There are a number of advantages to selling physical art and it is one of the best ways to increase your profits. You can do more with each artwork by selling various physical products such as prints, t-shirts, stickers, etc. This gives your customers more options to engage with your brand as each type of product serves different purposes.
Making a living as a digital artist can be difficult today. If you can make your art tangible and bring your digital creations into the physical world, it can help you to be a profitable artist. People have a natural bias towards physical products and feel it has a higher value. There are many benefits of selling physical art, especially online. However, there are certain difficulties that you need to overcome.
If you sell physical art, you normally have to keep stock in inventory. If you create large-scale work, the real cost is your studio space and you may have to rent space for work that may not even sell. Sitting with a whole lot of unsold art that takes up space is one of the main difficulties of selling physical art. A way to deal with this problem is to use websites like Printbest that have a “print to order” business model. This means you only produce physical products when a customer places an order. You do not have to cope with problems like excess inventory or loss of revenue due to dead stock.
The physical art you sell to consumers will obviously cost more than your digital art due to the fact that you have to store it and ship it. Your prices must reflect the time, money and expertise it took to create an artwork. Set your price for your physical art too low and you could undermine the value of owning a piece. Set it too high and it could be out of the reach of many consumers. The problem with selling art online is that people don’t see the art physically so they will part with their money more reluctantly.
A lack of marketing or problems with the logic of your pricing can lead to confusion among possible buyers. Your pricing, marketing, and presentation of both digital and physical products have to all be in harmony to encourage purchases. Some artists offer a lease-to-own policy towards the full price of an artwork where a specified percentage of the monthly contract goes towards purchasing a piece.
Order fulfilment can be an issue when selling physical art as it takes much longer to deliver than digital art, which is immediately available. There are many different problems that can prevent your physical art from reaching customers within the required deadline and in good condition.
Many companies offer print-on-demand services but even then, order fulfilment can take longer than it should for various reasons, including material shortages. If you choose a print-on-demand company, it should be one that takes pride in quick fulfilment and offers a low-risk, low-cost option for generating income right away without having to invest too much too soon.
The costs of shipping are increasing all the time. Shipping times and costs can be considerable, especially if you decide to print items more cheaply overseas. Producing and shipping in closer proximity to where you’re sending physical items to or from will reduce your shipping times and costs.
Your return policy could affect your sale of physical art. People don’t want to realize they made a purchase they regret and do not have the option of returning it. You could offer 90 days with return shipping not included and with the art in the same condition as when it was sold. Some artists even agree to take a piece back as part of the payment for another more expensive piece.
Launching your own online art gallery can solve some of the biggest problems you will encounter with other ways of selling your art. It means you are not geographically limited, you don’t have to give up control of your work, you won’t have to share your profit and you won’t have to compete by lowering your prices.
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