Display / Sell Artwork

Markee

A friend of mine is an artist (pictures / paintings / drawings) and she would like to set up a web site that allows her to display her art and allow customers to buy it.

Are there any solution providers that will provide this type of service? Maybe they offer a web portal where her art can be displayed and sold with the provider taking a percentage of the sale.

(As opposed to building a dedicated website or going down the ebay shop route)

Thanks in advance for any help / advice.

Jaffa.

You mean like this site? I've always thought this sight looks very pleasing to the eye, they use https://www.typepad.com which is a blogging platform.

foreign_correspondent

What about etsy?

https://www.etsy.com

bootserbabe

Good suggestion - Etsy is a great place to start. Selling art online is tricky and you have to start somewhere where there is an established buying and browsing habit which is why Etsy is great. The concept is it's a marketplace for anything handmade. I know people who spend a fortune on it here and in the US. Another advantage is that customers trust a big site with their money ... and may not be so trusting of a smaller, individual selling website even if it's using paypal or one of the major payment processing services. It's also cheaper to start up with as you are paying commission rather than forking out for hosting fees etc.

I work in the artworld and it's incredibly difficult selling work online - especially paintings - as buyers like to look more closely at what they are buying and see it in the flesh. Selling prints is the best thing to do online.

Having said that, it's great to have an artist website to boost interest in your work and give you a profile - but don't expect to sell directly from it.

Hope that helps and doesn't sound negative!!