POS Pricing

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Kirstie

Kirstie

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
Posts
8,395
Loc
Berkeley, CA
This is a double post as I did not realize the Grumble was back up. I just posted this to the PPFA forum as well:

We are finally setting up Frame Ready POS and I have some concerns about moulding pricing. For the past 30 years we have logged moulding in, looked at the sample, used a single multiplier, and said, "No, that looks like a $10. moulding," You get the idea. We have a fairly good grasp of the local market and feel confident pricing this way. Enter POS. Now I am trying to figure out a different formula for each supplier, and a different formula for value moulding, box moulding, and in-stock length. When facing the pricing of large vendors with prices all over the map, I fear I may have to use a very graduated pricing scale, something that I have found unworkable in the past. Any suggestions?
 
We have always used "chop" prices for everything we buy - chop - length - box. This is to be consistent with perceived value of the moulding.

After that, I re-examine the retail price and adjust the "chop price" keeping the length price at what I actually paid(incl freight).

As far as what does a $10 moulding look like - I do not consider that too much.... I too have been in business for many years and am a bit tainted by what the prices "used to be" ;)
 
I too price everything as chop and have never quite understood the thought process behind having a length, chop and joined frame price. You either pay for some of the labor or do it yourself but the price for a moulding should be the same whichever way it is ordered.

One method I use to compensate for mouldings that I pay freight and/or handling on is to increase the "set price" for those vendors. Same for mouldings that are too wide for me to join with my equipment or are a strange shaped profile that I want to order joined.

Talk to Carol at FrameReady ...she'll set you on a good path. She's also bilingual ...she speaks both English and Canadian. :D
 
Kirstie said:
... For the past 30 years we have logged moulding in, looked at the sample, used a single multiplier, and said, "No, that looks like a $10. moulding," You get the idea...
Click to expand...

First, congratulations on your decision to use POS software. Once you get past the initial pricing setup, hand-wringing, and familiarity issues, you'll never regret it.

I suggest you call FrameReady and ask for help in setting up your pricing. They can tell you about all sorts of shortcuts and tricks to get the pricing features you want.

You can price each moulding separately if you want to. It's fast and easy when you get a rhythm going, but still a lot of work. When I set up my POS program, I established a markup for each supplier, then cherry-picked some number of mouldings within each product line, which we thought should be priced higher or lower.

Our stock length mouldings, about 75 line items, are priced individually with all kinds of markups -- some as much as 20x, and a few at 2x. Since we set up a unique vendor for those, they are not modified when their suppliers' updates are taken into the program. We review pricing of those line items when we re-order them.
 
Dave said:
Talk to Carol at FrameReady ...she'll set you on a good path. She's also bilingual ...she speaks both English and Canadian. :D
Click to expand...

I can hear you Dave! By the way, I'm heading out to New Zealand and just spoke with a woman down there about a campervan. I now know that I do not hear 'New Zealand' very well; only 'Canadian' and 'English'.

Kirstie,
Setting up you pricing in software is like having someone new in your shop holding up each sample and saying, "how to you price this one?". The difficulty is that you can price ALL of the ways you want to, but you have to tell the computer what you want to do.

If you want to give the moulding an arbitrary price, then just type that amount into the big pricing box under 'Formula'. You just have to watch these mouldings and remember to update your arbitrary pricing.

You might want to create groups, to make it easier to update them. That way you can easily find them and raise them all by a percentage or dollar amount.

You can also use the straight markup on chop or join or, of course, the sliding markup scale. The options are wide open. The hardest part is making a choice. I'll give you a call and see if there is anything I can do to help.
 
Thanks Carol, Jim, and everyone else. I have decided to go with a different mark up for each vendor, depending upon our discount level and freight agreements. We have also decided to add in a set freight amount per frame on special order mouldings to offset the average freight of at least two patterns shipped together. This is a bit of a #### shoot because you never know how many patterns from one vendor you will be able to order at once on the weekly order, but we are trying. We have also eliminated a few vendors, and added only one at the show. Well, actually two, but the second is just Bella glitter "Vegas", and I had to have those!

On the in-stock board, which is quite large, I am going series by series, and assigning each series from each vendor a different mark-up. This is where the "This moulding looks like $12." principle comes in. I am simply working with a calculator to give that moulding and its cousins in the same series, a multiplier which will bring it as close as possible to, in this case, $12. Then I figure when the vendor price raises, the moulding will raise accordingly because I have assigned it a mark-up rather than a set price. We are only giving set prices to box quantity mouldings. There are only about 20 of those, so it will be easy to make changes when we reorder.

Actually, I am working on the mark-ups and Lisa is entering it all into Frame Ready and will explain it all to me when we are finished. She has also been working on all the other prices and says they are now close to our price list. She has been trying to educate me as we go along, but of course she is light years ahead of me and Jeff.

When we are all comfortable with the software and all 10 of us can enter orders with ease, then we will add two more computers. I am thinking of purchasing the clip on monitor holders that Frame Ready used at WCAF. They would take up little space, and allow the monitor to be swung around to show a customer a final price, or breakdown if necessary. We could build slide out trays for the keyboards. Carol, where did those clips and arms come from again?

Lisa has been working on this project for about 4 weeks as time allows, and we have a way to go, but we are getting there.

It is still the special order mouldings from large vendors that have me confused because their prices are all over the map. One multiplier just doesn't work for every price, but I hate those graduated tables, no matter how gradual. Somehow I always think I'll get the short end of the stick when prices change. Pun intended.

Am I on the right track?
 
Kristie

Might I suggest that all your instock mouldings be issued a separate supplier name ("instock" or whatever) so as not to be confused with the vendor lists when you process an update from the vendor. There is a "duplicate entry" button. :)

Having 2 listings for a moulding is no big deal from the data storage standpoint. It also might come in handy if you are out of stock in the shop and have to order direct from the vendor.

Most customers realize that special orders can have a higher cost due to shipping, etc. (not a bad idea for those PIA customers as well;) Or in your case you have marked up the moulding more than by using the basic formula for the mass ordering of stock.
 
Jerry's idea is very good.

I do the same, but to make it easy to know immediately which moulding it is and what supplier, I just add a star (*) to the moulding number (say, *DC8412).
 
Paul,
The asterisk * cannot be used in FrameReady in a moulding or mat item number. The asterisk is used as a search tool to find all records which have an entry in that field. E.g. In the Search screen, enter an asterisk in the address field and if finds everyone with a full mailing address.

Kirstie,
If you want to modify the item number, you could put your company letter in front of the moulding number. E.g. FW8412.DC

Here's the item number for Neo-Flex LCD Arm by Ergotron #45-175-300. We purchased from a Canadian distributor. You may need to do a search on the web to find a US distributor.
 
We have that exact same arm holding the LCD monitor over our CMC (from the left side).

Previously, it was holding a VIZ related monitor over the front counter, for customer viewing. (the new one is mounted to the wall and framed)

Highly recommended!
Mike
 
Frankenthread- NeoFlex arm

Does anyone know if that Neo-Flex arm can be mounted on a vertical surface like a wall, or does it have to be clamped to a horizontal tabletop?
Thanks.
;-) Rick
 
It does have to clamp onto something.

When we had ours out front, it was clamped to a wall mounted shelf - right next to the design counter.

It is currently clamped to the easel base where our CMC sits.

There are many different brackets out there, however.

For our new FV monitor, we are using a bracket that screwed directly to the wall. I think it was only about $19.95 and does the job well.

Mike
 
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