The Framers Forum

A customer wants ten of the same print framed exactly the same way for an awards evening. With the framing specifications, my pricing program comes up with about £50 for one framed print. How much discount would you offer for ten?

I usually offer 10% off for people ordering more. I don't have a set amount but 10 exactly the same is great, as there is not 10 times more work involved than doing 1, so profit margins increase with each one the same - if that sentence makes sense.

Buy 9, get 1 free.

That's reasonable.

You have to keep a lid on this type of discount though. People are very quick to expect a mile once you have conceded that inch.

This is much different than purchasing 9 items off the shelf where you just put them in the bag and the customer leaves. This is more like you sewing 9 dresses identical to the first one.

I have been told that there is very little time difference in making one frame... ten times. You still need to cut the frame, mat, and glass. You still need to assemble it all together. There may be some small time saving in setting up the equipment if you make the first cut for all ten, then the second cut for all ten. You may also be able to get a small price break for purchasing in bulk and therefore reduce your material costs.

I would agree with Prospero's caution to keep a lid on this kind of discount. People tend to get addicted to them.

For me, I find that making lots of frames which are all the same gets a bit boring. Offering discounts to do even more frames which are all the same, would not only be even more boring, but the fact that I would be doing it all for less money would annoying me all the time I was doing them.



Perhaps it's just me!

There's something to be said for Mark's viewpoint and I guess it is about how you are set up and whether doing multiples is something you want to encourage or not.

We regularly do runs of 20 or so the same, mainly luckily with that type of customer fitting the work themselves, so very happy to do things like that. Currently got 50 of the same for a set of watercolours and that is getting a bit repetitive, but the big payment at the end is just about keeping me going

I would say 10% is fair to you and them but would agree with Prospero and others that you need to make sure they don't push for more or that they expect the same discount level on future orders of smaller quantities.

If one of those frames takes 30 mins* then ten should not take anything like five hours; I'd say three hours tops, with probably at least half of that time taken in mounting and final assembly, i.e. stuff you have no machinery for. So that's two hours labour you could offer as a discount, in theory. But at my workshop rate, that would be far too generous so 10% would be my max discount, but I wouldn't offer it without being asked for a discount, not for ten frames.

*For a mounted & framed print (etc on paper) up to 20x16, our target time is 20 mins.

My customers would pay me for framing 10 frames £50 each, £400 for the lot

Kwik Picture Framing wrote:My customers would pay me for framing 10 frames £50 each, £400 for the lot

That's OK if they are all identical frames. If they were all different I wouldn't knock anything off.

Still my customers want a good deal regardless of the frames they choose

Don't we all.


The main thing is to make them think they are getting a good deal.