How should I think about my online art business in relation to traditional retail?

Always put yourself in a mental model of retail. If you had a local store on Main Street and Mother’s Day was coming, you’d pull your team together and ask: What are we doing for Mother’s Day? Who’s painting the window display? What’s the percentage off? Will there be a buy-one-get-one? What special deal for moms? What items are we featuring, and how do we brief the sales staff? It’s exactly the same online. Think of the grocery store with a pop-up flower tent in the parking lot on Mother’s Day - that’s retail responding to the calendar. Your online business should operate the same way. The best way to sell art is still in-person, face-to-face, but your website extends those retail principles digitally. Always ask yourself: what’s the offline equivalent of what I’m attempting to do online?

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Asked by an artist building their online presence · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-03-06