The recent price decrease on Museum Glass® gives you a good opportunity to look at how the product fits into your business. Coming soon, I will outline some strategies for pricing Museum Glass to benefit both your shop and your customers, but below are some tips that you can use to leverage the price change.

 

 

1. Double check your defaults

 

It’s a great time to review your default pricing, which is the pricing that comes pre-installed with a point- of-sale systems. One of the things I see in my work with custom frame shops is that those retailers who only use the default pricing in their systems, end up with Museum Glass priced so aggressively it results in missed sales. Once of the reasons for this is that many point-of-sale systems use a default markup that is the same for Museum Glass as it is for lower cost glazing products such as Premium Clear®. This one-size fits all markup strategy used for both higher and lower cost materials creates a pricing situation where premium products, such as Museum Glass, are too high for attainable sales because the costs are higher from the start.

 

 

A better pricing strategy is to customize your point-of-sale system by using higher markups on lower-cost materials and small-sized projects, and alternatively to use a lower markup on higher-cost materials and larger projects. Therefore, lowering the markup on Museum Glass results in optimal pricing for profits, more sales, and will not have an adverse impact on profitability. Please be aware this is a simplified version of a pricing strategy, in future articles, I will outline more in-depth strategies for Museum Glass, but this is a good place to start for many custom frame shop owners.

 

 

2. Ensure your website reflects your work

 

Make sure your website shows off your best work and premier products. Today’s consumers are omni-channel shoppers; meaning they are using multiple platforms to research and make purchases. All your digital platforms must showcase your knowledge and expertise.

 

 

According to Unity Marketing, the top three reasons consumers choose where to frame are confidence in the expertise of the framer, trust that their piece will be handled with care, and choice of high-quality materials. Your website is an ideal place to educate customers about your design philosophy and the benefits of premium materials, like Museum Glass. Use the price decrease as an opportunity to complete more projects featuring Museum Glass and add them to your website. These projects can be from increased customers sales, or you can create them for your store merchandising and as your wall displays.

 

 

3. Create new in-store displays

 

Keeping your in-store displays up-to-date and fresh, is important for any retailer, but it is especially true for custom framers. Many consumers do not know how unique and creative custom framing design can get. Your in-store merchandising is your chance to show off your skills, originality, creativity, and show your customers the emotional appeal in custom framing. Show everyone what you represent with amazing displays for you store.

 

 

If it has been a while since you have created new displays for your store, use the recent price decrease as an excuse to update your store wall and windows with new framing projects featuring Museum Glass. These new displays will allow you to display your craftsmanship with the premium products customers are looking for while giving them inspirational ideas for their pieces.  Not only will it show customers your best work, but it will help ease the consultation process as well. And, don’t forget to always add new images of any projects to your website.

 

4.  Observe, evaluate, and train

 

It is always important to have a solid understanding of how each employee conducts the design consultation. We can all agree that it is hard to keep track of everything going on in the shop, and even with a thorough training when you first hire a designer, overtime bad habits can start developing. Take advantage and use the price decrease for some Museum Glass focused training. Utilizing the price decrease as the reasoning to hold training sessions is a great tactic. A tactic that allows you to observe your team, review some basic principals, and then carry out one-on-one customized training for any employees who may need work on certain areas, without on causing unneeded worry or stress for your employees.

 

 

Here are some of the basic Museum Glass selling tips. Remind your employees to always show customers the Museum Glass difference. Research has shown that when customers are simply shown Museum Glass, one out of three people choose it for their projects. The easiest, low pressure technique is to use the Tru Vue® Glass Choices counter or wall displays to educate customers of the features and benefits of the product. Also, feel free take a look at some great training resources that Tru Vue has available on their blog.

 

 

For even more help with the design table evaluation watch this video. In this retail boot camp footage, I explain how to implement daily scorekeeping at the design table. Using a daily scorekeeping essentially tracks how often your team closes custom framing sales and the reasons they may lose a sale. You can also use this technique to track how often your team is talking about Museum Glass during consultations, and, if necessary, set a goal to increase it. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post that will include some more tools on daily scorekeeping.

 

 

Check back on this blog for more advice and tips on how this product can become a more profitable part of your business, including pricing strategies, employee training, and marketing ideas. In the meantime, the posts below will give you a good overview of some of the approaches you can use to take advantage of this price decrease.

 

Testing Tips for Training New Employees on Museum Glass

Preparing Your Shop to Sell Premium Products

Growing Average Ticket by Design