Website for Art versus an eCommerce Site
Since my last post I’ve received questions about the benefits of having a website versus an eCommerce site.
“Why should I have an eCommerce site? Can’t I just have a website to showcase my art?”
So, at the risk of boring some folks, let me just break it down. Because I too had to learn this lesson.
If you are only interested in showing your work online, then by all means, just have a website.
But if you are interested in selling your work online, in this decade, you need an eCommerce solution.
Let me offer this analogy: what if you walked into a lovely store and you found something that you really wanted to buy. It spoke to you. It inspired you. You just had to have it. That’s how art collectors feel when they collect.
But you couldn’t buy it because they just don’t have a cash register in the store.
So a sign might say, call this number. “Huh? I don’t want to call that number. I want to buy this now! While I’m feeling it.” Or… “it’s late, I can’t call that number now.”
That’s the kind of obstacle you are throwing your potential online collectors when you show your work on your website. An art collector’s expectations are the same whether they are online or offline.
Art is most often an impulse buy. You only have a narrow window to capture these sales. So don’t make it hard on prospects.
Another online fumble is when an artist proudly displays their work, and yet they mark it as “sold.”
“What? Why are you showing me this? Do you want to prove to me that you have sold your art?”
Better to have an archive section for items that are no longer available for sale, because “I’m a collector. I’m here because I want to know what I can collect from you, not what I can’t.”
eCommerce solutions range drastically in price, quality, and dependability. But if you get the right solution, and your work is marketable, it will pay for itself many times over by generating additional income.
To learn more about the ArtistsWhoTHRIVE eCommerce solution, click here.
Tags: eCommerce for artists
August 15th, 2010 at 2:42 am
An artists’ website without an ‘e-Commerce’ or shop page is a wasted sales importunity. An online-art buyer will make up their mind within 20 seconds to buy. IF they cannot buy from you, you loose that sale, another artist gains your lost sale…simply because the use ‘e-Commerce’. Now sign up for PayPal which is international and will rapidly handle the payments to you. Factor in shipping costs in your online shop…local, national & international…as I have done. One price for the UK, another for Europe and one for the USA/Canada all by a clock through the options…If I can do it it has to be very easy. See http://www.meltemiart.com online shop pages. You deserve your art sales e-commerce it now. Think? There is no gallery commission to pay. The sales income is all yours for minimal effort. Well only a small Paypal commission [1% approx?].
August 15th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
you get it! And all types of art and collectors are intersecting online.
August 24th, 2010 at 5:01 am
Interesting, thank you
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October 2nd, 2010 at 1:19 pm
An artists’ website without an ‘e-Commerce’ or shop page is a wasted sales importunity. An online-art buyer will make up their mind within 20 seconds to buy. IF they cannot buy from you, you loose that sale, another artist gains your lost sale…simply because the use ‘e-Commerce’. Now sign up for PayPal which is international and will rapidly handle the payments to you. Factor in shipping costs in your online shop…local, national & international…as I have done. One price for the UK, another for Europe and one for the USA/Canada all by a clock through the options…If I can do it it has to be very easy. See http://www.meltemiart.com online shop pages. You deserve your art sales e-commerce it now. Think? There is no gallery commission to pay. The sales income is all yours for minimal effort. Well only a small Paypal commission [1% approx?].
October 6th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Thanks for making the effort to make clear the terminlogy in this weblog to the beginners!