What was the biggest takeaway from the Art Market 2021 Report regarding online art sales?

Despite an overall contraction in the art market, aggregate online art sales reached a record high of $12.4 billion in 2020, doubling in value from the previous year. This happened because all offline sources like galleries and art shows were shut down, and the demand for art had to be fulfilled somewhere—it went online. Artists and photographers who had already been building their online presence and selling direct to customers for at least 1-2 years saw record-breaking sales. The online market literally doubled in size in one year, while the overall art market only contracted slightly. This explains why artists focused on e-commerce killed it while those dependent on traditional channels struggled.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan and Nick · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-03-25