Pricing guide
What a multi-store retail campaign really costs, from the people who print, kit, and ship it
A retail rollout isn't one print job, it's a print job multiplied by a store list, split into versions, packed into kits, and raced to a go-live date. We produce, kit, and ship campaigns from our Montreal plant, so we can explain exactly where the money goes, and turn your store list and piece list into a real manufacturer-direct number within one business day.
What moves the price
1.The store count and kit complexity
The store list is the multiplier on everything else. Five stores getting an identical kit is a simple job; two hundred stores in four formats, each getting a different mix of pieces, is a logistics project attached to a print run. The cost driver isn't just how many stores, it's how many different kits the fleet needs.
2.The mix of pieces: sizes and substrates
A campaign kit mixes shelf strips, window clings, hanging signs, and posters, each on its own material: paper, vinyl, styrene, adhesives. Bigger pieces use more material and press time, and every additional substrate adds a production step and a colour-matching pass so the whole kit reads as one brand. A tight piece list costs less than a sprawling one, at every store.
3.Flat signage versus engineered displays
A poster is a print; a floor display or counter unit is a structure. Engineered POP pieces carry design, die cutting, and assembly considerations that flat signage doesn't, which is why one display can cost more than a store's entire flat kit. They also sell harder, so the honest question is which locations earn the display and which do the job with flat pieces.
4.Versioning: stores, regions, and languages
Every version, a regional offer, a store-format variant, or a language, multiplies the artwork and splits the run. In Canada the bilingual reality is non-negotiable: Quebec stores need French, and often the rest of the fleet ships English. Handled well, versions are produced together from one file in one planned run; handled badly, each one becomes its own small expensive job.
5.Kitting and distribution logistics
Pick, pack, label by store, and ship store-direct or to your distribution centre: this is real work with real cost, and it's also where rollouts are won. A kit built to each store's planogram means no location drowning in signage it can't use and no flagship running short. Freight depends on store count, kit weight, and how hard the go-live date is.
6.Campaign cadence: one-off or program
A single rush campaign pays for everything alone: setup, kitting design, and expedited freight. A program on a planned calendar spreads those costs across waves, reuses standing formats and store data, and lets runs be scheduled instead of squeezed in. The same fleet, served on a calendar, simply costs less per wave than the same fleet served in emergencies.
7.Who you buy from
A rollout split between a printer, a kitting house, and a freight broker stacks a margin at every hand-off, and each seam adds days and finger-pointing when a date slips. Buying from one manufacturer that prints, kits, and ships under one roof removes those layers. It's the one cost factor that has nothing to do with your campaign, and you control it completely.
How to pay less, honestly
Standardize the sign kit across stores
A few standard kit configurations, small, medium, large, cover most fleets better than a bespoke kit per store, and they let pieces run in combined quantities. Standard sizes also mean standing dies and templates that every future wave reuses for free.
Plan the calendar so runs combine
When we can see the next two or three waves, we can gang pieces onto shared runs, order material once, and schedule press time instead of expediting it. The campaign brief costs you nothing extra; the emergency it prevents costs plenty.
Produce both languages together from one file
French and English versions built from the same master file run together in one planned pass, with quantities split by store list. That's how bilingual becomes a version, not a second campaign, and how Quebec and the rest of the fleet go live the same day.
Put the program with one manufacturer
Program pricing with one plant beats quoting each campaign cold: no hand-off margins, store data and planograms already on file, and a team that knows what worked last wave. You brief the campaign; the machine already knows your fleet.
The bottom line
Retail rollout pricing comes down to the store count, the kit's mix of pieces and substrates, displays versus flat signage, versioning, kitting and distribution, campaign cadence, and who you buy from. Running the whole program through one manufacturer like Accent Retail in Montreal removes the margins between printer, kitter, and shipper, and a store list plus a piece list gets you a real, itemized price within one business day.
For an accurate quote in one business day
Include these in your request and we'll come back with a real number, not a vague range.
- The store list, or at least the count and how many store formats it includes
- The piece list per kit: sizes, substrates, and any displays versus flat signage
- Versions needed: languages (FR/EN), regions, or store-format variants
- How it ships: store-direct or to your distribution centre, and the go-live date
- Whether this is a one-off campaign or part of a seasonal calendar worth pricing as a program
Frequently asked questions
- How much does a multi-store signage rollout cost?
- It depends on the store count, the pieces in each kit, the substrates, the versions, and the shipping plan, which is why serious manufacturers quote per rollout. What we can promise: you see the manufacturer's price for print, kitting, and distribution in one itemized number, with no broker margin, within one business day of sending your store list and piece list.
- Does producing in French and English double the cost?
- No. Both languages come off the same master file in one planned run, with quantities split by store list, so you pay for a version, not a second campaign. As a Montreal plant, bilingual production is our daily work, not a surcharge-generating exception.
- Is per-store kitting an expensive add-on?
- It's real work with a real cost, but it usually gives back more than it takes: you stop printing and shipping pieces that small-format stores can't use, and store teams set faster because the box matches their space. We'll quote the rollout kitted and you can judge the trade honestly.
- Is program pricing cheaper than quoting each campaign separately?
- Usually, yes. A planned calendar lets runs combine, reuses standing formats and store data, and avoids the expedited freight that one-off emergencies attract. Bring us the season's calendar and we'll price it as a program so you can compare against wave-by-wave quotes.
- Can US retail chains get pricing in US dollars?
- Yes. We price in Canadian dollars, which a favourable exchange rate makes attractive for a US budget, and we accept payment in USD. Our Montreal plant is about an hour from the US border, and many printed signage products cross duty-free or at low duty under CUSMA, which makes a Canadian manufacturer a practical option for northeastern US fleets.
Start your project
Send your specs and get a manufacturer-direct price, itemized line by line, within one business day.