If you’ve been in the art world for a while, you have likely observed three types of art buyers: one-time buyers, clients who buy a lot in a frenzy, and customers who return regularly but slowly to buy repeatedly over time.
Understanding buying patterns will help you better serve your customers and increase sales. Let’s take a look at each type of buyer.
The One-time Buyer
The one-time buyer is exactly what it sounds like. They come in, buy one piece, and never return. There are a few reasons why someone might be a one-time buyer.
First, they may have found your art by chance and liked it but only on a casual level.
They may have been in the area, seen your art on display, and decided to buy on a whim.
Or, they may have been looking for a specific type of art and found yours but didn’t connect with it on a deeper level.
It’s also possible that they loved your art but only had the budget for one piece, or they may have found the perfect piece for their home but don’t need any more art.
Looking over nearly four years of Xanadu Gallery sales data, I can see that 72% of our buyers are one-time purchasers. We’re always asking, “what can we do to convert more of those one-time buyers into collectors?” More on that later.
It’s worth noting that one-time buyers can still be valuable customers. Even if they only buy from you once, they still buy your art and support your career. And, if they love your art, they may tell their friends about you, which could lead to more sales down the road.
The Frenzied Buyer
The frenzied client is the opposite of the one-time buyer. They buy a lot of art, either all at once or over a relatively short period.
There are a few reasons why someone might be a frenzied buyer. First, they may have just discovered your art and fallen in love with it. They may want to buy everything they can while they can.
Or, they may be looking to quickly fill a large space and need to buy a lot of art at once. They may have, for instance, recently purchased or built a new home. While furnishing the house, they may decide that they want to quickly amass an impressive collection of art to showcase in the home.
Xanadu Gallery is located in Scottsdale, a market with many second-home buyers. These are great customers because they typically do not bring much art with them from their previous homes.
Finally, they may be an art investor looking to quickly build a collection of your work.
Frenzied buyers can be great customers because they buy a lot of art and they buy it quickly. However, their purchases are likely to be limited. Once they have completed their project or burned out their frenzy, they may stop buying altogether.
Looking at our sales data, I can see that about 5% of our buyers are frenzied, but some years they account for up to 25%(!) of our total sales revenue.
The Slow and Steady Buyer
The slow and steady buyer is the type of buyer that most gallerists and artists hope for. They buy slowly over time, usually buying one or two pieces per year.
There are a few reasons someone might be a slow and steady buyer. First, they may need to warm up to your work. After an initial purchase, they will slowly see how much they enjoy your work and may feel a growing affinity for their personal relationship with you. This almost always leads to additional sales.
Other slow and steady buyers may want to acquire a collection of your work but want to savor the experience and wait for the right pieces.
Finally, some slow and steady buyers may not have a lot of disposable income and can only afford to buy one or two pieces per year.
Slow and steady buyers can be great customers because they often become more personally invested in you and your art and enjoy watching your art evolve and your career grow over time.
When thinking of this kind of buyer, my mind instantly goes to a couple from Tennessee who first visited Xanadu Gallery in 2002. They bought several minor works, but we immediately hit it off with them. In the years and decades since then, they have returned to the gallery each time they visit Scottsdale and usually buy a piece or two. They’ve built a great collection of a wide range of work from a variety of our artists, and I’ve watched their children grow from childhood into adulthood. I consider them friends first and collectors second.
Slow and steady buyers can create some of your best relationships and are likely to become your favorite customers.
Which Type of Buyer is Best?
So, which type of buyer is best?
The answer, of course, is all of them!
Each type of buyer has its own set of benefits and risks, but all of them are valuable customers.
One-time buyers are valuable because they acquire your art and support your career. Even though each individual buyer may not spend a lot, they are likely to be your largest group of customers.
Frenzied buyers are valuable because they buy a lot of art and they buy it quickly.
Slow and steady buyers are valuable because they are usually more invested in your art and are more likely to build a collection of your work over time.
The best way to maximize sales and minimize risk is to have a mix of all three types of buyers. Of course, every buyer must be a first-time buyer before becoming one of the other types. Most of our marketing efforts will focus on drawing in new buyers, and most of them will end up being one-time buyers. However, ensure you are working to cultivate relationships and return customers.
Look over your sales for the last year. If fewer than 20% of your buyers were returning customers, I urge you to work toward strengthening relationships with your clients.
Communication is key. Are you reaching out regularly to your customers via email and social media? Are you letting past buyers know about new work? If not, you are missing out on a vast and critical opportunity to increase your sales dramatically. If you aren’t following up with your customers, they may not become repeat buyers simply because you aren’t giving them the opportunity.
We especially want to be in heavy communication with clients immediately after they make a purchase. Send an email with additional artwork. “I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my other sculptures,” you might say. There is a well-documented phenomenon called the Diderot Effect, where people who have just felt the joy of making a purchase are primed to make additional purchases.
Here are a few additional tips for building relationships with your customers:
– Get to know them on a personal level. Ask them about their families, their hobbies, and their favorite art.
– Keep in touch with them even when they’re not buying. Send them holiday cards, birthday cards, and postcards for art shows.
– Offer them exclusive access to you and your work. Give them first access to new art and free shipping on future orders.
– Invite them to private events. Host a private viewing for them at your studio or a special event at your gallery.
By following these tips, you will be on your way to building solid relationships with your customers that will last for years to come. You will improve your bottom line, but at the same time, you will be improving the lives of your collectors with your amazing art!
Share your Comments!
Have you experienced these three types of art buyers? Are there other types that I’m missing? What have you done to cultivate relationships with your buyers? What more would you like to know about art buyers? Share your experiences, thoughts, and questions in the comments below!
Really insightful. I had no idea one time buyers would account for the majority of art buyers. Thanks for sharing this info.
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Helpful and informative, Jason. I believe that follow-up and keeping contact with previous buyers is the right thing to do, both to honour them and to establish friendship and trust, along with promotion of continuing interest in your artwork. One question I have had for some time is how to handle the fact that most galleries, mine at least, do not and will not, allow the artist to know who bought their piece or pieces so that follow-up seems quite impossible. I’m assuming the gallery may be concerned that the artist will contact the buyers re future sales, leaving the gallery out however I think, and hope, that when a good relationship has between established between gallery and artist, this would be seen as unprofessional, unwise and greedy, and would in time only ruin what was a good business relationship with those that worked for you, the gallery.
Correct Catherine – the gallery should build and maintain those relationships and encourage future sales.
Great Ideas. We owned a gallery in a resort area in upstate NY and we had and did all of the above. YES those are true values to have a successful gallery. We made so many friends over the years and after 25 years we retired and sold the gallery. Unfortunately they did not fallow our ideas and it slowly became a souvenir shop. It is hard to see what you have created turn into a big nothing, but it gave us a great retirement and now I paint and am having a one man show in St. Petersburg Florida as the artist of the month at Woodfield Fine Art Gallery. If gallery owners listen to you and fallow those rules they will be a success. The biggest of them is to create a relationship with the customer and make them friends.
It’s all about relationships!
Hi Jason, I might add to the one time buyer category the customer who has a personal connection to the piece, maybe recognizing his house or boat in a landscape or seeing the artist painting in his neighborhood wants to buy the painting because of the subject matter. I have had that happen several times over the years. In this case they may not even remember the artists name. I try to make sure I attach my website information to the painting and try to get them to subscribe to my newsletter but really don’t expect to see them again.
Yes, great input Katherine – many people who are traveling buy a piece to remember their trip or because it captures something that resonates with them.
I think as artist we sell our imagination our art of selling is sharing that imagination with buyer and let it be their desire imagination this will create triangle bond and result creating collectors.
I read in a different post not to attach website info… because the gallery will take it off. Yes/No? I already do that but I read that post and now think otherwise.
Yes! Your comments are always very insightful and useful. I’ve experienced all of these types of buyers. However, since I am represented by a gallery, I do not have the opportunity to follow up with buyers, nor do I usually even know their names. If I ask my gallery who purchased the art, they will describe the sort of person–i.e. a young couple from Prince Edward County who are designing a new home, or whatever. I assume they do not want me personally to follow up with buyers, even though I think they know me well enough to trust that I would not sell to clients through the “back door”, so to speak. Do you think that is probably correct? Should I look into how they follow up?
I have the same problem with my gallery giving vague answers about who purchased my work. I think it’s bad for the gallery/artist relationship to withhold that information.
I write my website on the back of every painting.
Fortunately my gallery provides the name and address of every buyer. I mail them a thank you letter with a few postcards of paintings, add them to my Christmas list and the chosen hand-mailing group for openings. It’s surprising how many do not use email socially or social media.
First time reader of your blog. A learning experience for sure. Looking forward to future knowledge.
Thank you for this look into the types of buyers. It helps to understand the people who are buying our art.
I have had a few loyal customers over the years who were the slow and steady type. I have enjoyed my relationships with these buyers that have developed over time. I have come to know each of them well and know what type of art they enjoy most, so I contact them when I have a new painting they might like.
Most of my buyers, though, have been the one time buyers. They see a piece they like at an art show or in my co-op gallery and make a purchase and then I never hear of them again. These buyers are not as emotionally rewarding but I am thankful for them.
How do you keep in touch with your buyers if the work is sold through galleries and they won’t reveal customer info?
Ive never had my oil paintings in a gallery before. I just paint because it’s relaxing for me.
Michael Sabin aka SABOO
https://www.instagram.com/artistsaboo/
As an artist who was in a great gallery that sold well, I understand why the gallery retains their customers names and contact information to themselves. They are doing the work to make the sales and saving me from having to do that.
When the gallery closed however that practice suddenly felt like a big Ioss of customers. Thanks to your article, I don’t feel so badly about that if the majority of buyers are the once and done type.
I have placed an Artist Statement on the back of each painting that does include my email and website, so some of the slow steady buyers have joined my email newsletter since the gallery closed and have remained in touch.
One person who reached out to me before the gallery closed, because she saw a painting on my website that she wanted. Fortunately she did tell me she had purchased a piece at the gallery during our interactions. So after the sale, I paid the gallery a commission for that sale feeling it was their customer and therefore they should still benefit. After this occurred and before the gallery closed I started to ask people how they found out about my art so I could be sure to reward the gallery when appropriate. This felt like the best of both worlds since the gallery still was recognized, the collector got the piece they wanted, and I was able to build a relationship with those longer term buyers.
A gallery recently sold 3 of my paintings in their summer show, but they won’t give me the names of the buyers. I keep a file of who buys my work for my own records. I would never go around a gallerist to sell work to one of their clients. Is this a common practice? How can I diplomatically get the names of buyers from a reluctant gallery? Their contract did not address this issue.