Who thought that buying and selling art online was a good idea just fifteen years ago? According to the Hiscox Report issued by the insurance provider Hiscox, the online art market grew 9.8% worldwide with sales of $4.6 billion in 2018. The report states that the online sales comprised 6.8% of total sales. By 2024, the report projects that the online art market would grow to $9.3 billion with an average growth rate of 15%. These statistics show that the online art market is becoming increasingly important for not only artists to have their art seen by more collectors and curators, but also generate sales.
Over the past nine years, I have sold more of my work online and made more money on places like Ebay and the now-defunct Vangoart than in person or at a physical location, such as galleries or art shows.
In my experience as a student artist, the online marketplace has been an important source of publicity and revenue. Over the past nine years, I have sold more of my work online and made more money on places like Ebay and the now-defunct Vangoart than in person or at a physical location, such as galleries or art shows.
While I try to save my best work for exhibitions, I need to sell the bulk of my pieces to make room for new ones. I decided to start an online art marketplace for artists and collectors called Art Collectors NYC because I was frustrated with competing for the buyers’ attention among a deluge of other artists’ work. I built the website through a platform called ShareTribe, which allows users to build their own marketplaces using a customizable template. Starting an online marketplace by myself seemed impossible without a strong network. Almost no artisfts or collectors were interested in participating in my website, despite my asking them to join.
Admittedly, Art Collectors NYC was inferior to the major online art marketplaces, such as Saatchi Art, Etsy, and Artfinder, for a number of reasons – namely my lack of a network of distinguished artists and features. Most major stores allowed users to zoom in and out of the artworks to see detail, and also offered features to visualize the artwork on a wall in terms of its size and scale by providing a sample picture with standard sized furniture as comparison. ShareTribe allowed none of that. It looked like a crudely-built website with none of these features that made online art shopping more easy and accessible.
With this realization, I came back to my original strategy of trying out as many already existing online marketplaces as I could. As an artist who sells his craft online, I have come up with the top online marketplaces for art.
(I rated my selections usings the following metrics: 5/5 for Collectors means that the website attracts a lot of collectors and significant traffic for the artists; 5/5 for Features means that the artists have useful options to promote and sell their art, and the collectors have easy ways to find them; and 5/5 for Price means that collectors can find good deals for high quality art on the website)
Saatchi Art (5/5)
Collectors: 5/5
Features: 5/5
Price: 5/5
Ships globally from international artists
Saatchi Art is one of the most accessible and highly respected online marketplaces for art. Run by the prestigious Saatchi Gallery in the UK, it is staffed with curators who provide collectors with the best artworks submitted every week. Artists whose works are deemed to have strong merit are included into Saatchi Art’s exclusive ‘One To Watch’ program. Saatchi Art also releases the Invest In Art annual report on the emerging art market and 34 emerging artists. Furthermore, the ‘Curator’s Circle’ program gives generous collectors who frequently buy art from the marketplace access to its Chief Curator, Rebecca Wilson. Saatchi Art also has a street art section in their search categories that gives particular attention to street artists. Saatchi Art takes 35% commission, but provides a courier service to pick up and drop off the artworks – a courier service is very helpful to ship bigger pieces of art that would usually require a lot of money to ship. The downside to Saatchi Art for artists is that the marketplace is very competitive.
GraffitiStreet (4/5)
Collectors: 5/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 3/5
Ships globally from international artists
GraffitiStreet is an art marketplace specifically designed for street artists and their patrons. Live auctions last a few days and often support charitable causes. The News feature provides the latest stories and interviews on street artists, documents shows and events, and alerts collectors about the latest print releases by famous artists. Artists are welcome to submit their art to be considered for inclusion on the website. GraffitiStreet has no fixed commission rate, as the market price and the commission rate are set through the appraisal of the art’s value by their team of curators.
Artfare (3.5/5)
Collectors: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 3/5
Ships globally from NYC artists
Artfare is a New York-based online marketplace for artists who are living and practicing in the tri-state area. There is a $20 submission fee to apply to their program. Artfare’s aims to connect people through art and emphasizes the social aspects of buying and selling art alongside the transaction of money and goods. Artfare helps artists and collectors to connect and form social bonds by allowing them to organize studio visits, exhibitions, and events. It takes a different commission for each artist.
Artfinder (3.5/5)
Collectors: 3/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Ships globally from international artists
Artfinder is a well known online art marketplace. Artists who submit their portfolio online are selected by a team of curators, and they take 33% of sales. Artfinder offers a zero-interest finance plan on the artworks purchased for up to a year. Artfinder also allows collectors to make an offer to the artist to buy the artwork at a reasonably lower price. Furthermore, Artfinder allows artists to build profile pages featuring their portfolio and their exhibition history as a means of promoting themselves. Artfinder does not offer a courier service, so shipping of bigger works will be considerable.
U Gallery (4.5/5)
Collectors: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Ships globally from international artists
Another online art marketplace is U Gallery, in which they pick artworks and features them in their ‘Best Of…’ and ‘Staff Favorites’ series. This marketplace allows collectors to commission artists to create new works, and offers special financing to design professionals who have a significant presence in the art market. U Gallery also has street art offering. They do not offer a courier service.
Zatista (3.5/5)
Collectors: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 3/5
Ships globally from international artists
Zatista is an online art marketplace like Artfinder and U Gallery with similar features and kinds of art. Zatista has the ‘Art Explorer’ feature which suggests new artworks to the users as they browse art on the site. Zatista also has a blog called ‘WallSpin,’ with stories to get collectors into the mood for purchasing art, and a guide for collectors to help understand art and collecting called ‘Art 101.’ Guest Curators on Zatista feature artworks submitted on the platform and participate in interviews about their views on art along with their favorite artists. The marketplace’s lack of courier service means that shipping bigger works would be a considerable cost.
Etsy (4.5/5)
Collectors: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Ships globally from international artists
Etsy is an online marketplace for anything and everything creative. Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee to upload a new item to the website’s database. There is a considerable art market that’s happening within Etsy. Customers might not necessarily think of fine art when browsing, because the website is very craft-oriented. With an eye-catching design or bright colors, you might be able to make an earning on Etsy more easily than other sites that are less commercial. Etsy also allows sellers to create their own websites and online stores through a feature called “Pattern.” Etsy takes a 5% transaction fee on the final price, including the shipping cost.
Chairish (4.5/5)
Collectors: 5/5
Features: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Ships within USA from USA artists
Chairish is an online marketplace of vintage decor, furniture, and art. Although it is a marketplace for other things, Chairish collectors have a sophisitcated taste in art, and the participating artists seem equipped to match their demands and expectations. On Chairish, artists can discount their work to incentivize interested collectors into purchasing. Chairish has a ‘Just In’ feature that allows collectors to browse the newest works. ‘The A List,’ ‘Staff Picks,’ ‘Dining Room,’ ‘Entry, and other special sections. feature entries that change seasonally. The Chairish ‘Artist Collective’ is an exclusive group of featured artists, similar to Saatchi Art’s ‘One to Watch’ program. Chairish does not offer a courier service, but it does take a smaller commission of 20~30%, leaving 70-80% for the artists.
Artnet, 1stdibs, and Artsy
Ships globally from international artists
(Artnet, 1stdibs, and Artsy are not given ratings because only galleries are able to participate in the marketplace as sellers, and it is very difficult to gather firsthand information regarding the features as a non-gallery user.)
Artnet, 1stdibs, and Artsy are premier art news and marketplace websites for serious artists and collectors. Artists’ work may be added to the site via galleries that pay a fee to participate in the marketplace. In other words, artists who are just starting or relatively unknown have no access to Arnet, 1stdibs, and Artsy’s marketplace, without gaining representation from a gallery. Whenever new artworks are uploaded by a gallery, collectors who have been following a certain artist or tag word are alerted, and this generates sales on their websites. Good luck getting into Artnet, 1stdibs, and Artsy, as only established artists can enter these realms!
Occupy White Walls (MMO game)
(Occupy White Walls is a game with a unique concept, not an actual marketplace, so it is not given ratings.)
Occupy White Walls is not an online marketplace; it’s a video game that allows you to construct your own gallery space. However, it has huge potential to become an online gallery scene due to compatibility with virtual reality. Imagine a game or a website where people can enter a gallery space and interact with others in real time, while looking at the art and engaging in both the social and business aspects of buying and selling art. OWW has great potential because it makes artwork more real, and placed in context of the surrounding space. It’s also more fun to look at artwork through a virtual world where you can move around and view them from different angles. It would be a huge boon to the game if players could upload images of their own art to the database and build their own galleries, a feature which is currently disabled but could be made possible in the future.
Conclusion
Buying and selling art online has never been easier, as there are many options available for both artists and collectors to find the right venues tailored to their needs. While there are many kinds of online art marketplaces, and they each offer different solutions for various types of artists. An ideal marketplace for me would be an interactive one like Artfare that features virtual reality as seen on Occupy White Walls.
I would say that if you are an artist who is working big and feeling confident about surviving in a competitive environment, Saatchi Art would be the best for you. If you are more successful in a less-competitive environment, Zatista, U Gallery, and Artfinder would be great for sales. If your art is more on the craft side, Etsy might be a good choice and, if your art would be a good fit with home interior design, Chairish would be best. There is no single solution for artists who are at different stages of their development and creating different styles of art. Finding the most suitable marketplaces for your art is a key part of the journey to becoming and being an artist.
