I had no idea that it would be so difficult to sell my art online! I mean, people go to school to get degrees in E-commerce. I had no idea. It has been a process. One that I want to make sure I document and am totally honest about. It has not been easy but I am still convinced that it will happen and I will be selling my work online in no time!
But simply getting the art ready to place in an online shop is a feat. The professional photographer I worked with in February suggested that I scan my artwork instead of photographing it which was the best recommendation I could have gotten. Not only does scanning keep the artwork in perspective, it also keeps the colors pretty true (except for that bright pink?!). But that is just step one, scan. Then I need to crop, edit with photoshop, choose a framing option, and place them in a digital frame. Those steps add on at least 30 minutes for each product.
Photographing artwork...
Scanning artwork...
Then on to product additions. After I sent all of my edited photos to my web designer and wrote up blurbs about each piece, I told her exactly how I wanted my shop to function. (This was after I was shot down by two web designers with the idea that I really want to do; mix and match layers :)) So she worked for a few days on placing products and descriptions into a shop, with various colors and framing options under each product. When I looked at my shop, it was really not what I had envisioned. I want the customer to be able to make choices. And then I saw that in the cart the product image is not even the correct image that the buyer placed in the cart! It is always the image of the first photo under each product.
Come on Squarespace. This seems like an easy fix. Just have the image match up with each SKU! I sent them a review and then began to problem solve.
Maybe I should just use Etsy?
Maybe I can just have one product in each without color choices but with framing options?
Maybe I should just have one color choice for each design?
Maybe I should just ditch the online shop?
It seemed like the best way to solve this problem is to reduce the buyers' choices. So, I went from wanting to give the customer complete control in mixing and matching their layers and colors and custom design their artwork to now them not even being able to choose what frame they want. I am limited by my options in technology and time.
So, it's not what I envisioned but it will have to work for now. And I have gained some appreciation for all of those Etsy artists.