Power strips look like a single category until you look at where they are sold. A tower that performs well in an online listing can be the wrong product for a hotel fit-out, and a slim wall-mounted strip that suits a fit-out can be hard to merchandise on a retail shelf. The format decision is a channel decision first.
Retail and e-commerce
Here the product competes visually. Socket count, cable length and the presence of USB charging are the specifications buyers compare, and packaging carries as much weight as the product. Formats such as the vertical tower and multi-socket strip photograph well and communicate capacity at a glance.
Project and contract supply
Fit-out programs care about mounting, cable routing and repeatability across many rooms. A wall-mounted or under-desk strip usually wins, packaging is simplified to protect in transit rather than to sell, and consistency across a large order matters more than shelf appeal.
Wholesale and distribution
Distributors buy a range, not a single product. A coherent family — the same socket standard across several socket counts and cable lengths — is easier for them to stock and sell than a set of unrelated one-offs.
Let the channel drive the specification
Once the channel is clear, the rest of the specification follows: socket standard from the market, socket count and cable length from the use case, packaging from the channel. Bringing that sequence to a first conversation tends to produce a more useful quotation than starting from a photograph alone.