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How to price art prints
Nearly everyone works out print plus margin and lands 40 to 80 per cent short. Then there's a second decision — the size ladder — which is where the money actually is.
First the real cost, which isn't the printing
Almost everyone works out "print plus margin" and lands short. The real cost of fulfilling a framed print has six parts:
| Line | Why it gets forgotten |
|---|---|
| Print and paper | The only one everybody counts |
| Frame and mat | If you sell it framed, it belongs here, not in the margin |
| Rigid packaging | In art it isn't any old box: double board, corner protectors, sometimes acrylic instead of glass |
| Shipping | Offering it free doesn't remove it, it moves it into your margin |
| Breakage and returns | In framed work there's always a percentage. Count it from day one |
| Fees | Payment gateway, plus the marketplace if you sell on one |
Add all six and divide by units. That's your cost per order fulfilled, not your print cost. It's usually 40 to 80 % higher than people assume.
What to multiply by
The usual rule in home decor is cost times 2.5 to 4. Below 2.5 there's nothing left for advertising, discounts, or the order that arrives broken. Above 4 you need a brand that carries it.
Where you land depends on one thing: how much of what you sell is yours. Original work with a name behind it carries a 4×. Generic design the shop next door also sells won't reach 2.5 without competing on price, which is a fight you lose.
The size ladder, where the money is
This is where most stores leave money on the table. Print cost doesn't rise in proportion to size: a 50 × 70 doesn't cost five times a 21 × 30. Plenty of stores price as if it did.
The principle: make the price jump between sizes smaller than the jump in size the customer perceives. If the next size up looks twice as big and costs a third more, the upgrade sells itself.
| Size | Pricing that stalls | Pricing that pushes |
|---|---|---|
| 21 × 30 | €20 | €20 |
| 30 × 40 | €35 | €29 |
| 50 × 70 | €70 | €49 |
| 70 × 100 | €120 | €79 |
The right column isn't "cheaper": it's a ladder built so the customer climbs a rung. A higher average cart with fewer orders beats the reverse, because fulfilling an order costs nearly the same whether it's big or small.
The frame as a lever
Offering the frame as a variant is the easiest order-value lift there is, and a huge number of print stores don't even offer it. A customer buying unframed has to go and find one, measure it and get it right; the one who buys it from you pays double and skips the problem.
And a pricing note: don't sell the frame at cost. It's where the margin lives, because the customer is comparing it against a frame shop's price, not against yours.
Three expensive mistakes
- Starting cheap "to get going". Raising prices later annoys the people who already bought; it's easier to start right and run an occasional promotion.
- Free shipping without building it into the price. It works, but it gets paid for. Build it in or set a minimum order.
- Flat pricing across a series. If a customer can take the large one for a little more, raise the large and lower the small: you win on both.
Let them see the difference, not calculate it
When a customer sees both sizes hanging on their own wall, the price ladder does its own work. InRoom shows every variant at real size, in its frame.
See it on the Shopify App Store →Keep reading: how to lift average order value.