Selling Art Online: Platforms, Strategies, Best Practices

For a lot of practices, online sales have gone from supplementary income to the primary sales channel. The pandemic accelerated the shift, and collectors now buy work they have never seen in person.

What follows is what each major platform takes, what it gives back, and the parts of the job (photography, pricing, packing, promotion) that stay yours no matter where you list.

Choosing the Right Platform

Saatchi Art

Saatchi Art is one of the largest online galleries, representing over 100,000 artists. It is free to join, it handles printing on print sales, and its interior-design partnerships put work in front of buyers who are furnishing rooms rather than building collections. You keep 65% of each sale.

The trade-offs come with the scale. Curators decide what gets featured, you have limited control over presentation, and you are one of six figures' worth of artists competing for the same attention. It suits painters and photographers selling originals and limited editions.

Artfinder

Artfinder is curated, so you apply rather than sign up, and its commission runs higher (33-40%). In exchange you get a smaller pool of accepted artists, real international shipping support, and a strong European market. The platform rewards artists who can keep a steady flow of affordable originals coming, which makes it a poor fit if you finish two paintings a year.

Etsy

Etsy is the cheapest place on this list to sell (6.5% transaction plus listing fees), the easiest to start, and the one where art competes most directly with craft and vintage. Buyers arrive through Etsy's own search, which is genuine free traffic, but the algorithm favors new listings and the price expectations skew low.

Two things sink artists here: letting prices drift down to match the craft market, and treating listings as set-and-forget. Etsy works best for prints, small affordable originals, and art-adjacent products. Edition sizing and print pricing matter more on Etsy than anywhere else, because prints are what most of its buyers are actually shopping for.

Your Own Website

Selling direct keeps roughly 97% of every sale, since payment processing is the only cut. It also gives you the customer's email address, full control of how the work is presented, and no risk of a policy change wiping out your storefront.

The catch is that nobody arrives on their own. Every visitor comes from something you did: a post, a newsletter, a show, a press mention. That makes a direct site the right move for artists who already have an audience, and a slow one for artists who don't yet. Building an artist portfolio website covers the platform options; if you'd rather not assemble one from scratch, Artsume's artist portfolio builder gives you a public work-by-work site and a set-up walkthrough without a separate hosting bill.

Setting Up for Online Sales

Photography is Everything

As far as a buyer is concerned, your photos are the work. Nothing else on the listing recovers from bad ones.

Requirements:

• Consistent, even lighting
• Accurate color representation
• Multiple angles for 3D work
• Scale reference (work next to objects)
• Detail shots for texture
• Framed and unframed options

Our artwork photography guide walks through lighting setups, color accuracy, and how to shoot 3D work.

Pricing for Online

Price the work, then subtract everything the sale costs you: platform commission (33-40% on most platforms), payment processing (2-3%), shipping, and packing materials.

A $1,000 painting on Saatchi Art pays you $650. Take $30 off for shipping materials and you net $620. If that number doesn't work, the list price was wrong, not the platform. Our artwork pricing guide covers the formulas underneath that math.

Writing Descriptions That Sell

A description should carry medium and materials, dimensions (including the frame if there is one), a sentence of context, shipping and framing details, and the words a buyer would actually type into search.

Before: "Blue abstract painting"

After: "Cerulean Dreams is a 24x36 inch acrylic on stretched canvas exploring the interplay of ocean tones. Ships ready to hang from my Seattle studio. Professional packaging, insured shipping included to US addresses."

Shipping Artwork Safely

Shipping is where online sales get expensive. Do it wrong and you lose the piece, the money, and the buyer.

Keep acid-free glassine paper, bubble wrap, cardboard corners, sturdy double-wall boxes, and real packing tape on hand before you need them. Masking tape is not packing tape.

On carriers: UPS and FedEx both insure up to $50,000 and both cost accordingly, UPS being the better bet for large boxes and FedEx for speed. USPS caps insurance at $5,000 and is the sensible choice for prints and small flat work. Specialist art shippers offer white-glove handling and custom crating at prices that only make sense for high-value work. Our artwork shipping guide goes through packing by artwork type, insurance, and customs.

For pricing the shipping itself, you have three options. Building a flat cost into the price is simplest for the buyer and what most successful sellers do. Calculating at checkout is accurate but adds a number that can lose the sale at the last step. Flat rates by size are the middle ground.

Marketing Your Online Sales

Being on a platform is not distribution. You still have to bring people.

Social Media

Instagram is still the default for visual artists; Pinterest converts better than most artists expect because its users are shopping; TikTok works if your process is watchable; Facebook still reaches an older collector demographic. Our social media guide for artists covers what to post on each and how often, without turning your practice into a content schedule.

Email Marketing

Your email list is the only audience you own. Platforms change policies and algorithms; an email address doesn't. Use it for new work, studio sale announcements, first access, and the occasional look behind the curtain. Email marketing for artists covers list-building and what to actually send.

SEO for Art

Put medium, style, dominant colors, and size into your titles and descriptions, plus a location keyword if local buyers matter to you. Collectors search in plain language, so write the way they'd type.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Underpricing. Low prices signal low quality and attract the buyers who argue about shipping. Price appropriately even on accessible platforms.

Inconsistent inventory. Platforms reward active sellers. Post new work regularly, and pull sold work promptly.

Ignoring customer service. Respond quickly, pack carefully, include a note. Online reputation compounds in both directions.

Platform dependence. Platforms raise fees, change policies, and occasionally close. Spread across a couple of marketplaces, keep your own site, grow the email list, and keep gallery and commission relationships alive alongside the online business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where to Start

Pick one platform that matches your price point, photograph everything properly, and price with the commission and the shipping already subtracted. That is the whole first month.

After that it compounds: reliable packing protects the reputation, active marketing brings the traffic, and good customer service turns one buyer into a repeat one. The business side follows the same logic, so read up on taxes and business structure before the sales volume makes it urgent rather than after.

Selling online also isn't the only channel worth having open. Grants, residencies, and juried shows pay differently and reach different people, and you can browse open opportunities alongside running a shop. Create your free Artsume profile to keep the portfolio, CV, and applications in one place.