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The first thing you should do is define what you want to accomplish with the website. Do you want to market your artist's work nationally or is the intent to bring your local customers into the gallery to look at the work and hopefully make a purchase? Should the site only provide information or will customers be able to make a purchase? These are a few of the questions you need to answer in planning and formulating a strategy and goals.
There are many companies that market online stores with a variety of available templates. These are turn key and very affordable. In today's marketplace there really is not a need to develop a website - you should go this route. These sites are very intuitive and can be easily set-up and managed by individuals that don't have an e-commerce background.
You don't need to have a lot of inventory. It takes a while to get established on the web, so you should definitely use a crawl, walk approach. In terms of actually managing inventory, online stores have a number of features to facilitate this.
In terms of examples, I would encourage you to surf the web and look at other online galleries. As you find sites you like, catalogue them and they can serve as a model or straw man for your design and business requirements.
There are many companies that market online stores with a variety of available templates. These are turn key and very affordable. In today's marketplace there really is not a need to develop a website - you should go this route. These sites are very intuitive and can be easily set-up and managed by individuals that don't have an e-commerce background.
You don't need to have a lot of inventory. It takes a while to get established on the web, so you should definitely use a crawl, walk approach. In terms of actually managing inventory, online stores have a number of features to facilitate this.
In terms of examples, I would encourage you to surf the web and look at other online galleries. As you find sites you like, catalogue them and they can serve as a model or straw man for your design and business requirements.
1
Chris makes great points on the strategy. In terms of the technology, there are a couple well-known platforms to setup an online store today. Some of these include:
All of these have small monthly fees. If your goal is to use the platform to showcase the art rather than necessarily sell it, then these fees are going to be a pain.
An alternative model without monthly fees would be to use a Wordpress shopping theme like this one:
I have personally used this before and it can be setup in a few hours by someone who knows what they are doing.
Like Chris mentioned you shouldn't expect a lot of traffic or sales early on so don't worry about the inventory or other logistical issues. Your volume will be small enough that you can figure it out as you go. Instead, focus on getting something out quick and cheap and observe what happens along the way.
Once you do get something up and running you will need to drive traffic to the site. I'm sure that there are some experts here who can help with advice for how to do that.
- www.shopify.com - known for being super easy!
- bigcartel.com known for being good for artists!
- go.magento.com
All of these have small monthly fees. If your goal is to use the platform to showcase the art rather than necessarily sell it, then these fees are going to be a pain.
An alternative model without monthly fees would be to use a Wordpress shopping theme like this one:
I have personally used this before and it can be setup in a few hours by someone who knows what they are doing.
Like Chris mentioned you shouldn't expect a lot of traffic or sales early on so don't worry about the inventory or other logistical issues. Your volume will be small enough that you can figure it out as you go. Instead, focus on getting something out quick and cheap and observe what happens along the way.
Once you do get something up and running you will need to drive traffic to the site. I'm sure that there are some experts here who can help with advice for how to do that.
1
This doesn't directly answer your question, but I recently came across this site and thought it might be of interest to you: faso.com
FASO helps artists and galleries create an online presence. It also has some advice on art marketing that you might find helpful.
FASO helps artists and galleries create an online presence. It also has some advice on art marketing that you might find helpful.
0
In addition to thinking broadly about the purpose of starting an online gallery (as Chris said), another thing you might consider as you weigh the options is whether the artists at your incubator have different expectations about the idea. For example, some artists hope to use the web to expose their work to as many people as possible, while others view their work as niche and prefer to market themselves in a more narrow way. Artists with different goals might prefer different online platforms -- compare for example the difference in look and feel of the individual artist sites developed through faso.com with the approach of etsy.com (another site you can use to sell original works). Some artists also want to branch out beyond original works to sell prints, and that opens up a new series of sites like imagekind.com that cater to that market. Of course, it's up to you whether it's worth the effort (especially given limited resources) to develop multiple sites or simply create a unified online presence for your artists; this is just something I'd consider. Good luck!
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I've recently come across this website and I really like the fact that it is a one stop shop for setting up an e-commerce site: www.volusion.com. If you end up pursuing this goal, you can drive traffic to your website by selling on websites such as www.fab.com or similar ones which already have a devoted following.
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Verneda Lights advised on 11 Jan 2012
Internationally recognized writer, graphic designer, & visual artist, Experienced Business Strategic Planner & Public Speaker
One very inexpensive, non labor or space intensive way to enter the art for sale online arena would be for your incubator to set up a Facebook Page. An eye catching memorable Facebook badge that visually communicates the group's aesthetic is important. Each artist can contact friends, relatives and customers and invite them to "like" the site and interact with the artists. Pictures can be posted to gauge the response of the viewers. You can sell from your Facebook Page. You can also put a Paypal donation button on your FB page, to keep funds coming in when sales aren't being made. Having non-profit status will help you to get donations. You can also run a promotion to encourage giving by offering art as a reward for donations of various amounts. After you have successfully cultivated your FB page, you can set up a free site using Google sites, or you can find an inexpensive web hosting company for the group's official website.
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Verneda Lights advised about 1 month ago
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