I have been looking for an easy way to sell my art online. I have this website for instance. But it mostly functions as a portfolio for trying to get projects and shows with galleries. I haven't set up a shopping cart here. I am not even sure how to do that. And no doubt it involves selling one of my children to Wix to make it work.
I also have an Etsy shop. But oh my goodness! I do not think anyone is purchasing fine art on Etsy. Crafts? Cool T-shirts, Jewelry? Of course? Paintings of historic buildings in Cary?
I think not!
Needless to say, neither platform has yielded any sales.
Recently, Facebook informed me that they had started "shops" and that having a business page, I was entitled to apply for one. Free.
I applied and then tried to start setting up my shop. First rookie mistake. You have to be approved first!
Then even after being approved, I went to my business page, @lindseysfineart, and clicked on "Commerce" over on the left-hand side.
That took me to a page that gives you an overview of what you have on your business page. The list on the left-hand side includes:
Overview
Catalog
Shops
Orders
Payouts
Inbox
Ads (naturally!)
Promotions
INsights
Account Health
Education
Settings
On the overview page, you will be able to see any sales, and notifications, as well as that you have been approved to sell and approved to add items.
For setting up a shop, mainly what you will be using is the Catalog button.
The Catalog button is a drop-down menu with the following menu items:
Items
Sets
Issues
Data Sources
and Events
I found what I was looking for: How to add items.
Click Items.
And right there at the top of the screen was a lovely bright blue "Add Items " button. I was feeling like this was going to be pretty easy.
And I was right!
So I hit the Add items and that takes you to another screen that gives you 2 choices: to either Add Items Manually or In Bulk. To add in bulk, you need to have a spreadsheet set up, like an inventory sheet and you can add everything at once by importing that file. I have not as yet tried that, although I do have an art google spreadsheet set up with sizes and prices of my art.
I hit add manually and plodded through adding 30 different art pieces over the course of a few days. You upload the main photo and can add additional ones too (let's say if you have a collection or sculpture with side views etc) It is somewhat mindless and repetitive. The interface does allow you to give a lengthy description of your item for sale, as well as easily add the price.
In addition to selling my paintings, I have added the ability to sell notecards that I have been creating on Canva.
The Notecard Idea
I have always thought many of my paintings, depicting local landmarks would make a popular idea for notecards or posters for people who visit or are proud to live here. Recently I uploaded a number of my paintings into Canva, which is a super easy, fee, or inexpensive graphic design program. I sized up a few for 5" x 7" note cards, and created a logo for Lindsey's Fine Art adding an "L' that I painted and put together with type in an accent red. I added this logo for the back side of the notecards along with a description of the piece on the front.
I priced out the cards and realized I could double the wholesales rice and still have a very reasonable item to sell at $20.
No sooner had I put these on my page, and pushed out a bit in my social media stream, then four different people contacted me to purchase!
Only one directly purchased through the Facebook Shop, but I did make my first sale online! The others dm'd me directly and are paying cash. Cash is King!
So that was my first journey into online sales. I am hoping to start to promote and see where this gets me.
Thanks for reading! I am hoping to write an entry every week about my current exploits!