For decades, artists had been selling art the traditional way, which involves selling through physical art galleries, getting licensors or publishers to represent them, and exhibiting at their local art fairs. In the last few years, there has been a monumental shift away from these traditional methods.
The number of art galleries that are closing down is increasing with each passing day as publishers experience steep drops in revenue. On the contrary, the online market has been exploding. According to Hiscox, sales in the online art market reached $4.22 billion in 2017, up from $3.75 billion the year before.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial for artists to have online art galleries. Read on to learn everything about successfully running your own online art gallery.
A Dedicated Website
It’s possible to set up shop on other well-established online galleries like Fine Art America and Etsy. However, such sites can place limitations on the content artists upload and how much they can earn from sales. It’s best for artists to establish their own online locations where they fully run the show. In other words, they need to have their own websites that are entirely dedicated to their art. If you do choose this route, remember that it is not only consumers who need to pay attention to Web Safety Advice, it is also the website owners who are also at risk. To boost the visibility of that website, you should consider learning from Ram Internet Marketing Company many who have worked with them have seen merit in their work and expertise so I hear.
An important part of having an online art gallery is choosing a suitable domain name. A great name gives the gallery a unique identity and helps the fans of an artist’s work easily locate him or her. The domain name should be brief to make it easy to remember. It’s also a good idea to include the artist’s name in it, for example, www.yournamepaintings.com, or www.yournameart.com. You should plan the customer flow as well, as this will be the key for clients finding what type or piece of art they’re after.
High Image Quality
An online art gallery is only going to be as effective as the quality of the pictures used on the store. Bad images of art won’t represent an artist’s work accurately. As a result, the artist will have a hard time trying to sell the work. Because customers can’t feel a product when visiting an online art gallery, the only way an artist can ensure they get the best sense of the product they’re buying is through posting clear, detailed images. You could include a 3d viewer on your website so that buyers can get a more in-depth image of your artwork and they can see if from a different dimension, making it as if they were seeing it in real life. This could be a good way of encouraging sales.
Photographing art is usually more challenging than capturing other products. Even a basic light setup can result in color irregularities or glare. An artist should at least invest in an excellent digital camera with 10 or more megapixels. It’s highly advisable to hire a professional photographer to shoot larger artwork or art with 3D elements. Scanning can also be considered as an effective and affordable alternative to photographing 2D works.
In-Depth Descriptions
Clients love stories. As a matter of fact, 79 percent of them want to have more background information about an object of interest or artist. That implies artists should take the time to create detailed descriptions of their artwork. Through descriptions, artists can introduce themselves as well as their brand.
Here’s some of the information about the artwork that an artist should consider giving:
- Materials used to make the artwork, for example, plaster or acrylic paint, and the canvas type
- Dimensions like centimeters and inches, to help customers figure out if the artwork will fit in the area they’re planning to display it
- Price of the work
- Shipping and courier options
- Packaging details, such as, if the artist bubble wraps his or her works or if it’s possible for a client to get the artwork rolled and stretched.
Such information optimizes an online gallery for user experience by providing the customer with the details they need to be confident of their purchase decision. It answers a customer’s questions even before he or she asks them.
An online art gallery should also be personable by giving clients an opportunity to know the person behind the artwork. Some of the information an artist can provide to achieve this include:
- how they got started
- what inspires them
- the reason behind the special materials or techniques they used to create a particular piece of art
- what a particular piece means to you personally as an artist
- how the piece relates to your whole art collection
Payment Method
No artist wants people just to visit their art gallery to look at their work and admire it. It’s therefore essential for the artists to make their work easy to purchase and pay for by setting up a payment method. That can be achieved by accepting debit or credit cards or signing up with payment services like PayPal and Square. The more the payment methods that people can use for an artist’s work, the more the art that the artist will sell.
Promote Your Online Art Store
After launching an online art gallery, the most important task an artist will have to do besides updating the site with new products is marketing to attract people and facilitate sales. Without new visitors, there’s no way an art gallery can generate sales.
The most effective way an online art gallery can build and maintain traffic is through internet marketing so why not reach out to field experts called Webs Union. The good thing about this form of marketing is that it gives an artist a limitless number of clients to reach with his or her product offerings, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. What’s more, online marketing strategies allow artists to narrow down their campaigns to their target market. That implies the artists are able to make their art seen online by the people who are a good fit for their artwork.
Establishing a successful online art gallery takes time, so be patient, follow the tips above, and take advantage of internet marketing tools to innovatively attract site traffic, generate sales, and build a steady business.
great tips!
Thank you
Hi Adam, I’m Jeff. Just finished reading your article. It struck, after years of making art, I would like to sell some to make some money. (you can see my current gallery at: http://boverman.com/boverman-design_online/digital_art.html)
So, I am going to put together an online gallery for myself and see if I can generate some extra money (my wife thinks I am crazy, ha ha).
The first thing I noticed when I starting planning was that people put their art on walls in pretend apartments, houses, etc. I was really taken by the way you hang hang a picture in a room. All of a sudden I got it. If people see the stuff in an environment they might be more inclined to purchase a file, print or framed picture.
I hope you take a second and look at my current display of art, non-categorized, paid to make for a job or done because I can’t stop making pictures.
Thanks for your article, and please feel free to contact me if you want.
jeff