{"id":132272,"date":"2025-03-14T05:25:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T05:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/why-automating-art-sales-may-not-be-the-best-idea\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T05:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T05:25:45","slug":"why-automating-art-sales-may-not-be-the-best-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=132272","title":{"rendered":"Why Automating Art Sales May Not Be the Best Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Paint<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Time to reconnect with your creative flow!<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

In this weeks blog we will be
\nlooking at pressing the pause button on fully automating the process of selling
\nart. Not because automation is inherently bad, but because there\u2019s still a
\nreally long way to go before we no longer have to turn up at physical art
\nevents so that we can build strong connections with those who buy into our work
\nand ultimately, buy into us as artists.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

In a world where oil is
\nfinally more expensive than printer ink and Old Mother Hubbard appears to be
\nrunning the world\u2019s supply chains, never in the history of ever has it been so
\nimportant to look after those who continue to buy our work. Even more so when
\nthose buyers continue to buy our work during a cost of living crisis amidst a
\nglobal economy that makes those self checkout machines at the supermarket
\nscream unexpected item in the bagging area if you buy anything other than own
\nbrand discount tin foil.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just me
\nthat\u2019s noticed that the world seems to have changed dramatically since the
\npandemic. Everywhere you go you are forced into utilising some sort of
\ntechnology that automates a response that you would have once expected to be
\nperformed by a human. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing I noticed is how
\ngood manners seem to have been thrown out of the window alongside the discarded
\nwrappings of fast foods, and it\u2019s not just young people any more. It\u2019s young people,
\nold people, and normal-aged people (53 year old males who identify as Geeks). <\/span><\/p>\n

Three years living under the
\ncovid cloud confronting the fragility of our existence, and an acceleration of
\nautomation that meant we didn\u2019t have to consider the feelings of a bot, I think
\nit\u2019s fair to say that huge numbers of people are feeling disenfranchised from
\nthe very premise of society and presence, and then we\u2019re told we can no longer
\nspeak to another human and we need to press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, to join a
\nqueue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Automation was already nearing
\nhair pulling levels of frustration before the pandemic but then we spent the
\nbest part of two years singing the virtues of non-contact shopping. The most
\nprimordial of human instincts kicked in, and along with our need to survive, the
\nonline shop with delivery to your doorstep, an activity which could be
\ncompleted without feeling awkward about not opening the door to the delivery
\ndriver, became the flavour of the day. Just leave the shopping right there
\nbuddy and take three steps back, I need to spray it with my alcohol based spray
\nfirst.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a few years of eating alcohol
\ntainted bananas wasn\u2019t enough, phone lines were replaced almost overnight with
\nchatbots that kept you waiting for half an hour while you shouted in capital
\nletters as you typed, \u201cI WANT TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN\u201d, and with the pandemic not
\nquite over but certainly over in enough people\u2019s heads to make you feel like an
\noutcast if you continued to wear a face mask, I think we\u2019re now at the point
\nwhere we need to switch some of that automation off and finally take off the
\ndiscount tin foil hats.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Fried<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fry and Fry Again by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

According to some report or
\nother I looked at the other week on the internet, 3% of the world\u2019s population
\nenjoy speaking to Chatbots and the same people also favoured contactless
\nshopping. I\u2019m not sure who those three percent are but they certainly shouldn\u2019t
\nbe going outside and nor should they ever be put in the precarious position of
\nbeing in the same room as a sharp object without adult supervision. I can hand
\non heart say that I have never knowingly met a three percenter, or at least one
\nthat will admit to their deep admiration of a chatbot, I mean it\u2019s just weird.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rest of the world might be
\neager to utilise the services of ChatGPT and fully automate their workflow, me
\non the other hand, well I\u2019m of the breed that doesn\u2019t very much care for it. To
\nput some context around this, as we, or certainly I, discussed in my last
\nmusings, I have worked with AI for years and I still stick by my words in that
\nit\u2019s not yet mature enough to trust, and it\u2019s dangerous enough to know that we
\nshould never trust certain elements of the population to go anywhere near it,
\neven if it\u2019s only the AI platforms they\u2019re happy for us to see, you should see
\nwhat\u2019s in the lab.<\/span><\/p>\n

Give me time and I\u2019m sure I
\nwill eventually see the light, but right now, after a couple of years of
\navoiding people-ey situations, I would rather have a little bit of social
\ninteraction. Not too much because, well, people, but enough to at least go home
\nwith a product that I didn\u2019t feel I had to earn through pressing random numbers
\non a dial pad and hoping that the right thing was in the right box when it
\nfinally turned up.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for change, mostly it
\ncan be a force for good to coin a much overused clich\u00e9, but there are some
\nthings that really don\u2019t need too much change because as the old saying goes,
\nif it ain\u2019t broke, you don\u2019t need to fix it, and once again I find myself using
\nanother overused clich\u00e9, but face to face interactions really aren\u2019t broken in
\nour business. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m making a pact with all
\nof my regular buyers right now. I am not going down the road of mass-automation,
\nnor am I introducing chatbots, and I certainly won\u2019t be having some AI presence
\nwrite all of my blog posts, journalists and real authors are becoming rarer
\nthan Panda\u2019s lately. Note to editors here, a months long media course and paid
\naccess to ChatGPT does not a journalist make, and yet I find so many articles
\nlately that are clearly the ramblings of an hallucinating AI bot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The breaking news is that I\u2019m
\nchanging the way I run my business by remaining just as I am. If a buyer wants
\nto talk to me about my process, the weather, my views on if now is the right
\ntime to change the UK government (it is and has been for the past 13-years..),
\nor the buyer just wants to have a proper cup of coffee with me that\u2019s served in
\na ceramic mug, then I\u2019m all in. Even better if they want to pay me in cash or
\nvintage computers and old magazines in exchange for my art. I\u2019m not a fan of a
\nbank that prevents me from walking through a set of physical doors so that I
\ncan complain to a real human.<\/span><\/p>\n

So yes, my business is
\nchanging. The change here though is that I\u2019m not going to get sucked into a
\nworld where communication is no better than the T9 predictive text that used to
\nbe on my original Nokia phone (still with plenty of charge all these years
\nlater). I\u2019m changing in a different way to every other business I hear about and
\nI\u2019m going to continue doing things the old school way. How\u2019s it going? Well, \u00a0<\/span>I\u2019m talking to clients face to face, and frankly,
\nbusiness has never been better.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"endless<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Endless Path by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

There is another reason for me
\nnot to take that immediate leap and go all in on fully automating my business at
\nleast not just yet, and that\u2019s because my current collector base actually
\nprefer the old way of doing things. I know this because I asked them on our
\nregular Teams catch up. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have a huddle once a month
\nwhere we put the world to rights and mostly end up reminiscing about the 80s.
\nIt\u2019s the monthly event that brings my collectors together and it\u2019s also where I
\nshowcase a couple of new works like it\u2019s some virtual retro Tupperware party.
\nGood fun, and I nearly always get a sale, especially if I display public
\nadmiration of their wine drinking capability. <\/span><\/p>\n

What I found out the other
\nSunday night was that they like a coffee and a chat while deciding what piece
\nof art to buy, they also like it when I treat them like rock stars even if
\nthey\u2019re only buying a sticker or a greetings card and I suspect the clients of
\nmany other independent artists are just the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

As artists we\u2019re not in the
\nbusiness of selling off-the-shelf widgets and that is probably why as creative
\ntypes we need to think a bit differently to almost every other business out
\nthere. It makes sense to automate a subscription service or when you only sell
\nwidget-like things, but the sale of art involves the triggering of emotions, an
\ninteraction and connection between the artist and the buyer that runs far
\ndeeper than a tweet.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, going all in with
\nthe technology and automating much of the process will work for many
\nbusinesses, I think the art world is unique enough to warrant a dual approach
\nbetween the old way and the new. Not least that there are many art buyers who
\nstill yearn for the \u201cexperience\u201d of buying art rather than only the
\ntransaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout art history, the
\nsale of art has been a fundamental aspect of the art world. As artists we create
\nworks that are not only expressions of our creativity but also commodities that
\ncan be bought and sold. The ways in which art has been sold have varied over
\ntime and across cultures, mostly reflecting changes in the economic and social
\ncontext of the art market but the fundamental principles have always remained
\nthe same.<\/span><\/p>\n

In ancient times, art was
\noften created for religious or political purposes, and the artists were
\ncommissioned by rulers, temples, or wealthy individuals to create works that
\nreflected their power and status. These works were not necessarily intended for
\nsale, but rather as symbols of authority and wealth. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, some ancient cultures
\ndid have marketplaces for art, such as the Greek agora, where sculptors and
\npainters sold their works to the public. Imagine if you will, a physical yet
\nantiquated version of Etsy, set up in a cobbled street with the buyers wearing<\/span> <\/span>\u00a0a peplos or chiton and a cloak which
\nwould have been known as an himation. Not unlike some of the art and craft
\nfairs that we visit today to buy mass manufactured incense sticks and salt
\nlamps. <\/span><\/p>\n

We do seem to have lost our
\nway with many of these popular monthly local art and craft fairs of late
\nbecause most of them seem to be filled with sellers hawking product they could
\nhave got in bulk from Ali-Baba. Town councils in their desperation to bring
\npeople back to the high street set these things up and call them artisan
\nmarkets but never consult with the local arts community to figure out the
\nmeaning of artisan. If I were to set one up, I would hope the bar to openly
\ntrade might be set a little higher than a physical version of Wish dot com.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like I say, I am old school.
\nWhen I visit a local artisan market I like to buy random stuff made by artisans
\nand I like the conversation and occasionally the banter. I\u2019m the same when I
\nvisit an art gallery, I don\u2019t want to see a collection generated by AI from the
\nstolen art of others, I want to know that an artist spent at least 20 minutes
\ncreating something after spending 20 years working on their craft. That\u2019s how
\nit as at one time. Physical events, professional artists, and not a bot in
\nsight.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the Renaissance in
\nEurope, the rise of the merchant class led to a significant increase in demand
\nfor art, as wealthy patrons sought to display their status and cultural
\nsophistication. The artists of the time, such as Leonardo da Vinci and
\nMichelangelo, were often employed by these patrons to create works for their
\npersonal collections. However, there were also markets for art in public
\nspaces, such as the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, where artists could sell their
\nworks directly to the public. Once again, this would have been a period in
\nhistory where it would have been possible to buy hand crafted artisan products,
\nrather than mass manufactured incense sticks and salt lamps.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 18th and 19th
\ncenturies, the rise of the art market as we know it today began to take shape.
\nAuction houses, such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, were founded in London in the
\nmid-18th century, and they quickly became important players in the sale of art.
\nPrivate galleries also emerged during this period, and these allowed collectors
\nto view and purchase works in a more controlled setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 20th century, the art
\nmarket underwent significant changes due to the emergence of new art movements
\nsuch as modernism and conceptual art. These movements challenged traditional
\nnotions of what art was and how it should be sold. As a result, new types of
\ngalleries and art fairs emerged which catered to these new forms of art and
\nprovided a platform for emerging artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the art market
\ncontinues to evolve, with new technologies such as online marketplaces and
\nblockchain-based authentication systems once again changing the way art is
\nbought and sold. However, the fundamentals of the art market remain the same as
\ncollectors and investors seek out works that they consider to be of cultural or
\nfinancial value. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"American<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
American Diner Art Print by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

But where the art market has
\nchanged most is that a majority of the art market for the majority of working
\nartists is no longer confined to any of the above, for many buyers today
\noutside of the galleries and major art fairs, it\u2019s a purely decorative need that
\ndrives the purchase. The significant change is in what and why people buy these
\ndays, not necessarily just how or where they buy it.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to be disparaging
\nto most of the artwork that we\u2019re more likely to come across in big box stores
\nor online, even galleries exist with the sole purpose of selling \u201cart to the
\nmasses\u201d and it\u2019s not to say that the art produced is produced with less talent
\nor skill than we witnessed from the Old Masters, but the art market today has
\nevolved to be more than the sum of its parts and there is no longer a single
\nart market (if there ever really was).<\/span><\/p>\n

The art market of today is no
\nlonger seen as a singular, it is many art markets that serve very different
\nneeds and tastes but the principles of selling art are not fundamentally any
\ndifferent today than they were back in the 1800s. Nodding back to even older
\nways of selling art, there are now art markets that serve an even more
\ntraditional method of trading works by utilising the good old fashioned barter
\nsystem and I really wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we didn\u2019t see more of this come
\nback. I\u2019m always happy to consider a trade, so long as the trade is not the
\npromise of great exposure.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I said earlier, for a lot
\nof people, it isn\u2019t the transaction of an art sale that excites them, it is the
\nexperience of an art sale that hooks them. It\u2019s how we as artists deliver that
\nhook that turns non-typical art buyers into potential art collectors. So it\u2019s
\nessential to understand how to provide that hook if you are an independent
\nvisual artist running a small art business and it\u2019s essential to the wider art
\ncommunity that exists even within the major galleries. A new art buyer purchasing
\na relatively inexpensive piece of decorative art today could easily develop
\naspirations to visit a gallery and purchase a piece of high end fine art tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an artist, it can be
\ntempting to rely solely on online sales platforms such as Etsy, Amazon, social
\nmedia or even your own website to sell your work. After all, these platforms
\noffer a global reach, convenient payment processing, and a low barrier to
\nentry. As I have said many times on these pages, it\u2019s far easier today to reach
\na global audience than it is to reach a local one.<\/span><\/p>\n

So while I sing the virtues of
\ndoing things the old way I\u2019m not suggesting that we step away completely from
\nour online world, not even just a bit. If the pandemic has taught us anything
\nit should be that we should have access to a number of baskets to place our
\neggs in rather than just the one, and at least one of those baskets should nod
\nback to the time before digital took over the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Selling your work in person
\nallows you to connect with potential buyers on a more personal level and it
\npresents you with a unique gift that no online presence can truly provide, you
\ncan occasionally create those deep connections that form between two humans
\nthat can then turn casual buyers into life-long collectors. To do that, you
\nhave to build a relationship with the buyer alongside a level of trust and
\nthat\u2019s a really hard thing to do really well online. Where it is done well,
\nthere\u2019s almost always a human doing something behind the scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The downside with offline is
\nthat I simply can\u2019t automate some of the numbers I need to manage my output and
\ninfluence my thinking. When I place my work online I get analytics presented in
\na neat little grid. I get to see a lot of numbers and pretty graphs, but they
\ngive me no real sense of who the people who are visiting my site really are. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m sure if I had access to
\nthe kind of analytics that the likes of Amazon use, I would be able to tell you
\nexactly when someone will make their next purchase, I could probably tell what
\nthey\u2019ll be thinking in five minutes time, but us regular folk don\u2019t have access
\nto anything quite like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the analytics that most
\nof us will have access to, I can\u2019t tell you that person A is more responsive to
\nthe texture of the artwork, I can probably make an informed guess that they
\nlike the colour blue because they looked at more works in that colour, but looking
\nat online analytics, I\u2019m missing critical information that makes it easy for me
\nto work out not just the kind of artwork they\u2019re more likely to buy, but the
\nkind of artwork that I really should be more focussed on creating.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us have some level of
\naccess to online analytics platforms that do a very good job, but everything I
\ndo after looking through the virtual numbers is only ever going to be reactive.
\nA thousand people might have viewed a particular artwork during the day but
\nthere\u2019s nothing that I can do in the moment to try and persuade the 990 people
\nwho didn\u2019t buy a print or an original to part with their money, I can\u2019t be
\nproactive in the way that I can be face to face.<\/span><\/p>\n

By participating in art shows,
\ngallery exhibitions, or even setting up a pop-up shop in a local market, you
\nhave the opportunity to meet your audience face to face, hear their feedback,
\nand answer their questions about your work. This type of interaction builds
\ntrust and can lead to long-term relationships with collectors who will continue
\nto support your art in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, participating in
\noffline events and exhibitions can help you build your reputation as an artist.
\nBy being present in the local arts community and participating in events, you
\nincrease your visibility and the chances of being discovered by curators,
\ncollectors, and other art professionals who can help take your career to the
\nnext level.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"90s<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
90s Digital Camera Art Print by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

Another advantage of offline
\nsales is the potential for higher profit margins. While online sales platforms
\noffer convenience and a potentially large customer base, they often charge fees
\nfor listing, processing payments, and shipping. We might balk at the thought of
\nbeing represented by a gallery who then take 50% of the sale, but some of these
\nonline marketplaces are happiest when you\u2019re only making ten percent of the
\ntotal sale and you\u2019re doing all of the work when it comes to encouraging
\ncustomers to visit. <\/span><\/p>\n

By selling your work in
\nperson, you mostly eliminate these fees and can potentially make a higher
\nprofit on each sale. You still have business costs, and there\u2019s the matter of
\nyour time, but adding people into the mix when few others are doing that, is
\nnow seen as being something very different from what\u2019s rapidly becoming the
\nnorm. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth bearing in
\nmind that when you market and sell your work offline, you choose the art you
\nare surrounded by. Online, that gift is not usually within your reach, your
\nclosest competitor could set up shop right next door, or even on the same web
\npage, or even worse, you could be the only human in a page of bots.<\/span><\/p>\n

These marketplaces have a
\nplace, but they should be used as another outlet, a tool, rather than being set
\nup in the hope that they become a passive income generating gravy train, but so
\nmany artists fall for the promise of automating an income, and from experience,
\nthat rarely ever happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relying on automation to fully
\nlook after your business is also fundamentally deskilling you, and if you don\u2019t
\nhave the business skills already, they\u2019ll hamper you when you eventually need
\nthem. Participating in offline sales can help you hone your marketing and sales
\nskills but more than that, I\u2019ve yet to come across any technology that can take
\ncritical business decisions based on years of experience as a creator and that
\nall-important gut instinct. <\/span><\/p>\n

If I take on a commission I
\nneed to qualify the commissioner so I can feel confident about being paid, if I
\nleft that to AI, right now, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s yet capable of instinctively
\nknowing when something is off. Artists have for a long time been targets for
\nscammers.<\/span><\/p>\n

By interacting with customers
\nin person and observing their reactions to your work, you can gain valuable
\ninsights into what resonates with your audience and how to communicate the
\nvalue of your work. This knowledge can then be applied to your online sales
\nstrategy, making it more effective and efficient and that human response is
\npriceless, never underestimate just how much it tells you about you need to
\nknow about what you need to include in your next creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to scare the horses here,
\nbut the world of social media is changing and because social media is the
\nbedrock on online marketing, this becomes a worry on so many fronts. Forget the
\ncancel culture if you inadvertently offend a bot, that\u2019s just one issue with
\nthe potential to sink a business. The new worry for small businesses is that
\nthese platforms are on the brink of massive change or collapse without some
\nserious financial injections that will replace the pots of gold they became accustomed
\ntoo when people were less concerned about privacy and the days when people
\nclicked on ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Twitter platform under
\nMusk has realised what most of us on the outer fringes have realised for years,
\nrunning a social media platform is expensive and when regulation and
\nlegislation prevent the tech giants from harvesting your data in the same way
\nthat they were doing less than a decade ago, the monetisation of those
\nplatforms has to come from somewhere else and the only other place they can
\nturn to, is either online ads or you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, in some way we
\nhave always funded social media and we have always paid a high price to use it.
\nWe have handed over access to our lives in ways that often, even our family or
\npartners would be oblivious to. We shared our lives and innermost thoughts
\nvoluntarily for years while knowing deep down it was a problem, and then it
\nbecame a problem in the open and we were all outraged that companies could take
\nour personal data and do a bunch of other stuff with it like sell it. It was
\nall too late, they already had it and then we began to find out what they
\nreally did with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the sale and sharing of
\nthis data that funded the access we had that meant we didn\u2019t need to reach into
\nour pockets and pay to post with physical cash. Online Ad spend replaced the
\ndata sales for a while, albeit that online ads were more than likely never
\nquite as fruitful as the data sales, and while it was a steady income it was
\none that eventually wasn\u2019t quite enough to continue paying the rent especially
\nwhen privacy restrictions started applying to online ads as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

With an expensive platform
\nleft to run and diminishing income, It would be a momentous task to then ask
\nthe end user to start paying with money directly out of their pockets because
\nsince the very start of social media, the tech giants have done nothing but
\ncondition end users to expect the services for free, and somehow, now it\u2019s our
\nproblem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter from stage right,
\ntwitter blue. Musk\u2019s latest attempt at monetising something that everyone had
\nbeen getting for free in an attempt to pay back the millions of dollars a day
\nthat twitter was loosing. This was partly because twitter had found itself in a
\nplace that needed to be fed with constant hires and increasingly more
\ninfrastructure at a time during the pandemic when infrastructure was at a
\npremium. <\/span><\/p>\n

As the bubble of Twitter began
\nto stretch beyond its income, something that was likely happening way before
\nthe pandemic, it was inevitable that at some point it would begin to rip at the
\nseams. Once the reliance on Twitter and social media more widely went back
\ntowards pre-pandemic levels, albeit lower levels because people were fed up
\nwith the division and prejudice and all that other stuff, there was no longer a
\nneed for the additional hires and the number of people jettisoning the platform
\nwould put the need for the additional infrastructure into question. <\/span><\/p>\n

Something had to change in its
\ndelivery and Musk\u2019s litmus test of moving the income generation towards end
\nusers to fund the platform rather than advertisers essentially set out the stall
\nthat this would be the end of free at the point of access social media for
\neveryone. You can bet that other platforms are watching closely and we are now
\nheading towards a social media landscape that could very well soon find itself
\nin a transition towards being entirely pay to play.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I think it\u2019s wise to start
\nthinking about some of these changes as artists and small business owners.
\nSocial media will exponentially change over the coming years and with Facebook
\nnow rolling out paid for verification, the transition has now officially started,
\neven if they\u2019re not openly admitting it. Twitter have now announced that those
\nwho don\u2019t pay will have no reach, to be honest, I\u2019m not sure how most of us
\nwould tell the difference, so if Twitter was the litmus test, the question becomes,
\ndoes this change in direction mean that other social platforms including
\nFacebook will go the same way?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Industrial<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Industrial by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

If I was to go all out, and if
\nI was a betting man, and if I were to also look at the current business model
\nobjectively, what social media needs right now is a good veterinarian to put it
\nout of its misery. That might sound cold and dramatic, but this is exactly what
\nwould be needed if the same thing happened to any other business in any other
\nspace. <\/span><\/p>\n

Social media as we currently
\nknow it certainly needs a reset and it really needs better PR people, not CTOs
\nand engineers being the public face. It also needs to start providing better
\nvalue to creators and the small businesses that have been propping it up with
\nad-spend or attracting more viewers. Social media is so similar these days to
\nthe wider media industry that it\u2019s become more and more about getting eyes on
\nthe content so that they can serve the ads, and it\u2019s also become more about
\ndividing populations because division drives engagement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Can anything save it, I\u2019m
\ncertainly not sure that monetisation by the end user can, we\u2019re far too late
\nfor that. I\u2019m not convinced that the numbers will be there, especially in the
\nmidst of a downward spiralling global economy that\u2019s not just affecting
\nbusinesses but the people who buy from those businesses as well. We are already
\nsaturated by subscriptions and I don\u2019t think social media is a pick up and put
\ndown option in the way services such as Netflix are. <\/span><\/p>\n

Could innovation save social
\nmedia? A Metaverse has been done before with Second Life, the tundra of the
\nmeta through the lens of Virtual Reality is currently as barren as a desert,
\ndigital real estate hasn\u2019t had its foundations laid even if companies have already
\ninvested heavily in the pixelated ground, add to that, the messaging isn\u2019t
\nclear about what it is, and ultimately, the technology just isn\u2019t there at the
\npoint of need which is exactly right now. <\/span><\/p>\n

Where the tech is available
\nit\u2019s not overly affordable for everyone, and these are barriers that need to be
\nremoved. It\u2019s not so much everything everywhere, all at once, it\u2019s more akin to
\neverything nowhere, far too late.<\/span><\/p>\n

I realise that this might
\nsound as if I\u2019m not just attending the funeral of social media but I\u2019m
\ncelebrating and \u00a0<\/span>eating canapes at its
\nwake. I think that\u2019s inevitable, in time we will all be attending the wake and
\nproviding a post mortem style commentary on what went wrong. Social media will
\neither change beyond recognition or it will eventually fail. It will become
\nsmaller, it might even become more focussed, both of which will be good but I
\nthink we can see where it\u2019s heading and eventually, sometime possibly sooner
\nthan we think, we will have to pay to play and I\u2019m not as yet convinced the
\nnumbers will be there to make it worth it. <\/span><\/p>\n

As artists, I think it might
\nbe wise to make sure any plan you have for the future absolutely includes
\nhaving an offline strategy. It\u2019s going to be critical that it still includes
\nonline components, but neither should be completely symbiotic with each other. If
\nbusinesses are going to find the pay to play landscape a challenge that\u2019s a
\ngood indication that regular end users will too. If the buyers get priced out
\nof using it then we\u2019re kind of back to where we were before digital. <\/span><\/p>\n

In some form, I think most of these
\nservices will continue, I also think some will come to a painful end, but as
\nartists, if we are to make the investment in them, be that in time or money, we
\nreally will need to know that our audience of buyers will be sticking around. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Fly<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fly me to the Moon by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably worth quickly
\npicking up on this point too, especially as supermarket loyalty schemes draw
\nmany parallels with the primary purpose of social media, at least for the
\ncompanies that operate these platforms and schemes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supermarket loyalty schemes
\nhave been around for several decades, and they operate on a simple principle:
\ncustomers earn points or rewards for their purchases, which can be redeemed for
\ndiscounts or free products. In exchange, supermarkets collect valuable data on
\ntheir customers’ shopping habits, such as what products they buy, how often
\nthey buy them, and how much they spend. <\/span><\/p>\n

This data allows supermarkets
\nto better understand their customers’ needs and preferences, and to tailor
\ntheir marketing and promotional efforts accordingly and they\u2019re better placed
\nto make this work, you can\u2019t easily dismiss a pop-up ad when it\u2019s on display in
\nfront of the humous for the three-percenters to buy in a supermarket.<\/span><\/p>\n

The value to businesses and
\nmarketers lies in the wealth of data that they collect from users. The purpose
\nof both loyalty schemes and social media is to collect data on consumer
\nbehaviour and preferences, but the limiting factor of any of these schemes is
\nthat they can only observe behaviour that happens within the schemes reach and
\nsight. When Apple made privacy changes, and additional data protection laws
\nbecame better enforced, the value for retailers and social media companies
\nbegan to ebb away.<\/span><\/p>\n

These schemes alongside the
\ndata collection methods used in social media are also painfully expensive to
\nmanage, particularly now the public are more sighted on the real purpose of how
\ntheir data is often used, as a result, people are more reluctant than ever
\nbefore to share their details and they\u2019re much less inclined to share their
\nemail address. Two big issues spring to mind here.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most significant
\nparallels between social media and supermarket loyalty schemes is the potential
\nfor data misuse. In recent years, there have been several high-profile data
\nbreaches involving social media platforms which have resulted in the exposure
\nof users’ personal information. Similarly, there have been instances of
\nsupermarkets selling or sharing customer data with third-party marketers,
\nwithout customers’ knowledge or consent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another parallel is the ethics
\nof data collection. While both social media and supermarket loyalty schemes
\noffer users the ability to opt-out of data collection, many users are not aware
\nof the extent of data collection or the implications of sharing their personal
\ninformation. This raises questions about transparency and informed consent, and
\nwhether users are being fully informed about the ways in which their data is
\nbeing used.<\/span><\/p>\n

These schemes are so
\ninherently similar to social media that they\u2019re almost an exact fit inside the
\nsame bubbles that have been bursting so rapidly in the tech industry
\nrecently.\u00a0 <\/span>There comes a point where you
\nhave learned everything you need to learn, and it\u2019s at this point when running
\nthose schemes becomes yet another expense that eats up profit, and there also
\ncomes a point when the data stops flowing because people now realise they have
\na choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we can expect to see with
\nthese schemes in the future, if they indeed do continue in a similar way, is
\nthat the supermarkets will look towards monetisation. You\u2019ll subscribe to a
\ndiscount club, in the UK we\u2019re already seeing this with one of the biggest
\nsupermarkets, Tesco, with its Tesco Plus program, you will get benefits, maybe
\nslightly lower prices, but what\u2019s the real cost?<\/span><\/p>\n

I think the point here is that
\nthe digital landscape will change for small businesses. I know a lot of my
\nbuyers have already moved off social platforms completely having become tired
\nof the division and politicisation of almost every post that appears in a
\ntimeline. The only respite seems to be from the small businesses who are doing
\ntheir best to continue to have a presence for their customers who remain online
\non these platforms, but even small business posts often have their comments
\nhijacked by some numpty with an opinion about something totally irrelevant to
\nthe post. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"abstract<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Waiting in the Sky by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no real secret to this
\nother than we need to strip things right back to basics and follow the
\nprinciples of good old customer service and go back to treating buyers like the
\nsuperstars they are. I have so many conversations with new artists who have
\npursued the online only route of sales and mostly those conversations are around
\nhow to increase an artists online exposure. Often there\u2019s an expectation that
\nthe answer is you have to do something online to increase online exposure but
\nthat\u2019s the lowest price of entry, you need to be just as, if not even more
\nfocussed on developing a profile and a presence offline in parallel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Increasing your visibility
\nstarts offline by engaging with the art community, attending physical events,
\nand building offline engagement by communicating face to face. I\u2019ve never been
\nconvinced that doing everything online is a good strategy in the art world.
\nToday I spend more time having offline dialogue with buyers and potential
\nbuyers than I do creating social media posts. It\u2019s not that running an online
\ncampaign is futile, it\u2019s essential for now, but it\u2019s more essential to be where
\nyour potential buyers are and they\u2019re not always engaged with social media. <\/span><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t assume that people
\nwill just find us, the online art space is crowded, almost saturated, so unless
\nyou are doing something that really stands head and shoulders above anything
\nanyone else is doing to promote themselves and their work, I don\u2019t think we can
\nmake the assumption that potential buyers will be purposely seeking us or our
\nwork out online because it\u2019s like finding a needle in a haystack. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to selling art I
\nbelieve from experience that it\u2019s way easier to sell art face to face than it
\nis online. That could be due to human nature, it\u2019s way more difficult to say no
\nto a human than it is to say no to a screen. When I do go online, I\u2019m not
\nnecessarily going to social channels as a first port of call, for my retro
\nworks I engage with potential clients through services such as Discord and
\nReddit where I can find a community where the discussion is more focussed on my
\nsubject area, or I turn up at physical events. <\/span><\/p>\n

Never think of online purely
\nas the typical social media platforms, if you paint niche subjects it\u2019s more likely
\nthat your audience is going to be hanging around in the community areas of
\nspecialist websites, or they\u2019re hanging around on Discord or on Reddit. People
\nare looking towards alternatives to the traditional platforms and where those
\nalternatives don\u2019t exist, people are looking offline. I\u2019m very much a believer
\nthat if you want to engage with a community, you have to be part of that
\ncommunity. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"portable<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ready, Steady, Pause by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are dealing with
\npeople, and that might be a strange concept post-pandemic, humans, mostly just
\nlike us, tend to favour buying from people who are upfront and honest and that
\nincludes being open and honest about your pricing. If you sell a ten dollar
\nprint, few people will question your pricing strategy, but if you are selling a
\npiece of work that would be a considered purchase for the buyer, they will often
\nwant more information and you could find yourself in a place where you have to
\njustify the price you have arrived at. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a nuance of the art
\nworld, we rarely question how the price of a widget is decided, every time I
\nvisit the supermarket lately I question why my favourite Cheddar cheese has
\nalmost doubled in price over the past year, yet I still begrudgingly pop it in
\nthe basket and then hope that there\u2019s not too much month left at the end of the
\nmoney when I get to the checkout. I\u2019m upset, even angry about the increased
\ncost, but I don\u2019t then question it when I have to pay.<\/span><\/p>\n

With art, the artist almost
\nalways has to justify the price they charge. If you can do this, buyers will be
\nappreciative and will rarely show resentment and most people really do
\nunderstand the increasing costs that small businesses face. <\/span><\/p>\n

They also understand that you
\nget better at doing what you do and that you have to place an insane amount of
\neffort into keeping your skills up to date, they also understand when your work
\nbecomes more in demand, but you have to be able to explain it so that they
\nunderstand that you\u2019re not simply nickel and diming them.<\/span><\/p>\n

What buyers don\u2019t really like
\nis when pricing is obscured or ambiguous. I have seen this so many times
\nrecently where the price of a work is indicated but then other charges are then
\nadded on top at the last minute. If a buyer thinks a work is going to cost them
\na hundred dollars but they then find that there are additional charges for
\ntaxes and shipping making it close to two hundred dollars when they go to the
\ncheckout, in a world where everyone has become what I call, \u201cPrime Trained\u201d,
\nthey tend to turn up their noses at the last minute and you end up losing a
\nsale.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime trained, for those who
\naren\u2019t, is the concept of buying a product with free, expedited delivery,
\ninclusive of taxes, and presented as a single cost. Even then it might not be
\nclear, shipping is generally free for Amazon Prime members, but the cost of
\nshipping is part of the price you pay to be a Prime member but when we see free
\nshipping, it\u2019s one less thing to worry about and it takes another barrier away
\nfor the buyer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"1980s<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
One Careful Owner by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever I sell anything
\nonline buyers have 30-days to change their mind. If it\u2019s a stock item such as a
\nprint and they buy it directly, I offer the same guarantee when I\u2019m dealing
\nwith them face to face. If they want to change it for something they like
\nbetter, that\u2019s no problem either. The only exception to this is when they have
\nordered a bespoke commission, but even then, if a buyer is unsure whether a
\nwork will match their d\u00e9cor then I\u2019m more than happy to let them hang a
\nsimilarly sized print on their wall for a week or make an agreed number of
\nchanges to the commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The secret to offering this
\nkind of guarantee isn\u2019t in financing their poor decorative choices where the piece
\nin question would be absolutely out of place in the buyers surroundings, but to
\nensure that the customer is buying what will work for them from the outset. <\/span><\/p>\n

This means working with them
\nto find the perfect piece that they want to live with, doing something as
\nsimple as demonstrating how they can use the augmented reality feature on the
\nPixels app to virtually view the work on their wall whether they purchase the
\nwork from Pixels or not, but more critically, taking some time to converse with
\nthem to figure out what their needs really are. Those are all effective things
\nthat should be done as part of what should be an ongoing dialogue during the
\nprocess of selling a piece of work to make sure the buyer remains happy. <\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to offer money
\nback guarantees, that\u2019s a difficult thing to do as an independent artist
\nrunning a small business when you have to spend so many hours and make so much
\nfinancial investment to create a piece of work. You have material costs,
\nsometimes you need to add licencing costs, shipping, and other business costs,
\nand the time you invest, so the stakes can be high even for straightforward
\nworks where no client revisions are needed. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is different online where
\nwe don\u2019t necessarily run point on or carry the burden of the transaction, and
\nit\u2019s different when it\u2019s an open edition print that can be returned to stock, but
\nthere are ways in which you can offer buyers some peace of mind. If you have prints
\nin stock then it\u2019s easy enough to offer to swap out work for a piece that will
\nwork better in the space that they have. <\/span><\/p>\n

Your mission is to make sure
\nthe buyer is happy because that\u2019s the kind of juju that brings in more buyers.
\nI\u2019m sure there was once a piece of research that found that buyers who were
\nhappy with the product and the service were more likely to turn into repeat
\nbuyers, and a few would even let their friends know too. <\/span><\/p>\n

In many cases, art purchases
\nare going to be significant financial outlays for buyers and they\u2019re buying
\nsomething that they will have to live with for a while. It still gives me
\nchills after all these years when I think about that, knowing that a piece of
\nwork I created is hanging on someone\u2019s wall, so I will always do whatever needs
\nto be done to make sure they never have to live with something they resent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just not the sugar free
\nedition which is a direct replacement for a weapon of mass destruction
\ninvolving frequent visits to the bathroom. It\u2019s well documented that over
\nconsumption of sugar free gummy bears is bad for the gut and even worse for the
\nbowel, but regular gummy bears, they\u2019re a diplomatic tool for good. I digress,
\nbut we often talk about the value add, and I think that mostly it\u2019s something
\nthat we overthink.<\/span><\/p>\n

A value add might come from
\nthe after sales service that you provide, or it might come from the materials
\nyou use, it could even be a low cost upgrade to a premium paper or canvas
\nstock, often there\u2019s very little difference between budget and not quite so
\nbudget supports. Or, it could just be adding a nice touch to the packaging when
\nyou send the goods out. So many Etsy sellers have jumped on the Haribo
\nbandwagon recently, every time I make a new purchase from a different Etsy
\nseller I always seem to end up with a free mini-bag of Haribo\u2019s in the
\npackaging. It’s a nice touch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Discounting work is never a
\ngreat idea but if you have collectors who regularly make a purchase there are
\nthings you can do to provide extra value that doesn\u2019t devalue the work. There\u2019s
\nusually more room for flexibility with framing costs, or you can offer upgraded
\nmats, a hanging kit, or if the buyers local, you can deliver and hang it for
\nthem. Never think of discounts being the only value you can add, there are
\nplenty of creative ways to add value without it massively impacting the bottom
\nline.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"video<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Video 2000 by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

Offering good service is
\nsomething that in time will be possible to offer using automation and AI. There
\nare enough examples in the tech and service sector already where technology is
\nas seamless as a human in delivering results, but these examples wouldn\u2019t
\neasily translate to the business of selling art, at least just yet. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I said earlier, we\u2019re
\nselling an experience, something that is subjective, something that triggers an
\nemotional response, and that\u2019s a very different concept to selling a generic
\nwidget or an online service.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge difference
\nbetween good service and great service. To offer great service, well, I can\u2019t
\nthink of any level of automation that provides that and I\u2019m not convinced it ever
\nwill. Mostly, automation defaults to the minimum viable product. Automation
\njust has to do a single job with no expectations that it will deliver any level
\nof value over and above, it\u2019s purpose it to achieve one single outcome for
\nwhich it is tasked which might be to renew a subscription, raise a service
\nticket on a support desk, or any number of simple, usually single things that
\nhumans no longer have to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

With humans, we kind if like
\nit when they go over and above, and we like it even more when they make us feel
\nspecial. Automation can\u2019t do that without coming across as weird, have you ever
\nhad a chatbot give you a compliment that\u2019s genuinely sincere? I think even with
\nthe progress being made in the world of AI, we\u2019re still a very long way off it
\ncoming across as being authentically, authentic. AI is programmed to mimic
\nbeing authentic, humans have authenticity built in, well most of them do.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"landscape<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Midnight Pass by Mark Taylor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

AI and automation is clearly
\nthe future but my gut instincts and experience in the field tell me that it\u2019s
\nstill a future that\u2019s a way off despite the massive advances and the great AI race
\nthat\u2019s taking place right now. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before we get there, there
\nwill need to be more in the way of safeguarding that will be needed, maybe the
\nblunt instrument of government regulation will eventually need to happen and
\nthere will certainly need to be oversight at some level to limit the
\nopportunity to completely weaponise it. The problem is that AI is already being
\nweaponised even in its current form and the recent calls for a six-month hiatus
\nin machine learning models is a response that is a lot too late.<\/span><\/p>\n

AI and automation might work
\nreally well for some businesses but I\u2019m not convinced it will work completely
\nautonomously in the process of selling art for a very long time. It can assist
\nthe process but the uniqueness and subjectivity of buying art isn\u2019t something
\nthat is prescriptive. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I said earlier, we can\u2019t
\navoid any level of automation in our businesses, and I don\u2019t think we should
\neven try to avoid automation if it gives us more time to spend either working
\nwith a client or on a clients ask. But right now, the important thing is to
\nmake sure that we are looking after the buyers we already have, we need to make
\nsure that we don\u2019t alienate the buyers who simply refuse to engage online, but
\nthe important thing is that we remain responsive to our markets wherever they
\nmight hang out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lowest price of admission
\nto becoming a professional artist is to make sure that you do have a web
\npresence, a website that isn\u2019t going away anytime soon, unlike the risk that
\nplagues social media. It\u2019s also important to have a social media presence, you
\nneed to be where your audience are. <\/span><\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t then have to
\nfollow trends, mistakenly thinking that we absolutely have to become
\nincreasingly digital, or automated, or appear to be uber cool. Art isn\u2019t that
\nkind of business, and I\u2019m sure there are plenty of artists out there who are
\nfans of automating much of what they do, but for the majority of working
\nartists that\u2019s just not where their audience will be at. Go ahead and ask them
\nand you might be surprised at their response. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more thing to
\nconsider too. As artists, we\u2019re here for a limited time and hopefully our art
\nwill be here for longer, but during this limited time we each have a
\nresponsibility to make sure that the arts never get completely consumed into
\nwhat is often only a temporary world and for that, there will be many buyers
\nwho will thank you for not trying to automate the creation of future art
\nhistory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until next time, I hope you have some creative fun and continue pushing forward with your art, you’ve got this!<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark x<\/span><\/p>\n

About Mark\u2026<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Mark is an artist who
\nspecialises in vintage inspired works featuring technology and random stuff
\nfrom the 70s, 80s and 90s. He is also known for his landscape works and the
\noccasional abstract.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can purchase Mark\u2019s work
\nthrough Fine Art America or his Pixels site here:\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/10-mark-taylor.pixels.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You
\ncan also purchase prints and originals directly and some works are available
\nfor digital download via Zazzle. You can also view Mark\u2019s portfolio website
\nat\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/beechhousemedia.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Join the conversation on
\nFacebook at: <\/span>https:\/\/facebook.com\/beechhousemedia<\/span><\/a>
\nconnect on Twitter, while it lasts, @beechhouseart or waste hours on Pinterest
\nright here: <\/span>https:\/\/pinterest.com\/beechhousemedia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time to reconnect with your creative flow! In this weeks blog we will be looking at pressing the pause button on fully automating the process of selling art. Not because automation is inherently bad, but because there\u2019s still a really long way to go before we no longer have to turn up at physical art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1885,27246,341,1329],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-132272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-art","tag-automating","tag-idea","tag-sales"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Automating Art Sales May Not Be the Best Idea - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=132272\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Automating Art Sales May Not Be the Best Idea - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Time to reconnect with your creative flow! In this weeks blog we will be looking at pressing the pause button on fully automating the process of selling art. 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