Many artists want to set up their own business but do not know where to start when it comes to selling art online.
EBay is a brilliant option for any budding artist who is looking to increase online sales using a reliable online sales platform.
However, if you want to sell artwork on eBay effectively, there’s a little bit more to it than just filling out new product descriptions.
In this article, you can learn more about how to sell on ebay and effectively earn money from your artwork – with captivating listings that convert into sales.
Why is eBay an effective place to sell artwork?
During the first quarter of 2019, the number of active registered users was over 180 million people!*
This is a massive audience that could soon potentially be enjoying your artwork.
If you have used eBay before, you will have seen that it has a massive product filtration system which is incredibly user-friendly.
This helps eBay customers to drill down into specific product features, making your list of competitors shorter with each filter.
What you need to make sure of is that you play by eBay’s rules and optimise your online store effectively so that you can make the most of these features and push your product offering to the top of the listings.
What can you sell on eBay?
EBay is a menagerie of wonderfully diverse items that range from toilet brushes to fine pieces of artwork, collectibles and antiquities – The range of categories is huge!
Although less targeted than websites like Etsy, eBay has a much wider audience as a result giving you a more extensive range of people that you can present your artwork to.
How to set up an online art store on eBay
The store set up for eBay is pretty simple, all you need to do is enter a few basic details about your business in their sign-up form and register as a seller, then you’re ready to start posting your items.
You do not have to be a fully registered seller to sell items on eBay, however you do if you want to have your own online store.
You can find full instructions for how to sell items on eBay here.
Does eBay charge businesses for selling items?
EBay does charge to be able to sell on its website. The fees equate to about 13% of your sale value.
EBay takes a fee for both the item sold and the shipping costs.
Also, if you want to use PayPal, you can also incur charges of 2.9% of the payment, as well as a 30% transaction fee.
This can mean quite a lot of money is taken away from your profit, so make sure that you take all of these fees into consideration when setting a price for your artwork.
Furthermore, you can also pay to boost your listings on eBay so that they are seen more often, by a more specific audience.
This is a premium feature that we don’t recommend using if you do not understand pay-per-click properly.
However, if you do know about paid ads, it can be extremely useful when wanting to sell items quickly.
How to sell art on eBay successfully
Now we have described how to get set up as a seller on eBay, you will want to learn the best practices for actually making sales on eBay.
There are a number of tips and tricks that you can use in order to achieve this.
Follow our list below to discover the best way to sell art on eBay so that you can become the professional artist you’ve always wanted to be
Follow the advice below to learn how you can successfully sell artwork using EBay!
Learn how the pro’s do it
When looking into selling a new item online, it always helps to do a little bit of research to find out how the competition are doing it.
This means looking at listings for products that are similar to your own, finding out how well they sell, reading their product descriptions and uncovering which categories are the most effective for customer engagement.
Another handy way to learn from the competition is to look into their reviews and find out what their customers did and didn’t like about the service, as well as what you can do to improve your own.
Capture your artwork perfectly (image/ description)
In order to sell art on eBay effectively, you need to create an engaging title and description for each piece of your work.
Both pieces of text need to be optimised for the keywords of your product and be just as specific as they are descriptive.
Alongside this, you need to really capture your artwork with beautiful images to compliment your listing.
Your clients need to be able to envision your art completing their office or living space and feel it creating the desired effect on the room.
You are an artist, so what better person to make a listing look fantastic?
Build a successful seller rating for your eBay store
In order to establish yourself as a successful eBay seller, you need to provide a fantastic service and collect feedback for doing so.
Positive feedback on eBay contributes to what is known as your “seller rating”.
This is the rating that your new and potential customers will be presented with when they first view your products and having a good first impression really does count.
Bad reviews and complaints can put customers off, so make sure that you avoid this at all costs.
If you are unfortunate enough to receive a bad review, then make sure that you reply to it and offer a reasonable resolution so that all future prospects can see that you deal with complaints effectively – This can potentially stop you from losing future sales!
Selling artwork on eBay
Combining all of the above features alongside producing quality products or services is a great way to start building your online reputation as an artist.
EBay is a brilliant tool for all types of businesses and, if used effectively, can be a massive string to your businesses bow.
In order to gain the same success for your business, you need to dedicate time into well researched product descriptions and seller shop set up – if you do it correctly, you will see the benefits in your sales statistics.
With each customer you accumulate, you will create additional opportunities to sell more, gain admirers of your work and expand your business.
Make sure that you nurture your new customers, just as much as your prospects and you will soon create a fantastic base of followers who are inspired by your creations.
Try it for yourself to discover limitless opportunities to promote and sell your artwork!