Online Art sales

[snowgoose]

Hi all , I’m Jake.

I’m planning to start an online business and just came over here to get your thoughts and ideas about my plans.

What I plan is as follows;

We will be a website, for the display and sales of artwork.

This will be done in the forum of artists joining the site ( for a small annual fee ), this will then give them web space to upload and display 20 images of their artwork along with a little Bio and image information such as prices, sizes and medium.

The Price the artwork is for sale at will totally be up to the artist .
all shipping costs will be set by the artist and paid by the customer.

When a customer comes to the site wishing to purchase an artwork, they simply add the selected art to their basket and either continue shopping or go to the checkout.

The customer then pays for the item using credit / debit card ( via Paypal ).

We take 15% commission on all sales made through the site.

We then contact the artist who is selling the piece the customer just bought, detailing the address the art is to be sent to. The artist dispatches the art to the given address.

When the customer receives the art they are given 7 days to return the art if its not what they wanted / like.

However this is simply done by posting the art back to the artist with the customer paying the shipping cost for return, and a full refund ( minus postage ) will be given.

When a transaction is made we 'hold' the money for 7 days incase of any returns, making it easier to return items and / or replace.



We are also having conversations about providing artists and users with links to both, art supplies and a framing service offer a discount for both of these. We may also supply these features in the future along with a forum on the site.



So what are your thoughts and ideas about our plans?

Thanks

Jake

[sleighter]

Good idea if you can get the right artists.Anything can do good these days.Go with it and give it your all.

[BusinessAdviser]

Have you done a competitive analysis? I believe that I have seen a number of sites out there already doing the same thing. If this is the case, you need to find something of value that you can provide the customer which is not being provided by competitors.

[snowgoose]

yeah i have checked out a few of our competitors and they do the same same as us but we only have a small annual fee and lower commission on sales, other that the lower prices i cant think of anything else we can offer that our competitors dont.

[neemtree]

Thoughts: This is a crowded space, and there is lots of competition. Regarding refunds/returns - sounds messy. If you're using Paypal to charge a commission and pay the rest to the artist (challenging in itself), how are you going to 'hold' the funds for a week? What if you 'hold' for a week and then the payment isn't approved?

Ideas: Charge an annual fee, forget the commission and let the artists deal with refunds themselves. Allow the artists to maintain their own mini-stores. This way consumers benefit from an aggregation service, and artists benefit from brand distinctiveness.

[snowgoose]

a) whats an aggregation service

b) What would you suggest charging annually if we were to get rid of the commission?

c) What do u mean brand disctinctivness? Is that the same as saying i have a clothing company and saying 'my clothes can be seen and bought at blah, and the blah being woldwide famous?

Jake

[BusinessAdviser]

Thoughts: This is a crowded space, and there is lots of competition. Regarding refunds/returns - sounds messy. If you're using Paypal to charge a commission and pay the rest to the artist (challenging in itself), how are you going to 'hold' the funds for a week? What if you 'hold' for a week and then the payment isn't approved?

Ideas: Charge an annual fee, forget the commission and let the artists deal with refunds themselves. Allow the artists to maintain their own mini-stores. This way consumers benefit from an aggregation service, and artists benefit from brand distinctiveness.

Really, this is not a good opportunity for you. Just about every artist who is interested in selling his/her paintings via a site such as yours is already doing so. This means that your success will depend on enticing artists from more well established sites to leave those sites for your new and unknown site with fewer art collectors visiting, or at the very least pay more money each month in order to sell on your site in addition to where they are currently selling their artwork.

Neemtree made a great suggestion to scrap the commission and only charge a monthly subscription rate in order to attract the artists. However, what do you think will happen as soon as the larger sites realize that they're losing business to you because of your pricing strategy? They will immediately adopt the same strategy and you will be right back where you started. Price, in and of itself, is not a competitive advantage.

As a fellow art lover, I am intrigued by the idea of getting into the art business in one way or the other, but I don't think that this is a good opportunity for you to do so. At the end of the day, you must be able to provide customers, both artists and art collectors, with something of value that other competitors are unable to provide, and do so in a way that is sustainable. If you are unable to do so, then you should avoid the opportunity, as it really is not much of one.

[snowgoose]

Well i did think this was a good idea but after coming here and getting some reviews it appears not to be as good as i thought. i just dont know what else to do instead that i can do, thats new and also online,

i guess maybe the world of the entrepeneur isnt for me.

[BusinessAdviser]

Well, what do you enjoy? And what skills do you have?

[snowgoose]

i enjoy art, automobiles, computing, drinking, going out, lol and a few other things but i dont have any real skills ( i left school early due to family problems, so didnt get them )