Is It Legal to Sell Art Made Through Apps
When I graduated from art schoolhouse, I had mastered color theory and brush techniques and composition—but didn't know the first affair about business. How tin can I sell art and paintings online? How would I marketplace myself? What steps did I need to take to sell my fine art? How should I cost my piece of work, and what would I charge for shipping? At the fourth dimension, the creator tools and channels to amplify and sell your own art online were practically nonexistent.
In my very start week as a working artist, I learned a hard lesson: to succeed in fine art, you must besides succeed in business concern.
For gallerists and curators, the shift in how we buy and sell in the last two decades has immune these businesses to represent more artists and expand into selling affordable art prints online to reach larger audiences worldwide.
How to sell art online
Whether you'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 y'all. Nosotros consulted experts and successful artists for their advice on everything yous demand to know to sell your fine art, from marketing to pricing to shipping. You can also utilise this guide to larn how to sell your photos online equally art.
Come across the art experts
We reached out to experts in the art world—two artists and a gallerist—actively making their living past selling art online and asked, "how do you sell art online?" among other things. In this guide to selling your ain artwork, their anecdotes will be woven into applied and actionable communication for any creative entrepreneur.
Cat Seto, owner 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 Westward Declension 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 contempo hate crimes targeting the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community accept influenced her demand for change. "I have decided that I am at a fourth dimension and place in my business concern in which my collections need to represent themes which matter to me and those effectually me," she says.
Maria Qamar, artist, Hatecopy
Accept annotation of our adjacent expert peculiarly if you desire to know the all-time manner to sell paintings online. Most famously known by her artist moniker, Hatecopy, Maria Qamar quit her advertising career to focus on art when her pop art paintings began to grab burn on Instagram. The success didn't happen overnight. "I did contract piece of work here and there," says Maria. "When you're starting out, you're earning nothing dollars." Her total-time job, nonetheless, taught her business skills that were disquisitional to selling her own artwork, getting off the ground, and marketing herself every bit an creative person. Now she works full time on her art, selling her own artwork in multiple formats, from art prints to printed merch. She too published a book, 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 visitor Paragon Books. Together, these businesses represent many global artists through concrete galleries, online shops, and pop-upwards exhibitions. Dissimilar Maria, Ken didn't take a chance to transition slowly at the outset. When he was unable to secure a temporary pop-upwards location for a curated show, he signed a two-twelvemonth lease on a space. "I really didn't accept any other options," he says. "I just pulled the trigger."
What's correct for y'all: selling your own art or selling works past 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 work and representing the work of others in her boutique. Which one is right for you? Allow'south explore the two avenues in this guide to how to sell artwork online.
As an artist, you lot are the creator, producing original fine art and/or reproductions of originals and selling direct to your customers or indirectly through a gallery, retail partner, or agent. It'due south never been easier for artists to sell directly, with emerging creator tools popping up seemingly every mean solar day. Depending on your style and medium, choose a sales channel where your desired audience hangs out. This is arguably the easiest way to sell fine art online for many.
Maria runs her own online store, where she sells prints and trade, eliminating the middleman and keeping her costs low. Simply she also leans on relationships with experienced galleries for exhibiting and selling ain artwork. If y'all're learning how to sell your art, annotation that galleries can expose your work to new audiences. They may also have access to resources and professionals to help promote, showroom, handle, and send artwork.
Curate
If yous're not personally an creative person simply you have a great eye and a love of the art world, y'all can still get into the game of selling art as a curator. Some artists may be disinterested in marketing or figuring out the all-time mode to sell art online and instead rely on gallerists, curators, and retail partners to handle this aspect of the business concern. As a partner to artists, you make a percentage of the selling cost in commutation for your business organization knowledge and service.
At that place are several ways to work with artists to figure out the best fashion to sell fine art online for you—be it selling originals or prints to licensing works to be printed on merchandise or used in publication. "Well-nigh galleries offer an industry standard fifty% consignment split for original art," says Ken. "The creative person provides the artwork, we exercise our best to sell it." Spoke also operates its ain print store, selling limited-run prints of works by the artists it represents—offering a broad range of toll points for their fans.
What fine art to sell: originals or reproductions?
As an artist, you may choose to sell your art, reproductions of that work, or both. The all-time fashion to sell fine art online will depend on the nature of your art and your chosen medium. Fine artists using classic mediums and selling at high toll points may choose to only sell originals, for example, while digital art, which tin can exist reproduced without loss of quality, is great for prints and merch. However, near art created in 2d mediums have multiple options for generating unlimited sales on a single work.
🎨 Consider the following options when determining the all-time way to sell your fine art online:
- Original art such as paintings, drawings, illustrations (Note: y'all can sell both the original art too as prints of the same piece of work.)
- Limited- or open-edition prints (framed, unframed, or prints on canvas)
- Digital downloads (desktop wallpaper, templates, print-at-home art, etc.)
- Custom fine art made to guild from a client asking or commissioned by a business (Notation: Generally, this fine art would be i of a kind and not sold again every bit a reproduction.)
- Merchandise (your art printed on hats, mugs, t-shirts, enamel pins, greeting cards, stationery, etc.)
- Echo prints on fabric, wrapping paper, or wallpaper
- Licensing work to other brands or publications (bully for illustrators and photographers)
- Collaborations with brands (limited collection sold through the partner make'southward shop)
Some mediums, similar sculpture, are more difficult to reproduce or use for merchandise applications—you may consider a different route if you're interested in the easiest way to sell art online. Simply for those impossible to browse and print, there are yet ways to generate boosted income from a single blueprint. For case, dirt works may utilise 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 fine art on t-shirts, mugs, or art prints means that a single piece of work can bear fruit indefinitely. If yous're looking for how to sell artwork similar paintings as prints, at that place are pros and cons. You lot can choose to sell an unlimited number of products (otherwise known equally open edition). However, some galleries, like Spoke, opt for a express edition model when you sell your art (there are only a sure number of prints produced) on many of the works they represent.
The outcome is much similar that of a limited time offer—creating a sense of scarcity and urgency is an excellent marketing strategy. For Ken, withal, the decision to limit impress runs goes deeper. "We piece of work really hard to find things that are very special to sell. Things that are special should be treated like they're special," he says. While Spoke may be able to brand more coin selling prints as an open edition, the choice to limit them adds to the value of the art.
Limited edition has its drawbacks, however. "A lot of the things that nosotros sell have secondary market place values," says Ken, meaning that limited edition pieces may sell for inflated prices on the resale market (call back limited-edition sneakers) considering the demand is high. To help minimize reselling, Spoke volition limit quantities of sure prints per customer. It's too built a blacklist of known resellers. "Making sure that the real fans are actually the ones who are able to go the things that nosotros sell is always a priority," Ken says.
How practice you lot impress art and choose printers?
Understanding how to sell your artwork comes down to getting very friendly with a printer, whether that'southward your calm inkjet or a visitor that handles the task for you. In that location are multiple options, from DIY to completely hands off, to help you sell art prints and other merch to your audience.
DIY press
It's possible to start selling your own artwork by creating quality prints yourself with the high-quality paper, ink, and home function printer. As a new creative person, this method can continue costs depression, merely it's not the manner to go if you want to know how to sell your art sustainably so you can scale over time. "In the beginning, I would print, packet, and deliver past hand every unmarried affiche that was ordered," says Maria. "At some point the volume became and then much that I couldn't brand fourth dimension to describe. I was spending all of my days delivering and in transit." This method is unremarkably limited to selling fine art prints on paper, but some specialty printers may allow y'all to print on canvass paper or cloth designed specifically for this purpose.
Using a press company
A local or online printing company can reproduce your piece of work en masse and can fifty-fifty offer bulk discounts if yous are printing many of the same piece. This can be the best fashion to sell art online if you have a small-scale catalog of just a few works that you sell consistently and have a budget to purchase inventory upfront. With this method of how to sell artwork online, you will still be responsible for your own packaging and shipping.
It's important that we are the last sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and shipping the product to our customers.
Cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
While a print-on-demand model for custom clients and orders is the all-time mode to sell your fine art online for Cat, she often prints big batches for collection releases. In either case, the prints go far at her studio first, rather than aircraft directly to the customer. "It'south important that we are the final sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and aircraft the product to our customers," she says.
Print on demand
Print on need is the virtually hands-off and versatile of options and mayhap the easiest way to sell fine art online, especially if you plan to sell your piece of work printed on merch like t-shirts or caps. Impress-on-demand companies generally integrate with your online store and allow you to upload your designs, which are then printed and shipped directly to each customer when you receive an guild. This is a great selection if y'all desire to know how to sell artwork on a budget, every bit there is petty upfront investment with no demand to purchase equipment or inventory.
When the number of orders exceeded her capacity to impress and ship work herself, Maria upgraded to using a print-on-need visitor. "All I take to do is upload and let it practice the work for me," she says. "Now I can focus on actually creating the artwork and connecting with people."
💡 Tip: Earlier you start selling your own artwork this manner, asking samples from the printer so you tin audit the colors and quality of the impress. This is especially important if printed items volition be sent directly to your customers.
How do you lot photograph and scan art?
Photographing and representing your products clearly and accurately is of import for whatsoever online business concern. Without the ability to feel a product, customers need to go the best sense of what they're buying through articulate and detailed images. Selling art online is no exception.
"If you take a bad paradigm of your work or the paradigm doesn't correspond the piece of work accurately, you lot're going to have a harder time selling it," says Ken. Or, you'll exist stuck dealing with unhappy customers and processing returns.
Product photography when yous sell your art is a picayune trickier than other products, and a basic light setup may still cause glare or color irregularities. Consider hiring a professional person to shoot larger works or art with any three-dimensional or glossy elements.
If you take a bad image of your piece of work or the epitome doesn't correspond the work accurately, you're going to accept a harder fourth dimension selling it.
Ken Harman, Spoke Art
For 2D works, withal, Ken recommends scanning as an affordable and effective alternative to photography. Though his facility has a photography setup for shooting art, many artists submit their works to Spoke as scans because they need the digital file for their own archives anyhow. "The most cost effective way to do that is to get a desktop scanner and scan the piece of work in parts and stitch information technology together digitally," he says. "If yous've got a piece with a high-gloss coating or a resin, that'south a lilliputian tricker, simply for the majority of works on canvas or paper, it's pretty easy."
If you're selling merch or other products that feature your fine art, the general rules of product photography utilise. Take clear shots from multiple angles also equally zoomed-in shots to show texture and particular. Lifestyle photos (your product in a scene) are great for your habitation page and social media and aid to show calibration. Print-on-demand companies often provide mockup images you can employ on your production pages in lieu of or in addition to photography.
📚 Read more:
- Product Photography: DIY Guide for People on a Budget
How do yous build your brand as an artist or fine art curator?
As an artist learning how to sell your artwork, your brand may evolve every bit a natural extension of your art. Your chosen mode and medium will define you as an artist and you will naturally attract fans and buyers based on this solitary. Still, there are many decisions you will need to consciously make when you first to think of yourself equally a business concern besides as an artist.
Considering art is a personal and sometimes emotional buy, your story as an artist could be a factor in someone's determination to purchase. And other concern assets like packaging and site design should mirror or complement the visual aesthetic of the work itself.
🎨 Ask yourself the following if you're interested in selling your own artwork:
- Exercise you create and sell art under your own name, a pseudonym, or a brand proper noun?
- What'due south your make story? How much of your personal story will you tell?
- Do y'all have a mission, values, or a cause that you want to communicate through your brand?
- Exterior of the art itself, what is the visual direction of the make? What'due south the tone of your communication?
- What branding assets exercise you need? Even without graphic design skills, you can generate a logo with free tools.
The respond to these questions volition help yous build a gear up of brand guidelines that will dictate many of your decisions going forward: branding, website design, marketing materials, etc. If you eventually calibration your business organisation, these guidelines will help you maintain brand consistency every bit you delegate tasks to staff or other partners.
In collaborating, I think information technology'south important to not only stay true to your brand, only to be able to mind and be proactive to whomever you lot are collaborating with.
Cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
For Cat, the causes closest to her heart are central to her brand. While she is currently refocusing to work on themes that support the AAPI community, this isn't the first time she's made a argument with her piece of work. Ferme à Papier launched a Saving Faces collection highlighting the stories of women and underrepresented groups.
True cat'southward make values influence the types of projects she takes on with brands and clients. "In collaborating, I recollect it's important to not only stay true to your make," she says, "but to exist able to listen and be proactive to whomever you lot are collaborating with."
📚 Read more:
- How to Starting time Your Own Make From Scratch in seven Steps
- A Guide to Make Storytelling [Gratis Worksheet]
How practise you set prices for your art?
How exercise you sell art online—and make coin doing information technology? Making a living equally a working creative person is possible if you know how to value and cost your work. Pricing art is challenging considering it doesn't necessarily fit neatly into typical pricing strategies.
Pricing original art
The all-time way to sell art online and in person is to be profitable—and you lot have to price your art appropriately. If you're but starting time to experiment with how to sell your art and don't have a widely known name in the art world, you can start with a simple formula to price your original art: your time and labour costs + material costs and other expenses + your markup (turn a profit). For this method, you will need to assign yourself an hourly wage. Information technology is typical for artists to undervalue their time and work, especially at the beginning.
Knowing what your products represent and what you aren't willing to compromise are central components in driving decisions about pricing.
True cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
Where the formula higher up fails is that the value of fine art is subjective and not necessarily dependent on physical details like textile price or labour hours. Famous artists can fetch exponentially more for a piece that has roughly the same creation costs as that of a new creative person. Check the market to compare your pricing to similar artists at similar levels and adjust accordingly.
Remember that if you are selling through a gallery, that business concern will commonly take half of the terminal selling price. You tin can ordinarily piece of work with gallerists, who are experts at valuing and pricing art, to prepare a toll that makes sense for you, the gallery, and the market place.
Pricing art prints
Selling art prints or other types of reproduction tin follow a more uncomplicated pricing formula: the cost of printing + your price to sell and market place the print + your markup. Your markup may be on a scale depending on whether you sell open up- or limited-edition prints.
"Knowing what your products stand for and what you aren't willing to compromise are key components in driving decisions about pricing," says True cat. For her, printing on sustainable paper was a must-accept, fifty-fifty though it would drive upwards material costs and ultimately the retail price. Communicating these decisions to the customer is important, especially if your prices are higher than average.
📚 Read more:
- How to Toll Your Product: What You Demand to Know About Pricing Earlier You Launch
- The Price Is Right: 13 Strategies for Finding the Platonic Price for Your Products
- Production Pricing: 5 Steps to Gear up Prices For Wholesale and Retail
How exercise y'all sell fine art online with your own ecommerce store?
The best mode to sell your art online is through your own ecommerce shop. Commencement, take a few minutes to create your store. At this point, you can set information technology up as a trial and tinker with information technology for ii weeks before 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 only associates.
Get started selling art online and try Shopify complimentary for 14 days
Store pattern and themes
When setting up your online art store, choose a Shopify theme that lets your art exhale–big images and lots of white/negative space. Themes are like templates that you build upon, layering in your own images and copy, and tweaking colors and layout to accommodate your business organisation.
🎨 Some of our theme picks for selling art online:
- Narrative (free) is a theme for storytellers, allowing your artist persona to alive front and heart.
- Editions ($) is an airy theme that gives bold artwork the breathing room it deserves.
- California ($$) is a clean theme that lets your art be the star. It's great for large collections.
- Highlight ($$) is a bold theme with slideshow and parallax scrolling features that are smashing for visual storytellers.
- Artisan ($$) is an ideal theme for artists who sell custom work and commissions.
Shopify is the easiest way to sell art online. Information technology'due south designed so anyone tin can set up a custom online store with no coding or pattern skills necessary. However, if you're interested in customizing your theme even further to suit your business, consider hiring a Shopify Expert to help you with pattern or development work.
📚 Read more:
- Best Ecommerce Website Designs: 27 Infrequent Sites
Apps for art stores
The Shopify App Store is packed with apps that plug directly into your online store to solve specific hurting points, add together unique features, and help you run your shop more than effortlessly—assuasive y'all to focus on the creative aspects of the business.
🎨 App suggestions to help sell your art online:
- Impress-on-need apps. If you sell your artwork via prints and merch, apps similar Creativehub, Printful, or Printify tin can sync with your store, taking the burden of shipping and fulfillment out of the equation.
- Gallery apps. An app similar POWR Image Gallery can characteristic by or out-of-stock works, serving as a portfolio or total itemize of your work for galleries or brands looking to partner with you.
- Social marketing apps. As a creator, you may lean toward visual social media platforms like Instagram to aid marketplace your products and build an audience. Keep site content fresh with an app like Instafeed that pulls Instagram images into a gallery on your site.
- Product folio apps. If you lot're offering a specific piece of artwork with overlapping options (size, frame or no frame, paper blazon, etc.), use an app like Bold Product Options to layer particular variants.
📚 Read more:
- The 27 Best Free Shopify Apps for Your Store
Where can you lot sell your art online?
What's the best place to sell art online? Aside from your own online store, it'south the place where your ideal customer is already hanging out. If yous have amassed a following on a item social channel, for example, that might be a great place to kickoff.
Where to sell your art online:
- Online marketplaces like Etsy or eBay can plug directly into your online shop, allowing you to sync sales and reach wider audiences.
- Social selling channels permit yous sell directly to fans who are already following you on their preferred platforms. Create customizable storefronts on Facebook and Instagram that integrate with your Shopify store.
- Wholesale to other online boutiques and galleries. You tin can browse wholesale markets like Handshake to find compatible retailers that want to sell your art.
Cat now sells her work through multiple channels, but she cautions to beginning slow if you're merely learning how to sell artwork. "Having multiple avenues came equally an evolution to what starting time began as a wholesale business organization," she says. While her retail channel is on pause for the moment, she now sells direct to client and works on custom projects for clients and brands in addition to her wholesale business organization. "If I had tried to residual all of these from the onset," she says. "I believe I would have been overwhelmed."
Gallery exhibitions, pop-ups, and offline events for selling fine art
How to sell your artwork isn't limited to online—y'all can sell via physical retail too. Because Maria works ofttimes in traditional mediums, much of the impact of the texture and scale of her work gets lost digitally. "It's actual physical work, and so when we do exhibits, you can walk into a gallery and see that I'm a existent person that has technical skills that can do paintings and large scale installations," she says. Artists tin likewise connect with fans and find new audiences by taking work offline. Y'all 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 showroom work.
- Look into local fine art markets and events, and prepare a ane-fourth dimension or semi-permanent berth.
- Consign or wholesale with art, souvenir, or lifestyle retail stores, or set a small pop-up inside an existing store.
- Open your studio to the public when you launch your website, or keep consistent weekly open-studio hours to invite fans into your procedure.
- Run a pop-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 popular-ups as a means to build his reputation as a gallerist and validate the concern idea, only has never let go of the physical part of the business. For those selling original works, some chemical element of in-person experience is critical, says Ken. "Information technology's very rare to find a successful fine art gallery that functions entirely online."
However, advances in technology similar 3D and AR for online stores and the dispatch in digital experiences brought on by the pandemic may mark big changes for the art globe in the future. Information technology's of import to follow consumer trends while you learn how to sell your art and abound your business organisation.
Can y'all work with galleries to sell your art?
Yes, you can work with galleries to sell your art on your behalf. If you're not interested in how to sell your artwork yourself and instead prefer having your fine art represented by a gallery—or even in addition to selling prints on your own site—there are a few dos and don'ts:
✅ DO cheque out the gallery's social media accounts. "If you lot have more followers than that gallery does or that gallery doesn't have a lot of followers, that may requite you pause," says Ken. A gallery should be able to give you a wider exposure than you can get yourself.
❌ DON'T approach a gallery via social media. "You'd be amazed at how many people endeavour to submit to usa via Facebook Messenger or tag us in a postal service on Instagram and enquire us to look at their work," says Ken. "While social media is a major focus for united states, that'southward just non a very professional fashion to come across if yous're an artist."
✅ DO your inquiry and contact merely those galleries who stand for piece of work in line with your own fashion. "You can't sell street fine art to somebody who collects impressionism," says Ken.
❌ DON'T cede quality for quantity. "It'south frustrating when an artist who's hoping to catch our attention tags us and twenty other galleries all in the same post." Select the elevation few galleries that yous want to work with near and send private outreach to each.
✅ DO your homework. "Find the proper name of the managing director or the curator for the gallery," says Ken. "Being able to personalize an electronic mail is a great showtime step in that process."
How do you market your art store?
Many artists like Maria started on social media as the best fashion to sell art online, growing a following outset before launching a store and monetizing their piece of work. The channel where yous've gained the about traction in the beginning is a natural place to spend your energy and marketing dollars outset.
🎨 More ideas to get traffic to your site—and make sales:
- Run paid advert campaigns on platforms like Google or Facebook.
- Invest in organic social by producing consistent 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 list).
- Achieve out to influencers and press when yous launch your site or a new collection. As y'all calibration, you may opt to outsource to a PR firm.
- Use content marketing to drive organic traffic. Utilise your expertise to create content around fine art, how-tos, behind the scenes, etc., either through a blog, vlog, or podcast.
- Learn most SEO to assist meliorate your shop's 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: xx Low-Cost Ideas
- SEO Checklist: How to Rank a New Website
- Authenticity Sells: A Beginner's Guide to Marketing on TikTok
- Press Kits: How to Create A Hype Media Kit
How practise you lot package and send fine art?
As art is visual, y'all should pay attention to the smallest details, down to how your art is packaged and shipped. Fine art that arrives undamaged is the bare minimum—give your customers an feel that matches the quality and intendance you put into your work. As fine art can be fragile, follow these guidelines for ensuring your piece of work arrives condom and audio.
DIY shipping art
If you lot are shipping original art, or elect to ship prints and canvases yourself, rather than through a print and fulfillment company, take actress precaution with your packing. Larger prints and posters are best shipped in cardboard mailing tubes, and smaller prints in rigid cardboard mailing envelopes. Use glassine (a h2o and grease-resistant paper) or clear cellophane sleeves to protect prints within the packaging. Recollect: the all-time way to sell your art online is to make sure information technology arrives in mint status as a bare minimum.
Aircraft expensive and oversized original artwork
Framed works and canvases crave additional precautions—they're certainly non the "easiest" way to sell art online in terms of shipping. Packaging supply shops offer packing and shipping materials similar paper-thin corners and specialty box sizes designed specifically for fine art.
If you're shipping original work to a gallery or art collector, in that location are means to cut costs. "The cost to ship an oversized painting that's stretched on a canvas can exist pretty substantial," says Ken. "Sometimes what nosotros exercise is unstretch a canvas, curl it in a tube, and ship it that style, which dramatically lowers the freight costs. Then we can have the canvas stretched locally."
Shipping fine art direct with print on demand
The easiest mode to manage shipping is to not manage it at all. If you opt to sell prints or merch only, your press, order fulfillment, and shipping can all be managed by your print-on-demand partner. They are able to access keen shipping rates due to book and partnerships with carriers.
Aircraft insurance for fine art
Insurance is important when shipping original works, as a lost or damaged package can't exist replaced. Many standard carriers offering fairly bones insurance on virtually packages, and if you sell your art yous should await into the specific extra coverage costs and limitations of each carrier's insurance offerings.
If you lot're selling your own artwork at loftier price points, Ken takes additional measures to ensure the safety of the work. "Shipping anything worth more than than a thousand dollars is definitely tricky," he says, and suggests that artists look into using a individual freight company or a carrier that specializes in art treatment, despite the higher costs.
📚 Read more:
- Shipping & Fulfillment 101: A Step-Past-Step Guide for Getting Your Products to Your Customers
Plagiarism bug and copyright protection when selling art
Artist Tuesday Bassen waged war on copycats—large concatenation stores who ripped off her original designs—past hiring a lawyer and taking her story to the media. However, both Maria and Ken say copycats and plagiarism are merely an unfortunate reality of doing business organization. Maria took legal activity simply once, before shifting her perspective. "At the end of the day, it took me my whole life to acquire how to do this," she says. "If somebody is copying me, they're going to have to sit downwardly and eventually learn for themselves, because sooner or later they're going to run out of ideas."
It's a sign that I'm inspiring others and that what I'yard doing is correct because they wouldn't copy me otherwise.
Maria Qamar, Hatecopy
Maria takes Hatecopy'southward copycats equally an indication that she's on to something."It'due south a sign that I'chiliad inspiring others and that what I'm doing is right because they wouldn't copy me otherwise," she says, "I'chiliad not offended or bothered by it anymore."
For galleries that stand for multiple artists and sell art online, copycat websites are a consistent problem. "Nosotros do have an issue with various online sites only bootlegging what we practice," says Ken. "It'south office of the manner the earth works, unfortunately. We exercise our best, simply information technology happens."
While copycats may be a reality, artists and businesses have legal recourse and should seek the communication of a copyright lawyer to help protect intellectual property earlier infringement happens.
The artist equally an entrepreneur
For many entrepreneurs, the all-time mode to sell fine art online is from whatever space you lot already have—not some expansive warehouse or inviting storefront. Cat started her art business from a spare chamber. Whether it'south a basement or a kitchen table or a guest room, information technology tin can piece of work as your launching pad. In this stage of your business, you'll wear all the hats: creator, marketer, packer, shipper, web designer, and customer service rep.
Cat describes this time in her own journey equally lean and humbling. "It gave me assurance of knowing every aspect of my business organisation inside and out," she says, "including its strengths and weaknesses."
You could know everything about business and yous could know everything about art, only information technology'south the combination of both that really makes a successful brand.
Maria Qamar, Hatecopy
Thinking of yourself every bit an entrepreneur correct from the outset will exist crucial to your success. Yous may stumble every bit a artistic to learn the business aspects, but they will ultimately help you grow and scale. Eventually, yous tin consul and automate, allowing you to focus on what you do best: making beautiful things.
"Yous could know everything about business and y'all could know everything virtually art, only it'southward the combination of both that actually makes a successful make," says Maria. "I am obsessed with creating that harmony."
Characteristic illustration by Pete Ryan
Selling art online FAQ
What is the best fashion to sell fine art online?
The best manner to sell art online is past building your own branded ecommerce site with a platform like Shopify. Y'all tin as well sell your work on a crafts and art market similar Etsy or on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook Shops. Sympathize where your target customers similar to shop to notice out the all-time identify to sell your fine art online.
Is selling fine art online profitable?
Aye, selling art online tin be assisting if yous're intentional about your pricing and marketing strategies. Selling fine art online has become more accessible with platforms like Etsy and Facebook, which enable ecommerce. Note: When you sell on your own online store built with a platform like Shopify, you don't have to pay marketplace fees.
How tin I sell my original art online?
Selling original fine art online is notwithstanding possible through your own branded website. Price betoken for original art will exist much higher, so it's of import that you build a strong, loyal audience for your work. Diversifying your sales channels, similar besides working with a gallery, volition help you augment your exposure every bit an artist.
What art sells the virtually?
This is a tricky question considering fine art is very wide and subjective. Selling prints of your work can exist very profitable because you lot tin can continue to generate income from a unmarried piece. Lower toll points (versus original fine art) mean yous likely can sell more volume. Curators should follow trends in art and pattern to help understand what fine art collectors and potential customers are buying, and so work with artists that have high success potential. As a creator, y'all should lean into the mode that you do best and build a following from there.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/211990409-how-to-sell-art-online
Post a Comment for "Is It Legal to Sell Art Made Through Apps"