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.