How did automated print fulfillment change the game for artists?

Automated print fulfillment allows artists to connect their website via API to professional printing companies that handle everything automatically. These large-scale printers have the best equipment, inks, and quality that individual artists can’t replicate on their own. They also have the cheapest shipping rates (including international), the lowest costs on all media types (canvas, metal, acrylic, etc.), and professional packaging—all because of their scale. For artists, this means they can offer their work on any product or media type, including options like metal prints that require specialized dye-sublimation equipment they couldn’t do themselves. They can also offer professional framing without running their own frame shop. This completely removes the production headache, allows competitive pricing with good profit margins, and lets artists offer a much broader product range. Without it, artists typically only offer one or two media types and miss out on significant revenue, especially since about 15-20% of orders include framing.

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Asked by a podcast host · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-05-22