Selling Artwork online in time of Covid-19
Tech Talk

Galleries closed. Studio tours cancelled. How can I sell my artwork?

One thing this pandemic has shown us is that there are many other ways to sell your work. Facebook and Instagram has been successful for some. Some have moved to online stores but this poses a challenge.

Inventory control can be extremely time consuming making the whole exercise seem counter productive. Original artwork means there is only 1 in stock. A potential fraud situation is created if you sell the same piece twice at the same time via two different methods.

What if you had a Point of Sale and online store that were tied together? In the past this has been an expensive proposition. Recently square.com started to offer an online store that integrates with their credit card processing app. Now you have a single place for sales and inventory control.

Square Online allows you to enter your artwork along with cards, prints or other merchandise as a single entry with many variations. When you sell a piece out of your home or via social media, your online store inventory is automatically reduced.

When the galleries are fully operational again, and you send them an original piece, it becomes a simple task to temporarily remove the item from your inventory and restore it should it return home.

If you currently use square for credit card processing, you can easily add an online store. If not, it is worth signing up for a free account. They will even send you a card swipe attachment for your phone or tablet. Plus you can use your computer as a virtual terminal to take payments.

Square automatically deposits your funds directly into your bank account the next business day. Their rates are comparable to PayPal.

Once you store is set up, you can share a link for any of your products directly linked to the online store in an email, your website or on social media.

I believe in the current times and even after covid is gone, this is a viable method for selling you work.