There is a common practice among artists online to obscure their pricing. You see it all the time: an artist shares a stunning new painting, a follower comments asking for the price, and the response is a cryptic “DM sent” or a link to a website contact form that requires an email inquiry just to get a number.
The thought process behind hiding prices is usually well-intentioned. Some artists feel that listing a price makes the work feel too “commercial.” Others believe that forcing a potential buyer to inquire creates an opportunity to start a conversation and build a relationship.
While the intention might be to spark a personal connection, the reality in today’s digital landscape is that hiding your prices on your website is more likely to kill a sale than create one.
The Modern Buyer Wants Information, Not Friction
We live in an era of instant information. Modern consumers, including art collectors, are accustomed to having all the data they need at their fingertips. When a potential buyer sees a piece of art they love on your website, they immediately want to know three things to determine if it is a possibility for them: the size, the medium, and the cost.
If you force them to email you, fill out a contact form, or hunt through five different pages just to find that basic information, you have created “friction.” You have put a hurdle between their initial excitement and the act of purchasing. In a fast-paced digital world, friction is where sales go to die.
I have heard artists argue, “Well, I want them to contact me so I can explain the value.” But consider how you use the internet. If you have to work hard to find a price, do you contact the seller? Or do you assume it is out of your budget and move on? Most buyers do the latter.
Social Media: The Signpost, Not the Store
When it comes to social media, the rules are slightly different. You don’t necessarily need to clutter your Instagram captions or Facebook posts with dollar signs and shipping costs. However, you must provide a clear path to that information.
If you post an image of available work, your goal should be to get the viewer off the social platform and onto your website as quickly as possible. Provide a direct link to the specific artwork page where the price is clearly visible. Don’t make them jump through hoops.
A Warning on Personal Profiles
There is also an important distinction to make between your business page and your personal profile.
Many artists use their personal Facebook or Instagram accounts to share their work because that is where they have the most friends and engagement. While it is great to share what you are creating with friends and family, you need to be careful about being too blatant in your sales efforts on a personal profile.
Most social media platforms have terms of service that frown upon conducting commercial business on a personal profile. If you are constantly posting prices, sales language, and “buy now” calls to action on your personal feed, you risk running afoul of the platform’s algorithms or even having your account restricted.
On a personal profile, share the art, share the story, and share your passion. If someone is interested, they will ask, or you can include a link to your website in the comments or your bio. Leave the hard transactional data for your website, which is built for commerce.
The Gallery Factor
One common hesitation artists have about posting prices is their relationship with their galleries.
It is true that some galleries discourage their artists from posting prices online. Frankly, I view this as an antiquated stance. Enlightened gallery owners understand that transparency is the future of the art market. They know that if pricing is consistent—meaning the artwork costs the same on your website as it does on their wall—there is no conflict.
However, you must respect your business partners. If your gallery explicitly requests that you not post prices for inventory they represent, you may have to adjust your strategy. In those cases, list the artwork on your site but replace the price with a link that says “Available via [Gallery Name],” directing the client to the gallery’s website. Hopefully, the gallery is savvy enough to list the price there.
Fortunately, the old-school “Price on Request” mentality is fading. As the market evolves, fewer galleries are trying to keep pricing a secret.
Transparency Builds Confidence
Ultimately, your website is your portfolio and your storefront. In my physical gallery, my staff has a strict directive to ensure every single piece of art has a visible price tag the moment it is displayed.
Why? Because an informed buyer is a confident buyer. Transparency regarding price does not cheapen your art; it professionalizes your business. By removing the mystery on your website, you remove the barriers between a collector falling in love with a piece and actually owning it.
Your Website Strategy
Do you currently list prices directly on your website, or do you require collectors to inquire first? Have you ever had pushback from a gallery regarding your online pricing? Share your perspective in the comments below.
I list the prices on my website for all of the reasons this article suggests. I’ve never had a gallery give me any grief for my up front approach. When I see a message to call for the price, I automatically think I can not afford the piece. I would rather see a higher price and let me decide if it’s too high. Not listing a price seems a little arrogant to me in this day and time.
Great post Jason, and very helpful. I remain a bit puzzled regarding the possible conflict between a price posted on my website, and the expectations of the gallery that represents me. Their representation just covers a particular (local) geographic area. Therefore, anything sold within that geographic area either in his gallery, or on my website, is subject to our commission arrangement. But outside of that geographic area, I am free to charge full freight to any potential buyer who purchases directly from my website. So your advice to post a link to the gallery works, but only within a geographic area. Anybody outside of that area, should still be able to learn the price with it as little fuss as possible. How do I thread that needle?
I agree there should be no friction for an interested buyer and always post prices on my web site product pages.
Each painting’s description also states where the artwork is available at the moment, either in my studio or at a specific gallery. If the artwork is in my studio, there is an Add To Cart button. There is no button if the work is in a gallery.
Each product page includes a link to my Contact page, which lists ways to contact me by phone or email, and full contact info for my galleries. (I used to include gallery email addresses, but they were getting a lot of spam emails from bots, so now I use ‘[at]’ instead of ‘@’ in their email addresses on my Contact page.)
On Facebook posts, I almost always include a link to my web site, depending on the subject of the post. These links could be to an actual painting, or a blog story about the painting’s creation, or all my available work, or just my web site home page. Every visitor to my web site sees an automated popup inviting them to subscribe to my monthly studio newsletters.
My galleries are very happy to benefit from all the marketing I do on their behalf. They are all small businesses and I want them to prosper so they can keep selling my art.
Your advice on listing prices makes sense. This may be a very novice question, but how do you handle shipping costs. Frames already add an expense and given that shipping is so very expensive, absorbing these costs leaves very little profit.
Ann
I’ve just recently added pricing to my still “under construction” website, and am slowly adding a “feature” page for each artwork, one that shows a larger image, the story behind the painting, and a shot of the work “in situ” on a wall for scale, etc. I agree 100% that we need to make the process as frictionless as possible for a prospective purchaser, but I’m not quite there yet.
Thanks for your insights!
I just finished updating my website incorporating prices and working toward development of an ecommerce page with help from my web designer. I was one of those artists that did not want to show prices until I began seriously thinking in profiting from my work so to pay debt. It was a good incentive. I even integrated a site for “one of a kind artwork in sale”- paintings that are not related with series – because I do work in series, this new festure allows me to present individual non series work at a discount.
How do you handle it if your painting is at a gallery, but the collector buys directly from you? Do you still owe the gallery a commission?
Could not agree more, never understood artists who do not show prices. As a consumer I want to see prices on items I am interested in. I assume my customers want the same thing……so I provide it.
I’m an artist who buys quite a bit of artwork. If there are no prices on artwork, I assume it is very expensive and leave because I don’t want to get into a negotiation or an embarrassing, awkward conversation about price if it is beyond my budget. I usually leave the site because I don’t want to talk to the artist. For me, it’s ALL about whether the artwork grabs me or not.
While I agree with the arguments for showing prices on art websites, I do not post prices on my website. The reason is that almost everything on my website is already sold and, since they are one-of-a-kind pieces carved by hand, I cannot reproduce a piece that is exactly the same as any image. I create my carvings, mainly from recycled wood from fenceposts and old barns and cabins. I specialize in American chestnut wood. I believe that people do not buy three-dimensional art from two-dimensional images on computer screens, so I do not use my website for sales. However, I do have a statement about the cost ranges of my smaller pieces and my larger pieces. I sell from art shows, commissions from meeting people, and inquiries from people via my website. I have found that people who buy my carvings at shows like to hold a piece, examine it from all sides, and heft it. If they are undecided between two similar pieces, they will likely buy the heavier one.