Price on request catalogue: when to hide prices, and how

"Price on request" (sometimes written POA, price on application) is a label you put where a price would normally be. It tells the buyer the product is for sale and that you will quote a price when they ask. The catalogue still does the selling: photos, names, materials, sizes, design numbers. The price becomes the start of a conversation instead of the end of one.

It is different from simply forgetting a price. A catalogue with a few missing prices looks unfinished. A catalogue marked "price on request" throughout looks deliberate, and buyers in trades like jewellery, furniture and wholesale expect it.

Showing prices is usually better for small, fixed-price ranges: buyers decide faster and you answer fewer questions. Hiding them makes sense when a single printed price would be wrong for most buyers.

• Prices move daily. Gold, silver and metal-based products are priced on the day's rate. A price in the catalogue is out of date by tomorrow. See how jewellers use ScanPix.
• The buyer decides the price. A dealer, a retailer and a walk-in customer pay different rates for the same design. One catalogue with one price list would show the wrong rate to two of them.
• Quantity changes everything. If the price for 500 pieces is very different from the price for 5, quote it once you know the quantity.
• Made to order or negotiated. Custom sizes, finishes and project work are priced per enquiry.
• Your price list is sensitive. A catalogue link gets forwarded. If you don't want competitors or retail customers to see trade prices, keep them off the link.

A middle path: show prices on one catalogue for retail buyers and send a separate catalogue with prices on request to trade buyers. Same products, different settings.

ScanPix gives each catalogue three price settings:

• Show prices. Prices appear on every product, including quantity tiers where you set them.
• Hide prices. No prices appear. Buyers can still browse and send you an order.
• Price on request. No prices appear, and products invite the buyer to ask for a price, so the enquiry is framed as a request for your quote.

The setting belongs to the catalogue, not the product, so you can share the same products with different price settings to different buyers.

A price that is only hidden on screen can still be sitting in the page, where anyone who opens the page source can read it. ScanPix does not hide prices that way.

• Removed before sending. When a catalogue's prices are hidden or on request, ScanPix strips the prices out of the catalogue data on its server before the page is sent to the buyer. The buyer's phone never receives them.
• Not searchable, not filterable. Search in the catalogue never matches a hidden price, and the price filter is only offered when prices are shown, so nobody can narrow down a range to work out what you charge.
• Not on the order page either. The status page a buyer sees after ordering shows no item prices from a hidden-price catalogue. A total appears there only if you confirm the order and ask for payment.

So "hidden" means hidden, not just styled out of sight. Your prices stay in your ScanPix account, where you and your team can see them.

1. Share the catalogue. Send the link on WhatsApp or as a QR code. Buyers open it in any phone browser, with nothing to install.
2. The buyer builds an enquiry. They add the designs they want and the quantities, then send it with their name and phone number.
3. It arrives in two places. The enquiry opens as a ready-written message in your WhatsApp, and it is saved in your Orders inbox with the products and quantities, so nothing gets lost in the chat.
4. You reply with a price. Answer in the same WhatsApp chat, or create an estimate for that buyer with your prices and send the PDF.

Because you know the quantity and the buyer before you quote, you can give the right rate the first time. To set it up, start with catalogues, pick a layout from the catalogue templates, and choose "price on request" when you share.