Friday 27 September 2013

Shop glimpses

Part of the Christmas inspiration noticeboard showing a Natasha Rothschild reindeer, a Sandra Izard gift bag and an Eileen Brown red ceramic heart. The angel card is by Belinda Downes. I love its complexity.
In a shop corner are sheep and cards by Sue Inglis, buttons by me, artist cards by Sandra Izard and sheep cushion (one of a pair) by Pam Dew.
Part of the shop window showing Roly Phillips' vessels, Pam Dew's sheep cushion, a Frank Higgins kaleidoscope, velvet bag by Sheila Barrow and sheep by Sue Inglis.
Talking to an artist about selling work online it seems the all important factor is the number of 'hits' your online shop gets.  If no-one sees your website it's like selling at a craft fair when no-one is walking through the door. You've got to have 'footfall' to sell.

When I used to do the Country Living magazine show sometimes women would approach saying they'd like to sell my things in their 'shop'. If this turned out to be an online shop I'd feel disappointed because unless people know your web address or part of it they won't see your work. Then there are another raft of websites which ask you to pay to be part of their site...

  The solution seems to be advertising. If people see your work in a magazine or colour supplement and like it they'll look at your website. And advertising doesn't need to cost anything. You can send a press release showing a photo of your work for the cost of a stamp. What do you think? 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's all to do with time too.. If you are an artist you need time to create. Selling online for the seller has huge potential, but if you're the artist, creating things to sell, you need huge amounts of time to actually make things.

I find it a juggling act of huge proportions. It all starts with time for ideas. Then there's the biggest element of creating. Then comes photographing and editing. Any spare time is spent advertising and pushing social media. Then comes packaging, sending.. so the list goes on. The skills you need are endless! And the time... if only it were possible to pick up extra time bonuses like a computer game!!

Vicki

jenny said...

Yes. Maybe having an agent is the answer so the responsibility for selling is delegated to someone else. Making more time is a bigger challenge.