PICTURE Despite always having a keen interest in photography, James Fraser started his career as a salesman in London where he spent 15 years. After deciding to pursue a more creative career, he began working as a freelance photographer and quickly identified framing as an opportunity. He bought a failing framing shop and The Framed Picture Company was born! The Framed Picture Company is located in Malton, North Yorkshire and specialises in printing and framing photographs using high quality materials. Photography tends to sell better online, so the business has been operating primarily online for the last five years, but James has seen a dramatic increase in online sales over the past year due to the pandemic. “Lockdown brought about a change in consumer buying habits,” James said, “previously online products were seen as cheap and low quality, but we’re finding that increasingly customers are looking to order premium products from the comfort of their own homes.”
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PERFECT! Looking to fill the gap in the market, James has turned his focus to building a new website, with the aim of showcasing the range and quality of products available for both online customers and those looking to visit the showroom. He has focused heavily on product photography, providing photos of the mouldings he offers at various angles to ensure that customers know exactly what they are getting, a factor that is incredibly important when selling online. Another primary feature on the new website is an online framing configurator, which allows customers to upload their own photographs to the website, choose the size, frame and mount and see a to-scale visualisation of the full product together with a price, before purchasing. 4walls was pleased to hear that Larson-Juhl has been key to The Framed Picture Company, as having started with only a small range of mouldings James quickly realised that customers were prepared to be more adventurous online and began to offer a greater range of premium products.
