With the advent of the web and the steady increase in the use of the internet, there is a potential for speedy growth in the selling and buying of artworks online. Online art sellers are people or artists who have put their works or the works of others up for sale on the internet. Of the total sales of arts ever to be recorded in the year 2002, we learnt that only about 1.6 percent of the total art sales by art sellers was online, but today, we have seen massive growth in that figure, art stores and art galleries now say that about 60 percent of the sales they make in the past two years were from online purchases, that shows us that online sales of arts is becoming ever more lucrative for art sellers and a very much preferred option for art buyers. But when sellers say 60 percent of their sales are made online, it means about 40 percent of their sales were made physically at their stores, these also points out a lesson to online sellers of arts; what is that lesson?
A word of caution to artists and art sellers is that while they may enjoy lots of sales from their online stores, while they are having rich reputations online for their artworks, they should pay close attention to the offline market. The online market still has lesser potentials for generating recurring sales when we compare it to the offline sales, so a seller should try to build a good offline reputation and when these people move very far and they are not able to travel to get this artworks, they are more relaxed when purchasing online because they have tested the artworks first from the offline market.
The rate at which art is generally accepted has been speedily changed by the internet, recall that back in the 19th century, people sell their arts by displaying them at salons, they used this method to create awareness and to promote their works, and sellers and artists believed that was the best that will ever happen to arts until the 20th century when art sellers made use of commercial galleries to promote their artworks, and now in the 21st century, the internet is the place to promote and sell all those artworks that are lurking around the store. When compared to other forms of marketing and selling of arts, online art sellers have said that the internet as been the cheapest and easiest way to sell their products to clients from everywhere and anywhere in the world. Many online sales store are speedily springing up, and that has made it possible that buyers meet and get to see different arts pieces from different sellers, these online store have been designed to give the exposure and sales of arts a significant boost.
The online sales market has left buyers with lots of choices to choose from, because a seller is not charge any fee for the number of his works he has online, he can display as many as he deems fit. I could remember seeing different paintings and pictures of some amazing artworks online that I was so confused on the one to choose, lots of beautiful designs from some talented artists. But how can online sellers get more sales and recurring art buyers?
• Continue to work to develop your offline market– when your clients trust what they get from you and they know you give quality, they will find it very easy buying from you online. One factor that makes people still want to visit galleries and stores to buy arts is because of the quality, they want to check it personally before buying them, some buyers have even expressed disappointments when they receive arts that they have paid for, and these arts are not up to the quality they want, so when they can trust you for what they get from you, you will always have an additional visitor to your online store.
• You will most likely not have sales teams who are going to be answering questions from buyers online, so endeavor to have clear and easily understood descriptions, take many pictures of your artworks as that will give the buyers enough clues of what you have on sale.