Toolbox | 04 Sales | 04 Sales Channels
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Sales Channels
There are a lot of options in terms of how to sell your
artworks. Here are a few examples and some considerations
around each option.
From the premises /Gallery
This might be the most common way of facilitating sales at a
gallery. Visitors come to view the art live in your space and
decide if the would like to purchase a work. Prior to each
show have a conversation with the artist on prices. A common
rule is to calculate the price of the material and the amount
of hours it took to create the work. Prices also depend
heavily on the artist. Is she/he an established artist? Is the
artist pieces present in any institutions this will add to th
price? Is it an emerging artist that recently started their
career? If you are in doubt you might also want to have a look
at other galleries representing an artist with similar style
and background. Many commercial galleries charge 50% in
commission on top of the price of the work. At The Muse we
charge 20% since we operate a hybrid business model partly
founded by non profit organisations supporting the art.
When the prices are decided create a pricelist including
Artist name / Title of the work / Year / Material / Price /
Photo of the work.
See example here:
Online / Webshop
Most websites offer an extended, “extra charge” service that
allows you to connect your website to a webshop. Here you
might want to consider a few things.
Do you want your clients to be able to shop online?
It is an extra service from you, but also an additional task
since you need to upload images, information and prices. A
webshop is also an additional cost for your company. On the
upside, you can connect it to your social media and conduct
sales through Instagram. It creates transparency in terms of
prices, which let’s face it, are often quite opaque in the art
industry.
It might also help extend your business to new markets and new
potential clients. This too might come with extra shipping
costs. Before deciding on whether or not you would like to
offer web shopping gather your team and create a simple list
of pros and cons, see the example below:
Art Fairs
On a global scale there are currently (2022)over 300 art fairs
globally. Many of the more “elitist” ones are hard to get
into, you need to be an established (at least five years old)
gallery and many galleries apply three, four or even five
times to get accepted. It is a high cost to attend an art fair
and as a rule of thumb, you should calculate that
approximately 50% of all the artworks you bring should sell
and cover all expenses. Expenses are:
- The fee for attending, differs depending on the fair.
- Travel Expenses for your team, many galleries also bring
an artist or two they represent. - Accommodation
- Food for at least three often four, five or up to six
days. Depending on the time of installation and
de-installation.
When this is said, there are plenty of reasons to attend art
fairs. Firstly decide what you as a gallery aim to win. Is it
purely sales? Reaching a new client base? New market? Or is it
to present your artist to large institutions? When you have
set your goals have a look at what each Art Market is renowned
for. The cost of attending and what your potential loss is if
you do not manage to cover your cost.
Commissioned sales representatives (commission based)
This is a clever way of broadening your client base with
minimum risk. It might be a local interior designer who would
like to collaborate on art pieces while decorating private
homes or restaurants, offices and hotels. Always decide what
the partner will get in commission for selling one of your
pieces.
You could also take a walk around the neighbourhood and find
out if there are any popular restaurants nearby with a wealthy
client base and offer to lend out a few works in exchange for
the restaurant promoting your gallery.
Perhaps there are even larger office buildings around your
area, here you could reach out to the office manager and ask
if they are interested in acquiring some artworks for the
workspace.
