Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Selling Websites
Rachel Walker
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Picture This Framed http://www.picturethisframed.com
A site that specializes in selling ready-made frames with mats, collage frames, and hinged frames. All their frames are made in various pre-cut sizes and dimensions.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
PictureFrames.com http://www.pictureframes.com This site specializes in custom cut frames at relatively cheap prices. They will also custom-cut mats to order.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
American Frame http://www.americanframe.com
This site also specializes in custom cut frames, and offer a special deal for a custom cut mat with a purchase of a frame. They also offer a variety of other services including photo editing and a framing service. They also sell art prints and framing supplies.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Frames By Mail http://www.framesbymail.com Another site that has custom-cut frames and mats, plus some pre-existing packages. They also have a large variety of different types of frames like rounded, flat, shadow box, etc.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Picture Frames R Us http://www.picture-frames-r-us.com
This site sells exclusively ready-made frame packages. Prices are generally cheap.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Frame USA http://www.frameusa.com This site has a very large variety of ready made frames and also framing kits that allow you to build a frame to build a frame to custom dimensions.
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Features Comparison
Feature
American Frames
Picture This Framed
Picture Frames. Com
Frames By Mail
Picture Frames R Us
Frame USA
custom cut frames
X
X
X
X
custom cut mats
X
X
X
X
browse by frame type
X
X
X
X
browse by thumbnails
X
X
X
ready made packages
X
X
X
X
custom cut plexiglass
X
X
X
glare-reisistant plexiglass
X
X
X
uv-resistant plexiglass
X
art prints
X
X
photo and art editing
X
X
framing services
X
framing supplies
X
preview of custom frame
X
X
X X
X X
X
X
X
X
hinged frames
X
X
preview of your art in frame
X X
X
X
collage frames mirrors
X
X
X
Competitive Analysis of Picture Frame Sites v 1.0 Rachel Walker
Summary Of the sites, I found that I liked American Frames the best. It had the widest variety of frames with the all-important feature of being able to order the frames to a custom size. It also is the only site I looked at that made available UV-resistant glass which is very important when framing pieces that are light sensitive. PictureFrames.com was nearly comparable, except that I very much did not like their actual site’s interface at all. It felt like there were more steps involved than were necessary, and for the most part, American Frames seemed to do the same things in better ways. PictureFrames.com did have the useful feature of showing an image you had uploaded in the frame you were looking at. However, this feature was completely separated from the normal ordering section of the site, and therefore annoying to use, since you’d have to go back and forth between the preview screen and the actual ordering screen if you actually bothered with this feature. American Frame shows the preview of the frame (with your own artwork if you so desire) while you’re ordering, which makes that feature actually useful. Also, there were problems where defaultly you can browse by the name of the frame which isn’t useful at all, or you can click on “view thumbnails” which does allow you to browse by looking at the actual frames, but it takes you to a completely different page, and needlessly adds another step to the process. Lastly, when you actually decided on a frame you wished to order, PictureFrames.com then brings you to a whole page dedicated to four buttons so you can select whether you want the frame alone, or you want it with a mat, etc. American Frames eliminated this whole step simply by allowing users to check whether they wanted a mat or not during the regular ordering process. Comparing these sites to Frames By Mail, I found that Frames By Mail’s ordering process was probably the best. It was very streamlined, and it had a preview feature for your custom frame (however it was a bit small to really be useful.) Also, I loved that their site was very clutter-free, unlike just about every other site that sells frames. But Frames By Mail lacked UV-resistant plexiglass, and more importantly, their browse feature was not good at all. You had to first select what material you want the frame from, then how you want to search (color, price, etc) then finally it gives you a list of possible frames, and you have to click on each one to get a thumbnail view of what it looks like. People most often are going by looks when purchasing frames, and it’s awful having to go through all these steps before you get to actually see the frame. It could take forever for you to actually choose which one you think looks best, especially since it’s not possible to view two frames next to each other. As for Picture Frames R Us, one look at that site would probably send most customers running, since the site itself looks very unprofessional, and I think it would have most people questioning its security and reliability at delivering its product. It has no search feature to speak of, it simply lists everything out in various category types. Lastly, Frame USA was probably the best site for ready-made frame packages as it had the largest variety of them. It also had U-frame kits which allow you to build a frame to just about any size, and is essentially like a custom-cut frame, although unlike custom-cut frames which often let you get it cut as precisely as to an eighth of a inch, you can only get the kits to the nearest inch. Also, you could not purchase customcut mats, mounting boards, or plexiglass to go with said frame. Also, for some reason I don’t understand, they decided to handle the way they display and order metal frames completely differently from their other frames. While the most frames were each shown with pictures of both what the frame looks like from the front, and what its rabbet looks like, the metal frames were just listed out in text by color with no pictures at all. I think actually showing a picture of the frame is important so that you can at least get an idea of what color it is.
