Print, scroll or frame: choosing the format your customer actually wants

Every design in our range exists in up to three physical formats. Buyers who understand what each format is for end up with a tighter range that turns faster; buyers who treat them as interchangeable usually end up with three half-ranges.

What each format is actually for

• The print only — a rolled or flat sheet, no hardware. The cheapest way to put a chart on a wall, and the format that suits renters, students and anyone under thirty.
• The scroll — the print mounted on a weighted hanging scroll. It hangs in ninety seconds without a drill, which makes it the format that sells to people who are not allowed to make holes.
• The framed — the print set into a moulding and glazed. Roughly double the work and double the price, and the only format that reads as a considered purchase.

The price ladder matters more than the chart

Three formats of one design give you a natural good-better-best ladder in a single square metre of wall. That is worth more to a small shop than three different designs at one price point, because it lets one customer trade up instead of leaving to find a frame elsewhere.

A workable rule of thumb for the price steps: if the print only is indexed at 1.0, the scroll should land around 1.6 to 1.9, and the framed around 2.6 to 3.2. Anything tighter and the extra work is not paid for. Anything wider and the middle option stops being chosen.

How to decide what to stock

1. Stock the print for every design in the range. It is the least capital and the least freight risk.
2. Add the scroll version for your three best sellers only. It is the format that converts online browsers.
3. Carry the framed version as a display piece, not as stock — one hung on the wall, ordered on request.

“We stopped hanging fourteen frames and started hanging four frames with a scroll version next to them. Same wall, twice the sell-through, half the tied-up cash.”

— [Buyer name], home and gift retailer, [Leeds, UK]

One operational note: formats are not just a pricing decision. Each one is a separate SKU with its own weight, its own carton and its own freight class, so a three-format range triples the receiving work. Add them gradually.