The stock count is the product
Everywhere else a count is inventory admin. Here it carries the claim that makes the work worth its price, and it has to hold on the store, in a thread and at a show at the same time.
Original work
One painting, one buyer, and no chance of selling it twice.
Original work is stock that exists once. The system either understands that everywhere you sell, or it lets two people pay for the same canvas on the same afternoon.
14-day free trial. No card required.
Original, framed$320
Payment received$420
How do I sell art online?
Publish each original in Crate as its own product with a stock count of one, and each edition as a product with the edition size as its count. Photograph the work square on and in a room, and state the medium, the dimensions and whether it arrives framed, because those are the answers a buyer needs before they commit. Sell that same catalogue from your own store, from a post and inside a chat thread, all drawing down the same count, so a piece bought at a weekend show is gone from the site before anybody else can pay for it. Take payment at checkout, price shipping by size and zone rather than quoting per message, and pack for something that cannot be replaced.
How to start selling your art.
Getting started
Four steps, in order. Each one is a screen you can open on the first day, not a project.
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Give every original its own listing
One work, one product, stock of one. An original is not a size option of anything, and treating it as one is how a canvas gets sold twice.
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Publish the facts a buyer needs
Medium, dimensions, year, framed or unframed. Collectors ask these before price, and a page that answers them ends the thread instead of starting it.
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Number your editions honestly
A print run of fifty is a product with a count of fifty. When it reaches zero the listing says sold out, which is the whole value of an edition.
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Price the shipping before the sale
Set shipping by size and zone so a large framed piece is quoted at checkout rather than argued about after payment.
What is different about selling art.
What is different here
Every kind of product has a detail that decides whether the software fits. These are the ones that decide it here.
Editions only mean something if the number is real
An edition of fifty that quietly becomes sixty is fraud, not marketing. Letting the count run the listing means the number on the page is the number that exists.
Delivery is the risk, not the cost
A damaged parcel cannot be reshipped from stock, because there is no second one. Packing and zone-priced shipping are part of the offer rather than an afterthought at the end of it.
Buyers come back to the artist, not the piece
Somebody who bought once wants to know what you made next. The customer record is what turns a single sale into a second one, and it is worth more here than any category page.
Your buyers are already in a thread.
Where you sell
Art is found on a feed and bought after a conversation. Put a real product behind the post so the person asking whether it is still available can simply buy it instead of waiting for your reply.
In your market that usually means Your store, Instagram and In person.
Every channel above runs off the one catalog you set up once.
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer.
Getting paid
Take card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer at checkout, in US dollars, including on a piece somebody decides on at midnight. Automatic payouts to your bank.
Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
- Card
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Bank transfer
How it reaches the buyer.
Delivery
Set shipping by size and zone, because a small unframed print and a large framed canvas are not the same parcel. Offer collection alongside delivery for buyers who would rather not have an original in transit at all.
- Set your shipping rates by zone, by weight or as one flat rate, and the checkout works them out for the buyer instead of you quoting in a thread.
- Offer pickup beside delivery. A buyer who is nearby collects, and the order still goes through the same queue and the same stock count.
- Print the order, mark it packed, mark it sent. The buyer gets the update without you writing a message.
- Every order from every channel lands in one queue, so nothing is fulfilled twice and nothing is missed.
What it costs.
One subscription covers the store, the catalog, the order queue, the customer records and the counter. There is no separate charge for selling in chat, and no charge per kind of product.
Priced and paid in US dollars. Every plan opens with a free trial and no card.
You have the price and the plan now. Standing the shop up is about fifteen minutes of work.
What you would actually use.
The product
Named plainly, and each one has a page of its own if you want the detail.
Selling art, answered.
Can I sell a one-off original?
Yes, and it is the case this is built for. A stock count of one holds across your store, your chat orders and a show at the same time, so the piece cannot be sold twice.
How do I handle a limited edition?
Publish it as one product with the edition size as its stock count. The listing sells out on its own when the run is gone, and the number on the page stays true.
Can I sell prints and originals in the same shop?
Yes. They are products in one catalogue, priced and counted separately, and a single order can carry both.
What about commissions?
Publish the commission as a product with its lead time, take a deposit at the point of order and the balance on completion. It becomes a scheduled job with a record rather than an open conversation.
How should I price shipping for large work?
By size and zone. A framed metre-wide canvas and a rolled print cost very different amounts to send, and quoting that at checkout is better than discovering it afterwards.
Where does the money go?
To your own payout account, in US dollars. Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
Still have a question?
Every answer above was written by the people who build crate. If yours is not among them, the Help Center goes deeper, and a person reads what you send.
Selling something else?
Nearby
The same platform underneath, told in the language of the thing you make.