Do You Email Buyers for Digital Art for Commission?
When I graduated from art school, I had mastered colour theory and brush techniques and composition—but didn't know the beginning thing near business organisation. How tin I sell fine art and paintings online? How would I market myself? What steps did I demand to take to sell my art? How should I price my work, and what would I charge for shipping? At the time, the creator tools and channels to dilate and sell your own art online were practically nonexistent.
In my very first week every bit a working artist, I learned a hard lesson: to succeed in art, you must besides succeed in business.
For gallerists and curators, the shift in how nosotros buy and sell in the final two decades has allowed these businesses to correspond more artists and aggrandize into selling affordable art prints online to attain larger audiences worldwide.
How to sell art online
Whether yous're a creator or a curator looking to make coin selling fine art online, this how to sell artwork online and in person guide is for you. We consulted experts and successful artists for their advice on everything you need to know to sell your art, from marketing to pricing to shipping. You can also utilize this guide to larn how to sell your photos online every bit art.
Meet the art experts
We reached out to experts in the art world—ii artists and a gallerist—actively making their living past selling art online and asked, "how practice yous sell art online?" among other things. In this guide to selling your own artwork, their anecdotes will be woven into practical and actionable advice for any creative entrepreneur.
Cat Seto, possessor and artist, Ferme à Papier
Cat Seto is an creative person and writer, and the founder of Ferme à Papier, a San Francisco–based studio and boutique representing unique goods from contained West Coast designers. Her stationery has appeared in multiple publications and landed her partnerships with brands like Anthropologie and Gap. Prior to the pandemic, Cat closed the retail arm of her business to refocus and find a new location. The recent hate crimes targeting the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community have influenced her need for change. "I have decided that I am at a time and place in my business in which my collections demand to correspond themes which matter to me and those around me," she says.
Maria Qamar, artist, Hatecopy
Accept annotation of our adjacent expert especially if you lot want to know the best way to sell paintings online. Nigh famously known past her creative person moniker, Hatecopy, Maria Qamar quit her advertising career to focus on fine art when her pop fine art paintings began to catch burn down on Instagram. The success didn't happen overnight. "I did contract work here and in that location," says Maria. "When you lot're starting out, you lot're earning naught dollars." Her total-time job, withal, taught her business organization skills that were disquisitional to selling her own artwork, getting off the ground, and marketing herself as an artist. Now she works total time on her fine art, selling her own artwork in multiple formats, from art prints to printed merch. She besides published a volume, Trust No Aunty, in 2017.
Ken Harman, curator and gallerist
Ken Harman is the human being behind the art empire that includes Spoke Art, Hashimoto Contemporary, and publishing company Paragon Books. Together, these businesses represent many global artists through physical galleries, online shops, and popular-up exhibitions. Different Maria, Ken didn't have a adventure to transition slowly at the beginning. When he was unable to secure a temporary pop-up location for a curated show, he signed a two-yr lease on a infinite. "I actually didn't accept any other options," he says. "I just pulled the trigger."
What's right for yous: selling your own fine art or selling works by other artists?
There are two ways for how to sell your art: create or curate. Cat built her career on both by creating and selling her own piece of work and representing the work of others in her boutique. Which one is right for you lot? Permit'south explore the two avenues in this guide to how to sell artwork online.
Equally an creative person, you are the creator, producing original art and/or reproductions of originals and selling directly to your customers or indirectly through a gallery, retail partner, or agent. It's never been easier for artists to sell directly, with emerging creator tools popping upwards seemingly every day. Depending on your manner and medium, choose a sales aqueduct where your desired audience hangs out. This is arguably the easiest way to sell art online for many.
Maria runs her own online shop, where she sells prints and merchandise, eliminating the middleman and keeping her costs low. Merely she also leans on relationships with experienced galleries for exhibiting and selling own artwork. If you're learning how to sell your art, note that galleries can betrayal your work to new audiences. They may likewise accept access to resources and professionals to help promote, exhibit, handle, and ship artwork.
Curate
If yous're not personally an artist but you lot have a dandy eye and a love of the art earth, you tin still get into the game of selling art equally a curator. Some artists may exist disinterested in marketing or figuring out the best way to sell art online and instead rely on gallerists, curators, and retail partners to handle this aspect of the business concern. Every bit a partner to artists, you make a percentage of the selling cost in commutation for your business knowledge and service.
There are several ways to piece of work with artists to figure out the all-time way to sell fine art online for you—be information technology selling originals or prints to licensing works to be printed on trade or used in publication. "Nearly galleries offer an manufacture standard 50% consignment split for original art," says Ken. "The artist provides the artwork, we do our best to sell it." Spoke besides operates its own print shop, selling limited-run prints of works past the artists information technology represents—offering a wide range of toll points for their fans.
What art to sell: originals or reproductions?
Equally an artist, yous may cull to sell your fine art, reproductions of that piece of work, or both. The best way to sell art online will depend on the nature of your art and your chosen medium. Fine artists using archetype mediums and selling at high price points may choose to only sell originals, for example, while digital art, which can exist reproduced without loss of quality, is great for prints and merch. All the same, most art created in 2D mediums have multiple options for generating unlimited sales on a unmarried work.
🎨 Consider the following options when determining the best mode to sell your art online:
- Original art such as paintings, drawings, illustrations (Notation: yous tin sell both the original art as well equally prints of the aforementioned work.)
- Limited- or open-edition prints (framed, unframed, or prints on canvass)
- Digital downloads (desktop wallpaper, templates, print-at-home art, etc.)
- Custom fine art made to gild from a customer request or commissioned by a business concern (Note: Generally, this art would be one of a kind and not sold once again every bit a reproduction.)
- Merchandise (your art printed on hats, mugs, t-shirts, enamel pins, greeting cards, stationery, etc.)
- Repeat prints on fabric, wrapping paper, or wallpaper
- Licensing piece of work to other brands or publications (cracking for illustrators and photographers)
- Collaborations with brands (express collection sold through the partner brand's store)
Some mediums, similar sculpture, are more difficult to reproduce or use for merchandise applications—y'all may consider a different route if you're interested in the easiest way to sell art online. But for those impossible to scan and print, there are all the same ways to generate boosted income from a single blueprint. For instance, clay works may use the same mold to generate similar pieces, and 3D designs can be created over and over with a 3D printer.
Reproductions of art: open or limited edition?
Reproducing art on t-shirts, mugs, or art prints ways that a single piece of work can bear fruit indefinitely. If you're looking for how to sell artwork like paintings equally prints, there are pros and cons. You can choose to sell an unlimited number of products (otherwise known as open edition). Yet, some galleries, similar Spoke, opt for a limited edition model when you lot sell your fine art (at that place are only a certain number of prints produced) on many of the works they represent.
The effect is much like that of a limited time offer—creating a sense of scarcity and urgency is an excellent marketing strategy. For Ken, however, the determination to limit impress runs goes deeper. "We work really difficult to observe things that are very special to sell. Things that are special should be treated similar they're special," he says. While Spoke may exist able to make more money selling prints equally an open up edition, the pick to limit them adds to the value of the art.
Limited edition has its drawbacks, however. "A lot of the things that we sell take secondary market values," says Ken, meaning that limited edition pieces may sell for inflated prices on the resale market (recollect express-edition sneakers) because the demand is loftier. To assist minimize reselling, Spoke volition limit quantities of certain prints per customer. It's also built a blacklist of known resellers. "Making sure that the existent fans are actually the ones who are able to get the things that nosotros sell is always a priority," Ken says.
How practise y'all impress art and choose printers?
Agreement how to sell your artwork comes down to getting very friendly with a printer, whether that's your at-domicile inkjet or a company that handles the chore for you lot. There are multiple options, from DIY to completely hands off, to help you sell art prints and other merch to your audience.
DIY printing
Information technology's possible to start selling your ain artwork by creating quality prints yourself with the high-quality paper, ink, and home office printer. As a new artist, this method tin go along costs low, simply information technology's not the way to go if yous want to know how to sell your art sustainably then yous can scale over time. "In the beginning, I would print, parcel, and deliver past hand every unmarried poster that was ordered," says Maria. "At some bespeak the volume became and then much that I couldn't make time to draw. I was spending all of my days delivering and in transit." This method is usually limited to selling art prints on paper, but some specialty printers may allow you to print on canvas paper or cloth designed specifically for this purpose.
Using a printing company
A local or online printing company can reproduce your work en masse and tin even offering bulk discounts if you lot are printing many of the same piece. This tin can exist the best style to sell fine art online if you take a modest catalog of just a few works that you sell consistently and have a budget to buy inventory upfront. With this method of how to sell artwork online, you will all the same be responsible for your own packaging and shipping.
It'due south important that we are the terminal sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and aircraft the product to our customers.
Cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
While a print-on-demand model for custom clients and orders is the best style to sell your art online for Cat, she frequently prints large batches for collection releases. In either case, the prints make it at her studio first, rather than shipping straight to the customer. "Information technology's of import that nosotros are the last sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and shipping the production to our customers," she says.
Impress on demand
Print on demand is the most hands-off and versatile of options and possibly the easiest fashion to sell art online, especially if yous program to sell your work printed on merch like t-shirts or caps. Print-on-need companies generally integrate with your online store and allow you to upload your designs, which are then printed and shipped straight to each customer when you receive an social club. This is a great option if y'all want to know how to sell artwork on a upkeep, as there is niggling upfront investment with no need to buy equipment or inventory.
When the number of orders exceeded her capacity to impress and send piece of work herself, Maria upgraded to using a print-on-demand company. "All I have to do is upload and allow it practise the work for me," she says. "Now I can focus on really creating the artwork and connecting with people."
💡 Tip: Earlier yous kickoff selling your own artwork this way, request samples from the printer and so you tin can inspect the colors and quality of the print. This is especially important if printed items will be sent directly to your customers.
How exercise you photograph and scan fine art?
Photographing and representing your products clearly and accurately is important for whatever online business. Without the ability to feel a product, customers need to go the best sense of what they're buying through clear and detailed images. Selling art online is no exception.
"If yous have a bad epitome of your work or the image doesn't stand for the work accurately, y'all're going to take a harder time selling it," says Ken. Or, y'all'll be stuck dealing with unhappy customers and processing returns.
Production photography when y'all sell your fine art is a lilliputian trickier than other products, and a basic low-cal setup may yet cause glare or color irregularities. Consider hiring a professional to shoot larger works or fine art with whatever three-dimensional or sleeky elements.
If yous take a bad image of your work or the image doesn't represent the work accurately, you're going to have a harder fourth dimension selling information technology.
Ken Harman, Spoke Fine art
For 2D works, however, Ken recommends scanning as an affordable and effective alternative to photography. Though his facility has a photography setup for shooting fine art, many artists submit their works to Spoke as scans because they need the digital file for their own archives anyhow. "The near cost effective mode to do that is to get a desktop scanner and browse the work in parts and run up information technology together digitally," he says. "If you lot've got a slice with a high-gloss coating or a resin, that's a piddling tricker, but for the majority of works on canvas or paper, it'south pretty like shooting fish in a barrel."
If you're selling merch or other products that feature your art, the general rules of product photography apply. Have clear shots from multiple angles as well as zoomed-in shots to evidence texture and detail. Lifestyle photos (your product in a scene) are great for your home folio and social media and help to show scale. Print-on-demand companies often provide mockup images you can use on your product pages in lieu of or in addition to photography.
📚 Read more:
- Production Photography: DIY Guide for People on a Upkeep
How practice you build your brand as an artist or art curator?
As an creative person learning how to sell your artwork, your brand may evolve every bit a natural extension of your art. Your chosen fashion and medium volition define you every bit an artist and you will naturally attract fans and buyers based on this alone. Nevertheless, there are many decisions yous will need to consciously make when you start to think of yourself as a business too as an artist.
Because fine art is a personal and sometimes emotional buy, your story every bit an creative person could be a cistron in someone's conclusion to buy. And other business organization assets like packaging and site design should mirror or complement the visual aesthetic of the piece of work itself.
🎨 Ask yourself the following if you're interested in selling your own artwork:
- Do you lot create and sell fine art under your own proper noun, a pseudonym, or a make proper name?
- What's your brand story? How much of your personal story will you tell?
- Do you have a mission, values, or a cause that you want to communicate through your make?
- Outside of the fine art itself, what is the visual management of the make? What's the tone of your communication?
- What branding avails practice yous need? Even without graphic pattern skills, yous can generate a logo with free tools.
The answer to these questions volition help you build a set of brand guidelines that will dictate many of your decisions going forward: branding, website pattern, marketing materials, etc. If you eventually scale your business, these guidelines will help you maintain brand consistency as you delegate tasks to staff or other partners.
In collaborating, I remember it'southward of import to non only stay truthful to your brand, just to be able to listen and be proactive to whomever you are collaborating with.
True cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
For True cat, the causes closest to her heart are central to her brand. While she is currently refocusing to piece of work on themes that support the AAPI community, this isn't the outset time she's fabricated a statement with her work. Ferme à Papier launched a Saving Faces collection highlighting the stories of women and underrepresented groups.
True cat's brand values influence the types of projects she takes on with brands and clients. "In collaborating, I think it'due south important to not only stay true to your brand," she says, "but to be able to mind and exist proactive to whomever you are collaborating with."
📚 Read more than:
- How to Kickoff Your Ain Make From Scratch in seven Steps
- A Guide to Brand Storytelling [Gratuitous Worksheet]
How do you set prices for your art?
How exercise yous sell art online—and make coin doing it? Making a living as a working creative person is possible if yous know how to value and toll your piece of work. Pricing art is challenging because it doesn't necessarily fit neatly into typical pricing strategies.
Pricing original art
The best fashion to sell art online and in person is to be profitable—and you have to price your art accordingly. If yous're but beginning to experiment with how to sell your art and don't take a widely known name in the art earth, you can offset with a simple formula to price your original art: your fourth dimension and labour costs + fabric costs and other expenses + your markup (turn a profit). For this method, you will need to assign yourself an hourly wage. It is typical for artists to undervalue their fourth dimension and work, especially at the beginning.
Knowing what your products correspond and what you lot aren't willing to compromise are key components in driving decisions near pricing.
Cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
Where the formula above fails is that the value of art is subjective and not necessarily dependent on concrete details like material cost or labour hours. Famous artists can fetch exponentially more for a slice that has roughly the same creation costs as that of a new artist. Bank check the market place to compare your pricing to similar artists at like levels and adjust appropriately.
Recollect that if yous are selling through a gallery, that business concern will unremarkably have half of the concluding selling price. You can normally work with gallerists, who are experts at valuing and pricing art, to set a price that makes sense for you, the gallery, and the marketplace.
Pricing art prints
Selling art prints or other types of reproduction tin can follow a more simple pricing formula: the cost of printing + your cost to sell and market place the impress + your markup. Your markup may be on a calibration depending on whether you sell open- or limited-edition prints.
"Knowing what your products stand for and what you aren't willing to compromise are key components in driving decisions almost pricing," says Cat. For her, press on sustainable paper was a must-accept, even though it would drive up fabric costs and ultimately the retail price. Communicating these decisions to the customer is important, especially if your prices are higher than boilerplate.
📚 Read more:
- How to Price Your Product: What You Need to Know About Pricing Before Y'all Launch
- The Price Is Correct: 13 Strategies for Finding the Platonic Cost for Your Products
- Product Pricing: v Steps to Set Prices For Wholesale and Retail
How practice yous sell fine art online with your ain ecommerce store?
The best mode to sell your art online is through your ain ecommerce store. First, have a few minutes to create your store. At this betoken, you lot can set it up every bit a trial and tinker with information technology for two weeks earlier committing. You've already done a lot of the work if you've established brand guidelines, pricing, and business model (originals, prints, or merch)—this office is merely associates.
Become started selling art online and try Shopify gratuitous for 14 days
Store design and themes
When setting upward your online art shop, choose a Shopify theme that lets your art breathe–big images and lots of white/negative infinite. Themes are like templates that you lot build upon, layering in your own images and copy, and tweaking colors and layout to suit your business.
🎨 Some of our theme picks for selling fine art online:
- Narrative (free) is a theme for storytellers, allowing your artist persona to live front and center.
- Editions ($) is an airy theme that gives bold artwork the breathing room it deserves.
- California ($$) is a clean theme that lets your art be the star. It's slap-up for large collections.
- Highlight ($$) is a bold theme with slideshow and parallax scrolling features that are great for visual storytellers.
- Artisan ($$) is an platonic theme for artists who sell custom piece of work and commissions.
Shopify is the easiest mode to sell art online. Information technology's designed so anyone can prepare a custom online store with no coding or design skills necessary. However, if y'all're interested in customizing your theme fifty-fifty further to adapt your concern, consider hiring a Shopify Expert to help you lot with design or development work.
📚 Read more:
- All-time Ecommerce Website Designs: 27 Exceptional Sites
Apps for fine art stores
The Shopify App Store is packed with apps that plug directly into your online store to solve specific hurting points, add unique features, and assistance y'all run your shop more effortlessly—allowing y'all to focus on the creative aspects of the business.
🎨 App suggestions to help sell your art online:
- Impress-on-demand apps. If you lot sell your artwork via prints and merch, apps like Creativehub, Printful, or Printify can sync with your store, taking the brunt of shipping and fulfillment out of the equation.
- Gallery apps. An app like POWR Epitome Gallery tin feature past or out-of-stock works, serving as a portfolio or full catalog of your piece of work for galleries or brands looking to partner with yous.
- Social marketing apps. Equally a creator, you lot may lean toward visual social media platforms similar Instagram to aid market your products and build an audience. Keep site content fresh with an app similar Instafeed that pulls Instagram images into a gallery on your site.
- Product folio apps. If you're offering a specific piece of artwork with overlapping options (size, frame or no frame, newspaper blazon, etc.), apply an app similar Bold Production Options to layer item variants.
📚 Read more:
- The 27 Best Free Shopify Apps for Your Store
Where tin you sell your art online?
What'south the all-time place to sell art online? Aside from your own online store, it's the identify where your ideal customer is already hanging out. If you take amassed a following on a detail social channel, for example, that might exist a great place to get-go.
Where to sell your fine art online:
- Online marketplaces similar Etsy or eBay can plug direct into your online shop, allowing you to sync sales and reach wider audiences.
- Social selling channels let you sell direct to fans who are already following you on their preferred platforms. Create customizable storefronts on Facebook and Instagram that integrate with your Shopify shop.
- Wholesale to other online boutiques and galleries. You can browse wholesale markets like Handshake to detect compatible retailers that want to sell your fine art.
Cat now sells her piece of work through multiple channels, simply she cautions to start slow if you're just learning how to sell artwork. "Having multiple avenues came every bit an evolution to what first began equally a wholesale business organization," she says. While her retail channel is on pause for the moment, she at present sells direct to customer and works on custom projects for clients and brands in addition to her wholesale business. "If I had tried to balance all of these from the onset," she says. "I believe I would accept been overwhelmed."
Gallery exhibitions, pop-ups, and offline events for selling fine art
How to sell your artwork isn't limited to online—yous can sell via concrete retail too. Considering Maria works frequently in traditional mediums, much of the touch of the texture and calibration of her piece of work gets lost digitally. "Information technology's bodily physical work, so when nosotros do exhibits, y'all can walk into a gallery and see that I'm a real person that has technical skills that tin can do paintings and large scale installations," she says. Artists tin can also connect with fans and observe new audiences by taking work offline. You lot can use in-person experiences to drive people back to your online store.
🎨 Consider the following when selling your ain artwork:
- Partner with a gallery to exhibit piece of work.
- Wait into local art markets and events, and fix up a i-fourth dimension or semi-permanent booth.
- Consign or wholesale with art, gift, or lifestyle retail stores, or set up a small pop-upward within an existing store.
- Open your studio to the public when you launch your website, or proceed consequent weekly open-studio hours to invite fans into your procedure.
- Run a popular-up shop (partner with other artists to reduce costs).
- "Lend" or consign work for décor to emerging retail businesses like cafés in commutation for the exposure.
Before Ken opened his permanent gallery, he dabbled in pop-ups equally a means to build his reputation as a gallerist and validate the business organisation idea, but has never let get of the physical function of the business. For those selling original works, some chemical element of in-person experience is critical, says Ken. "It's very rare to detect a successful art gallery that functions entirely online."
However, advances in technology like 3D and AR for online stores and the acceleration in digital experiences brought on by the pandemic may marking large changes for the art world in the future. It's important to follow consumer trends while you learn how to sell your fine art and abound your business.
Tin can you work with galleries to sell your art?
Yeah, you can piece of work with galleries to sell your art on your behalf. If you're not interested in how to sell your artwork yourself and instead adopt having your fine art represented by a gallery—or even in addition to selling prints on your own site—at that place are a few dos and don'ts:
✅ Practise check out the gallery's social media accounts. "If you have more than followers than that gallery does or that gallery doesn't have a lot of followers, that may give you pause," says Ken. A gallery should be able to give you a wider exposure than you can get yourself.
❌ DON'T arroyo a gallery via social media. "You'd be amazed at how many people endeavor to submit to u.s.a. via Facebook Messenger or tag usa in a mail service on Instagram and ask us to wait at their work," says Ken. "While social media is a major focus for us, that's just not a very professional way to come beyond if you're an creative person."
✅ DO your research and contact but those galleries who represent work in line with your own fashion. "You can't sell street art to somebody who collects impressionism," says Ken.
❌ DON'T sacrifice quality for quantity. "It'southward frustrating when an artist who's hoping to grab our attention tags united states and twenty other galleries all in the same post." Select the top few galleries that yous want to work with most and ship individual outreach to each.
✅ Exercise your homework. "Find the name of the director or the curator for the gallery," says Ken. "Being able to personalize an email is a nifty beginning step in that process."
How practice you marketplace your art store?
Many artists similar Maria started on social media as the best fashion to sell art online, growing a following first earlier launching a shop and monetizing their work. The channel where yous've gained the well-nigh traction in the beginning is a natural place to spend your energy and marketing dollars first.
🎨 More ideas to get traffic to your site—and make sales:
- Run paid advertizing campaigns on platforms similar Google or Facebook.
- Invest in organic social past producing consequent content and engaging with fans and art communities frequently.
- Run contests or offer exclusive discounts to social followers (bonus: use these to help build your email listing).
- Achieve out to influencers and press when yous launch your site or a new collection. As yous scale, you may opt to outsource to a PR firm.
- Utilize content marketing to bulldoze organic traffic. Use your expertise to create content around fine art, how-tos, behind the scenes, etc., either through a blog, vlog, or podcast.
- Learn about SEO to assistance improve your store'due south discoverability.
- Drive exposure with offline marketing. Participate in art shows and markets or piece of work with a gallery to expand your accomplish to new, larger audiences.
📚 Read more:
- Increase Website Traffic: 20 Low-Cost Ideas
- SEO Checklist: How to Rank a New Website
- Authenticity Sells: A Beginner'due south Guide to Marketing on TikTok
- Press Kits: How to Create A Hype Media Kit
How exercise y'all package and ship art?
Every bit art is visual, you should pay attention to the smallest details, down to how your art is packaged and shipped. Art that arrives undamaged is the bare minimum—give your customers an feel that matches the quality and care you put into your work. As art can be fragile, follow these guidelines for ensuring your piece of work arrives safety and sound.
DIY shipping fine art
If you lot are aircraft original art, or elect to ship prints and canvases yourself, rather than through a print and fulfillment company, take extra precaution with your packing. Larger prints and posters are all-time shipped in paper-thin mailing tubes, and smaller prints in rigid cardboard mailing envelopes. Use glassine (a water and grease-resistant paper) or clear cellophane sleeves to protect prints within the packaging. Remember: the all-time way to sell your art online is to make sure it arrives in mint condition as a bare minimum.
Shipping expensive and oversized original artwork
Framed works and canvases require additional precautions—they're certainly non the "easiest" fashion to sell art online in terms of shipping. Packaging supply shops offering packing and shipping materials like cardboard corners and specialty box sizes designed specifically for art.
If you lot're shipping original piece of work to a gallery or fine art collector, there are ways to cut costs. "The price to ship an oversized painting that'south stretched on a canvas tin can be pretty substantial," says Ken. "Sometimes what we do is unstretch a canvas, roll it in a tube, and ship information technology that way, which dramatically lowers the freight costs. Then nosotros tin can accept the canvas stretched locally."
Shipping art straight with print on demand
The easiest way to manage shipping is to not manage it at all. If you opt to sell prints or merch only, your printing, order fulfillment, and shipping can all be managed past your print-on-demand partner. They are able to admission great aircraft rates due to volume and partnerships with carriers.
Aircraft insurance for fine art
Insurance is of import when aircraft original works, as a lost or damaged package tin can't be replaced. Many standard carriers offering fairly basic insurance on most packages, and if y'all sell your art you should look into the specific extra coverage costs and limitations of each carrier'south insurance offerings.
If you're selling your ain artwork at high cost points, Ken takes additional measures to ensure the safety of the work. "Aircraft annihilation worth more than than a thousand dollars is definitely tricky," he says, and suggests that artists expect into using a individual freight visitor or a carrier that specializes in art handling, despite the higher costs.
📚 Read more:
- Shipping & Fulfillment 101: A Step-By-Step Guide for Getting Your Products to Your Customers
Plagiarism issues and copyright protection when selling fine art
Artist Tuesday Bassen waged war on copycats—large concatenation stores who ripped off her original designs—by hiring a lawyer and taking her story to the media. However, both Maria and Ken say copycats and plagiarism are but an unfortunate reality of doing business. Maria took legal action only once, before shifting her perspective. "At the end of the day, it took me my whole life to learn how to do this," she says. "If somebody is copying me, they're going to accept to sit down downward and eventually larn for themselves, because sooner or later they're going to run out of ideas."
It's a sign that I'grand inspiring others and that what I'm doing is right because they wouldn't copy me otherwise.
Maria Qamar, Hatecopy
Maria takes Hatecopy'southward copycats as an indication that she'southward on to something."It'southward a sign that I'grand inspiring others and that what I'm doing is right because they wouldn't copy me otherwise," she says, "I'yard not offended or bothered by it anymore."
For galleries that correspond multiple artists and sell art online, copycat websites are a consistent problem. "We do have an upshot with various online sites merely bootlegging what we do," says Ken. "It's part of the way the earth works, unfortunately. We do our best, only information technology happens."
While copycats may exist a reality, artists and businesses have legal recourse and should seek the advice of a copyright lawyer to help protect intellectual belongings before infringement happens.
The artist as an entrepreneur
For many entrepreneurs, the best way to sell art online is from whatever space you already have—not some expansive warehouse or inviting storefront. Cat started her art business from a spare bedchamber. Whether it's a basement or a kitchen table or a guest room, it can work as your launching pad. In this stage of your business, y'all'll wear all the hats: creator, marketer, packer, shipper, spider web designer, and customer service rep.
Cat describes this time in her ain journey as lean and humbling. "It gave me balls of knowing every aspect of my business within and out," she says, "including its strengths and weaknesses."
You could know everything near business concern and yous could know everything about art, but it's the combination of both that really makes a successful brand.
Maria Qamar, Hatecopy
Thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur right from the beginning will be crucial to your success. You may stumble every bit a creative to learn the business aspects, but they will ultimately help you grow and scale. Eventually, you can delegate and automate, assuasive y'all to focus on what you do best: making beautiful things.
"You lot could know everything about business organization and y'all could know everything about art, but it's the combination of both that really makes a successful make," says Maria. "I am obsessed with creating that harmony."
Feature illustration by Pete Ryan
Selling art online FAQ
What is the best mode to sell art online?
The all-time mode to sell art online is by building your own branded ecommerce site with a platform like Shopify. Yous tin can too sell your work on a crafts and fine art market like Etsy or on social media platforms similar Instagram and Facebook Shops. Empathize where your target customers similar to store to find out the best place to sell your art online.
Is selling art online profitable?
Yeah, selling art online can be profitable if you lot're intentional about your pricing and marketing strategies. Selling art online has become more accessible with platforms like Etsy and Facebook, which enable ecommerce. Annotation: When you sell on your own online store built with a platform like Shopify, you lot don't have to pay marketplace fees.
How can I sell my original art online?
Selling original art online is still possible through your own branded website. Price indicate for original art will be much higher, so information technology'south of import that you build a strong, loyal audition for your work. Diversifying your sales channels, like also working with a gallery, volition help you lot broaden your exposure every bit an artist.
What art sells the most?
This is a catchy question because fine art is very wide and subjective. Selling prints of your work can exist very profitable because you tin can go on to generate income from a single piece. Lower price points (versus original fine art) mean you likely tin sell more volume. Curators should follow trends in art and design to assistance understand what art collectors and potential customers are buying, so work with artists that have high success potential. Equally a creator, you should lean into the style that you do all-time and build a following from there.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/211990409-how-to-sell-art-online
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