Pricing art for sale isn’t easy. There’s no official pricing structure. No accepted rules. No hourly rate conversion. No union and little to no economies of scale. So how should artists price their work? Well. Reasonably. That’s as good as it gets. Be reasonable. And when it comes to selling art online…be really reasonable.
Those looking to buy art online are not constrained by four walls. They don’t need to stay and browse just so they don’t offend. If they don’t see what they want, or they see what they want, but feel it is priced beyond their budget, they’ll move along. Because they can. With a swift move of the mouse and one click they can be onto the next piece of art, or worse, be back to browsing Facebook. The saying “you only get one chance to make a first impression” has never been more applicable.
A good rule (if there is such a thing) is to choose a price that you would be willing to pay for the piece of art. The goal is to sell your art, so keep it within reach of your market. Especially when first getting started, it’s better to sell art for a slightly lower price than hold out for the elusive jackpot. The other thing to remember is that your art does have value. So don’t price it too low. If you offer your art at a price that doesn’t reflect the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears you’ve put into it you’ll give the impression that none of those actually went into it.
Another thing to remember is to let the market inform your pricing. If your pieces are selling quickly, you may choose to bump up the price. If nothing is moving, there’s no shame in lowering the price to see what happens. Whether your selling Aboriginal art or abstract art, the market will always give you a quick reality check when it comes to pricing your art for sale online.
That’s about it. That’s as much as we can tell you. Not surprisingly, selling art online isn’t a science. It’s an art.
For more help selling art online, check out our selling tips here.
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