How to sell your art online?
The struggles of selling art online
Before the existence of the internet, artists were very limited in their ways to sell their art. However, even with the internet it can be hard as an artist to sell your beautiful art pieces. Some artists sell their art on their own website, but it can be difficult to get people to your website. Moreover, managing your online business might distract you from actually making art. For example, this requires you to deal with marketing, customer service, handling returns, etc.. You should constantly balance these tasks, which can often be a hassle. Next to this, it is very difficult to differentiate yourself from other artists, as there are many competitors. Lastly, even if you have a perfect designed website and customers that visit your store it’s still difficult to get them to buy something. The main reason for this is that they can only judge your art from images, which is completely different from seeing art in real life. However, don’t be discouraged by all these ‘struggles’, as this article will help you with these struggles so that you can focus more on the things you like (making art) and less on the things you don’t like (managing the sales of art).
How to differentiate yourself from other artists
The most important thing to know is how you should sell your art to stand out. To save you some time we made a list of 5 ways in which you can differentiate yourself from your competitors:
Add your story
Start with the ‘why’, tell your story of why you’ve become an artist and what inspired you to make that piece of art. Everyone loves a background story, as it is a way to connect with the artist and it gives them an idea that you’re not doing it for the money. It makes you more like a person to them instead of an anonymous seller on the internet. Also, it differentiate yourself from others, as your story is unique and you can use this as a brand of your art. Furthermore, it is a good way to motivate yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. Another advantage, is that you will get loyal customers who not only like your art or style, but also identify with you as a person. This can give you lifelong loyal customers. Ways in which you can spread your ‘why’ story, is through blog writing or social media.
Augmented Reality
Use Augmented Reality to optimize the visualization of your art. It’s very difficult to create a high quality photo that really captures your art. With Augmented Reality the customer can see your art in 3D in their own room. You may ask yourself “What is Augmented Reality?’’ Augmented reality (AR) is a new technology that uses images, texts or videos and puts these virtual objects in the user’s real-life environment.
For example, with an AR model of your painting your customer can see it from up close and from the side. They can put it on their wall and see whether the colors match their wallpaper. Another example, if you sell a statue people can see whether it fits in their room and they can see the real shape of it as it is a 3D model. Don’t be scared about the technology of this, there are a lot of companies that make AR models. The only thing that you have to do is upload your pictures and they will do the rest.
Stay connected through social media
Stay connected with your customers, by giving them updates on current projects or about nice sales you’ve made. It’s important to keep your social media accounts alive. If your customers haven’t seen any post, they might forget about you and move to your competitors. Moreover, it is a nice way to get new followers and even interested sellers that are interested in seeing more of your art. Furthermore, interact with them and like/ react on their comments or posts. Also, follow other artists to stay up to date with the latest trends. One social media channel that’s especially useful is Pinterest, as a lot of creative people use this.
Engage local customers
Get more customer awareness of local customers. Some ways of doing this is by showing your art in art galleries, art markets or events, pop-up stores, or open your own studio. It is a good idea to sell your art through multiple channels instead of only on the internet. Moreover, it’s a good idea to use your own network to spread awareness in your own local area. Another idea is to hold workshops or other events for other creative people. This is nice if you like to teach people something. The main advantage is that you spread awareness among your target group, with a possibility to sell some of your work after the workshop. With COVID-19, this has become somewhat more difficult, but luckily there are always online possibilities, e.g. online art galleries, online events/ workshops, etc.
Create a unique buying experience
Create a unique buying experience to attract new customers. Be creative on this one, as there are many options and experimenting is key. Some example are to offer one free/ discounted painting in exchange for a new customer; use AR models; make something that’s so crazy that it might go viral; write newsletters (to stay connected with your current customers); send thank you notes with your art when customers buy something; create a nice designed box or something else for your brand in which you can send your art; educate people on your website about art etc.
Ways to sell your art online
Now that you know how to sell your art, it’s also important to know where you can sell your art. Luckily you don’t have to build and manage your own website to be able to sell your art online. There are multiple online selling platforms that you can use for this. In this paragraph we will discuss three websites for you, based on an interesting blog from Deanna deBara (see for the full article the link down below).
Etsy has become a popular online store for both artists to sell their art, and consumers who love handmade products. It is known to sell handmade, vintage, on-trend clothes, unique jewelry, and more. The only disadvantages of this shop is that it is difficult to stand out, as a lot of competitors are on this platform. However, it is an easy way to sell your art, as it only requires you to make an Etsy shop account, list your products (with photos), and market them. Don’t worry about the marketing part, Etsy has some nice tools that can help you with this. So, what is the price you have to pay for this service? Whenever you sell something on Etsy, you pay a 5% transaction fee and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. Besides this you have to pay some advertising fees.
Another big online art marketplace is FineArtAmerica. This website both offers traditional art that is sold in art galleries and print-on art, that is currently very popular. This is useful for both artists that want to sell their own art, and artists that want to give people the opportunity to use their art on their phone cases, cards or T-shirts. Also for this website it’s easy to sell your art. You just have to make an account, upload photos for each art product, and set prices. FineArtAmerica has a base price for each product, after that you have to set a markup (how much you get when a product sells). If you sell an original piece or digital downloads you can keep 100% of your asking price. Only for digital downloads FineArtAmerica adds a 30% markup, that they keep as commission.
If you don’t want to sell on a website of someone else and you’re up for the challenge to create your own website, then Shopify might be something for you. It is a big e-commerce platform that is used by more than 500.000 businesses across the world. On their platform you can easily create a website of your own, e.g. they provide you with nice website templates and apps that help you create your own website fast and easy. One advantage of this, is that you can personalize your website, and there are less competitors than on sites that only sell art. Shopify offers different pricing plans, such as the basic plan ($29); the Shopify plan ($74); and the advanced plan ($299). One last advantage that’s worth mentioning, you don’t have to pay any transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments!
We hope that our blog has helped you with the ‘where’ and ‘how’, the only thing that stops you from selling your art online is the ‘what’. In other words, your art. So start doing what you love, as you don’t have to worry about the struggles of selling online any longer.
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