Best Places to Sell Art Online
A Guide for Working Artists

Originals, prints, digital work, commissions. Different types of art sell differently. Here is where each format works best, and how to build a sustainable art business across multiple channels.

Originals vs prints vs digital: different strategies

Before you can choose platforms, you need to know what you are selling. The answer changes almost everything.

Original artworks are one-of-a-kind pieces. High prices, small quantities. Once a painting sells, it is gone. You can't restock it. Your sales model depends on a constant flow of new work. Platforms that handle high-consideration purchases well (galleries, Shopify, Etsy for premium price points) suit originals better than volume-driven marketplaces.

Art prints are reproductions of original work, either printed by you (giclees, risographs, screen prints) or through a print-on-demand service. You can sell the same design indefinitely. This is where volume platforms like Society6, Redbubble, and Etsy shine. Profit margins per unit are lower but the scale potential is much higher.

Digital downloads are high-margin, zero-fulfillment. You create the file once and sell it unlimited times. Etsy handles digital downloads well. So does Shopify with a digital product app. Margins are excellent but competition for digital art files is intense.

Commissions are custom work created for a specific buyer. Etsy supports commission listings. Social media (especially Instagram) is strong for commission discovery. Commission work is not really a platform play, it is a personal brand and audience play.

Etsy

Etsy is the first platform most artists try, and for good reason. It has a massive buyer base actively searching for art, prints, and original work. The "handmade" positioning of Etsy aligns well with art that has a maker behind it.

Etsy works particularly well for:

Etsy's search is keyword-driven. "Watercolor botanical print" will find buyers. "Abstract expressionism exploring liminal spaces" will not. I have watched an artist with stunning work get zero views for months because every listing was titled like a gallery placard. Titles and tags need to match how buyers actually search, not how artists describe their work in an artist statement.

Fees are around 10% total (listing + transaction + payment). That is manageable for most price points but starts to bite at lower price points like $5 to $10 prints.

Shopify

For artists building a serious brand, Shopify is the long-term foundation. You own the customer relationship. You control the experience. You build an email list. When your next collection drops, you can announce it to people who have already bought from you.

Shopify requires you to drive your own traffic, which is the challenge. Most artists start on Etsy, build an audience, then migrate regular customers to their Shopify store with a discount or exclusive offer. Your Etsy presence keeps generating new customers. Your Shopify store keeps them.

Shopify's digital download support (via apps like Digital Downloads, Sky Pilot, or Fetch) makes it a good home for high-volume digital art businesses. You can also sell original work, prints, merchandise, and digital files from one store.

Society6

Society6 is a print-on-demand marketplace where you upload your artwork and they print it on products: framed prints, canvas prints, tapestries, phone cases, tote bags, shower curtains, and more. You set your markup on top of Society6's base price.

How it works: Upload your art, set prices, Society6 handles everything else. Orders come in, they print and ship. You receive your artist margin (typically 10% of the artist price for most products).

Pros: Zero upfront cost or inventory. Passive income potential from art you uploaded once. Access to buyers specifically shopping for art prints and home decor art products.

Cons: Low margins. Society6 runs frequent sitewide sales that cut into your take. You have limited control over the customer experience. The platform has significant competition. You cannot build a customer list or contact buyers directly.

Best for: Artists who want passive income from their existing library of work without managing fulfillment. Not a primary income source for most, but a low-effort supplementary channel.

Redbubble

Redbubble is similar to Society6 in model: upload art, they print on demand on a range of products. The difference is product mix and audience. Redbubble skews younger, leans more toward pop culture, fandom, and design-forward art. Their product range includes stickers, which are a volume product that Society6 does not handle as well.

Margins on Redbubble are set by you as a percentage markup on top of their base price. The default is around 20%, but you can raise it. Artist margins tend to be in a similar range to Society6, though the exact numbers vary by product.

Redbubble vs Society6: Try both with the same designs and see where you get more traction. They have different buyer demographics. Some art sells much better on one than the other.

Redbubble's limitation: Like Society6, you are building their marketplace, not your own brand. The buyers are Redbubble's, not yours. This is fine for passive income but does not build your art business in a durable way.

Online galleries and art platforms

Several platforms position themselves as fine art destinations with more curation and higher price points than Etsy:

Saatchi Art is one of the largest online art galleries. They handle originals and limited editions at higher price points. Commission is 35%, which is significant. But they have serious collector buyers that marketplaces like Etsy do not.

Artfinder focuses on original art with an artist application process. Lower commission than Saatchi (33-40%). Good for artists in the $100 to $2,000 original price range.

Singulart is another curated gallery for originals, more selective, with lower commissions (around 35%). Has a European collector base.

These gallery platforms are worth applying to if you sell originals at the $200+ price point. The commission is high, but they bring buyer traffic you cannot generate yourself. Think of them like you would a physical gallery: you trade margin for access to their audience.

Instagram, TikTok, and social media

Instagram remains the most important social platform for visual artists. Process videos, finished work, studio shots, and personal content all drive discovery and following. Most artists convert Instagram followers into buyers either directly (Instagram Shopping, link in bio) or by driving them to Etsy or Shopify.

TikTok has become genuinely powerful for art discovery. Process videos (time-lapses, "watch me paint this") consistently perform well. The audience skews younger and different from Instagram's. Several artists have sold out entire series from a single TikTok video going viral.

Pinterest is worth setting up even if you are not actively posting. Art pins have long shelf lives and Pinterest users often have high purchase intent. Linking Pinterest pins directly to your Etsy listings or Shopify store can drive consistent low-volume traffic over time.

Social media is a discovery and trust-building layer. It rarely converts cold audiences directly into sales. It warms up audiences that then buy through a marketplace or your own store. Think of it as the top of the funnel, not the whole funnel.

Building a multi-channel art business

The most sustainable art businesses are not reliant on any single platform. A practical approach that many working artists use:

If you sell handmade or limited-run work across multiple platforms, our guide to selling handmade on multiple platforms walks through the strategy in detail.

The inventory challenge appears when you sell physical prints yourself (rather than through POD). If you have 10 prints of a design and you are selling them on Etsy and Shopify simultaneously, you need inventory to stay in sync so you do not sell more than you have. That is where Commerce Kitty helps.

Selling prints on Etsy and Shopify?

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Frequently asked questions

Is it worth selling art on both Etsy and Shopify?
Yes, for most artists who are doing any real volume. Etsy brings discovery traffic. Shopify builds your owned audience. Together they cover different types of buyers. The key is keeping inventory synced between them so you do not oversell limited print runs or originals.
Should I sell originals or prints?
Many artists do both. Originals have high per-sale revenue but are one-time sales. Prints scale because the same design sells repeatedly. A common model is to sell the original, then offer limited edition prints of the same work. The print income can subsidize the time spent creating the next original.
Can I sell the same art print on Etsy and Society6 at the same time?
Yes. If you are selling Society6 POD prints (they print and ship), there is no inventory conflict because you do not hold stock. If you are selling self-printed physical prints, you need to track inventory across platforms so you do not sell more than you have printed.

Related: sell art prints on multiple platforms, Printful integration, print-on-demand inventory management, and sell digital and physical products together.

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