Fine art insurer in conjunction with ArtTactic has just released a survey on the online art trade. The report, in PDF form is just over 20 pages long and has some very interesting statistics about the rise in online art sales by dealers, galleriest, B2B, and auction houses. The report and survey covers key findings for art buyers, galleries, recent trends in the online market, online art sales, and an online art buying survey
The report states the following key findings for art buyers
Source: HiscoxArt buyers
• Art collectors and art buyers are already buying art directly online. 64% of collectors surveyed have bought art (sight unseen)1 through a website with little or no interaction with the seller.
• Buying art based on a digital image has become the norm rather than the exception. 71% of art collectors have bought art online sight unseen. This is supported by the fact that 89% of the galleries surveyed regularly sell art to clients on the basis of a digital image only. This suggests that art buyers are generally confident in buying art without first seeing the actual work, which opens up significant opportunities for an online art trading and e-commerce market.
• Reputation and trust remain critical in the online market and provide existing galleries with a potential advantage. As you might expect, the main barrier to collectors buying art online is related to issues of provenance and authenticity (80%) and the reputation of the seller (65%). The offline art world seems to have a significant advantage in capitalising on their reputation and their expertise. Traditional galleries are waking up to these opportunities with 59% of the galleries surveyed planning to implement an e-commerce strategy in the coming 12 months.
• Price is not the barrier one might assume. 26% of the art collectors surveyed have spent £50,000 or more buying art online (includes buying from a jpeg, but also from online auctions and gallery websites),and 25% of these collectors would be willing to spend £50,000 or more on a single artwork in the future.
• Art buyers seek to buy unique works online. Although limited edition prints and photography have been seen as the most suitable mediums to sell through online channels, 45% of the art buyers surveyed have bought unique works of art sight unseen (such as paintings) online. This result is also reflected among the galleries surveyed, where sales of original artworks accounted for 53% of online sales, against 59% accounted for by limited edition prints and photography.
• Younger buyers increase the potential of the lower end of the online art market. Currently, 43% of the 25-29 year olds surveyed have bought art online (sight unseen). Furthermore, 67% of this age group said they were very likely to buy art online in the next year. This suggests that there is a new generation of art buyers emerging that are willing to use online channels when buying art.
• Don’t forget the older buyers. The perception about generational differences in online buying behaviour is much less evident in the art market. In fact, 55% of respondents in the 65 year plus age group said they had bought art directly online, and 82% said they had bought an artwork based on a digital image only. This group are also significant spenders, with 20% saying they have spent more than £50,000 on buying art online so far, and 18% said they would be willing to spend more than £50,000 on a single artwork.
• Gender differences in the online art market. It also appears that gender plays a role when it comes to behavioural patterns in buying art online. Among the art buyers surveyed, 70% of the men vs. 55% of thenwomen have bought art online sight unseen. Women prefer buying from gallery websites (52%) and online galleries (31%), against men answering 48% and 22% respectively. On the other hand, men seem to be more inclined to buy through online auctions, with 56% using this method, whereas only 26% of their female counterparts preferred this buying channel.
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