How To Leave Online Art Platforms and Sell On Your Own Site

Ideally, when you start selling your designs online, you use digital art sales platforms to grow an audience and increase your brand’s visibility by taking advantage of their existing customers.

However, there comes a time in your business’s growth when you start to notice how much profit you’re losing when the platform takes its cut.

Since it’s National Black Business Month, we thought now would be the perfect time to let Black artists know how to leave online art platforms and sell on their own sites.

Moving to a more independent business model not only increases your profits but gives you more control over your brand’s perception, your product quality, and your overall customer experience.

Find the Right Print Shop

If you’re leaving behind an existing platform that prints, produces, and ships your art for you, finding a new print shop will be step one. Most online print shops offer a similar range of products as art platforms but with higher quality.

Because they’ll ship the products to you before they go to customers, you can also consider local print shops. Working with local printers gives you more control over the final product and potentially gives you access to your nearby art community.

Determine Production Strategies

Now that you’re responsible for production, you may want to start thinking about the concept of runs. As the artist, you will purchase a certain number of prints or stickers from your chosen print shop and then sell them for a profit.

You’ll need to estimate how many will sell to determine how many you purchase or how many are in that run. One-time, limited runs can increase exclusivity and demand by taking advantage of a customer’s fear of missing out (FOMO), while allowing customers to back order products gives them the ability to buy now instead of waiting and potentially abandoning your product.

Revamp Your Digital Presence

Part of what makes existing platforms so valuable is that customers already trust that site and brand. That trust is part of why people are willing to put their financial info into a site and complete a purchase, so your website needs to give the same reliable, safe impression.

On both social media and your website, be transparent about who you are, what your product is, and what the customer’s expectations for the buying process should be.

Maintain a consistent brand across your site domain, socials, and contact email so that buyers trust that they’re actually talking to you.

Stepping away from online art platforms and selling on your own site is a big step. Many artists choose to ease that transition by keeping their art available on the other platforms as they create their site and their audience transitions to purchasing directly from them.

Setting a “last day to buy” for your platforms can even briefly boost sales and give you some cushion for your new site! No matter how you choose to make the move, if you’re ready for more creative independence, direct selling is right for you.