a/tests/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelperTest.php
+++ b/tests/Spout/Reader/Helper/XLSX/SharedStringsHelperTest.php
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ class SharedStringsHelperTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
     {
         $this->sharedStringsHelper->extractSharedStrings();
 
-        $tempFolder = \ReflectionHelper::getValueOnObject($this->sharedStringsHelper, 'tempFolder');
+        $cachingStrategy = \ReflectionHelper::getValueOnObject($this->sharedStringsHelper, 'cachingStrategy');
+        $tempFolder = \ReflectionHelper::getValueOnObject($cachingStrategy, 'tempFolder');
 
         $filesInTempFolder = $this->getFilesInFolder($tempFolder);
         $this->assertEquals(1, count($filesInTempFolder), 'One temp file should have been created in the temp folder.');