Selling art online is hard.
Selling art online is hard.
This is why you, and your artist friends are all struggling to get some real sales going.
Unfortunately, the way that artists are trying to sell art online is designed to fail.
Because in order to sell art online, you need an eStore that is designed to sell art and nothing else.
This is really important, so let us explain.
Before we do… What size is the online art market anyway?
London-listed Hiscox estimated the value of global online art sales at $1.57 billion in 2013 and will reach $3.76 billion in 2018
Not only is the market HUGE, but online sales are reshaping the art business.
According to the BBC, more art is now sold online than in galleries.
Further from insurers Hiscox, about 90% of galleries regularly sell art to clients on the basis of a digital image only.
The stereotype of younger people being more tech-savvy is, according to Hiscox, simply not true. Most art buyers aged over 65 had bought art directly online.
What if you only offer original art? Or limited editions?
Are those selling online too?
You better believe it.
UGallery.com is one example of a website completely dedicated to selling original art.
They’ve had year-to-year growth averaging over 62% since 2008 and have sold art in over 35 countries.
In 2013 and 2014, their sales hit a record 80%+ growth.
Tapping into high net-worth individuals in international markets has fueled additional growth.
In 2014, they saw 210% growth in international sales.
The largest overseas gains occurred in Europe at 800%.
UGallery.com’s President, Stephen Tanenbaum, attributes their incredible growth to:
“the overall shift of people moving to buy online, specifically the art market which was traditionally dependent on brick-and-mortar galleries.”
Other companies like Saatchi Art, who sell both Originals and Limited Editions, have been experiencing similar growth and success.
A simple Google search for “buy original art” reveals an increasingly-crowded field of companies moving quickly to capture market share in this space.
Clearly the online art market is both large, growing, and an opportunity for all artists to capitalize on.
Which takes us back to why you need an eStore that is actually designed to sell art and nothing else.
A pretty portfolio site doesn’t work.
Don’t take our word for it. Ask the tens of thousands of artists who have these sites right now and sell next to nothing.
Neither does a generic, one-size-fits-all eCommerce store.
Industry leaders like Art.com, Ugallery, and Saatchi Art figured this out years ago.
Since then their online art sales have exploded. Art.com’s revenues, for example, are estimated to be $200 million/year.
How did they do it?
They studied the data.
They interviewed customers.
They discovered issues that were preventing
people from buying and they fixed them.
One issue was a lack of options.
Like when a buyer needed a larger size to hang in a conference room; but larger sizes weren’t available for the image they wanted…
…or when a shopper wanted a print on metal, but only canvas and paper were being offered…
…or when a shopper was on a mobile phone, and couldn’t complete the purchase…
…or perhaps they wanted something cheaper, or in a frame, or just a print rolled in a tube.
So, they figured out that if you give the customer a wider range of options – media types, finishing options, and the ability to buy art on any device –
you prevent people from leaving and you make more sales.
Merchandising was also a major issue.
Buying art is a highly visual process. Holds true both online and off.
Some buyers couldn’t fully grasp what the art would look like on canvas, fine art paper, or metal
…so they just didn’t buy.
3d Previews were created to fix this.
Gallery wraps, print texture, and framing options all became visual.
It didn’t stop there.
Other buyers weren’t sure if the size they wanted would fit proportionally above their couch, or with the wall color in their living room.
Visual Wall Previews were created to solve this.
They made it easy, fun, and rewarding to buy art online.
And sales exploded.
As in any successful market, a handful of competitors started taking notice.
They spent millions writing custom software to provide this interactive buying experience that was so instrumental. Their sales took off too.
All together, these companies now hold a huge percentage of market share, and it’s growing every day.
Meanwhile…individual artists are finding it harder and harder to make sales.
They’ve brought sticks and stones to a gunfight.
It’s affecting their sales both online and offline.
Until now.
Art Storefronts is an Enterprise Class Ecommerce platform designed from the ground up for artists.
Wait…waaa?
We start by giving you a beautiful website to display your work.
Then we add in state of the art ecommerce technology that will have you not just playing with the big boys, but beating them.
We follow that up with a suite of tools that will help you both acquire and retain customers.
All of which we are excited to show you on your demo.
But we don’t stop there.
Everyday our team comes to work focused on one thing.
Getting better at selling art.
We call it ConversionScience™.
It’s more than just a name; it’s our mission & commitment.
Every day, we study the competition. We are your eyes and ears on the ground.
We analyze the thousands of sales across our platform each month and we get more ideas.
We also call, email, and poll our community of artists. We find out what’s working, what’s not, and we get ideas.
We take these ideas and we run tests.
The losing ideas get dropped, the winners, they get implemented immediately.
Which means every day, you get better without lifting a finger.
Our commitment to you is that we WILL NOT STOP testing and improving.
So before we go…we have one final request…
In order to provide you with the best demonstration we can…
We have just a few questions…
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