There are a lot of websites out there that promote selling for artists. Many times these websites take more then they give. I would to share some of our experiences with you.
Selling online of course is really a wonderful idea and if an artist or craftsperson can sell online, the ease of selling from the comfort of your workshop or studio is hard to beat. However with that said lets talk about what it takes.
Having a website is easy however it is the maintenance of the website that is misunderstood. Without some type of "search engine optimization" done by the website owner or an outside professional the said website will be lost in a growing sea of personal websites that will never see the top 100 in any of the major search engines.
Also having a merchant service account is costly if your not making sales. An 800 number and business address are also important.
This is what many Online Marketplaces offer, the convenience of a Marketplace that is already in place with services provided. It networks a variety of artists on its site so that customers have a huge shopping platform that offers a huge selection of goods.
If you’re an artist and you join one of these sites here are some suggestions for success. Start with one. Check their references; make sure they have a good reputation. Do not shy away from a company because they are new, rather make sure that their ranking is adequate and that they have a working website.
If you decide to join an e-commerce website for the purpose of selling your wares or fine art commit to the site. Most of these types of sites spend huge amounts of money for SEO optimization, merchant services, customer service and 800 numbers for customer support.
The money they spend comes from your sign up fees, membership fees or percentage of sales. Remember the idea of an online gallery is to make you successful selling online, Joining a group has the benefit of spending a small amount of money and having more time to do your handcraft or art.
But promoting you does cost. Help yourself and use your “gallery” space wisely, urge your current customer base to look at your gallery and purchase from it. When you have “out of town” customers who want to see your new work, post it to your gallery and request they view it and use the easy and convenient shopping cart to purchase. When you make a sale put in information about your online gallery. This gives the customer the choice to go back and purchase again online if they would like or it informs new customers that you have an online gallery for the convenience.
Many artist sign up with online Marketplaces and then only promote their personal website or send personal home information. This totally defeats the purpose of having the online gallery. It’s a waste of the artist time and money and also a huge waste of time and money to the website they joined. Remember these companies are out there promoting your gallery. It also hurts the other artists on the website by promoting customers to shop somewhere else thus defeating the purpose of networking the artists.
Of course any professional and secure e-commerce site will not ask you to sell exclusively on their website. It is important that you do market yourself in many different areas in order to succeed. However with that said if you join an online marketplace make it a professional tool that promotes success not a frustrating money pit that will offer little or no results because as an artist you did not match the effort made by the website staff to promote your gallery.
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