Read this article for a step-by-step guide on adding artwork price information.

Online buyers actively seek price information and ease of purchase when looking for art to buy online. This article will explain the pricing options and selling tools you have on Artsy and help you pick the ones that are best for your gallery.

Pick Your Pricing Strategy

The price of an artwork is one of the first pieces of information a potential buyer will look for online.

While a price is mandatory on all listings, displaying your price (or price range) to collectors is optional for certain subscription plans. With Plus and Premier plans, pricing options: “Exact price,” “Price range,” and “Contact for price.”

Note: For partners on Essentials, publicly displayed exact pricing is required.

The listing of prices plays a key role in making a work accessible to a collector. On Artsy, when artwork pricing is publicly available, the quality of inquiries improves, and the likelihood of a sale increases by up to six-fold.

The absence of access to artworks’ prices was the most frequently mentioned roadblock for collectors when trying to buy art. Unpublished prices are the most common reason why a collector may pass on buying an artwork.

Data point: Works with publicly available prices are up to six times more likely to sell than works listed with the “Contact for price” option.

To make the most of Artsy’s marketplace, we recommend displaying your artworks’ prices. We’ve outlined Arty’s three pricing options below to help you strategize.

Pricing Options

“Exact price”

We recommend using this pricing option to give collectors the best online purchasing experience.

Knowing the price of a work is the first step a buyer takes towards purchase. Displaying an exact price speeds up your sales process by giving potential buyers that information up front. This means the inquiries you do receive are more likely to come from buyers prepared to spend what the work costs.

Works with visible pricing are also more likely to be discovered on Artsy through primary placement on our collection pages.

Tip: Our data shows that works listed with Buy Now or Make Offer are 40% more likely to sell on Artsy if they have free shipping. Even if you simply price shipping into the overall price of the work, the psychological value of free shipping is still important.

“Price range”

Similar to displaying an exact price, offering a price range gives buyers the confidence they need to take the next step to purchase your work. We suggest using this option for works with negotiable prices.

Price ranges can be determined by your gallery or set with Artsy's pre-determined price brackets. When creating a price range, set a minimum and maximum which contain the artwork's price. Price range works can also be opted in to our 'Make Offer' listing option, allowing flexibility to negotiate with buyers while still reducing the time it takes to make a sale.

The Artsy-set price range buckets are as follows. Depending on the currency the artwork is listed in, there may be a multiplier applied that slightly changes them, to ensure the best user experience:

• Under $1,000
• $1,000 - $2,500
• $2,500 - $5,000
• $5,000 - $7,500
• $7,500 - $10,000
• $10,000 - $15,000
• $15,000 - $20,000
• $20,000 - $30,000
• $30,000 - $40,000
• $40,000 - $50,000
• $50,000 - $75,000
• $75,000 - $100,000
• $100,000 - $150,000
• $150,000 - $200,000
• $200,000 - $300,000
• $300,000 - $400,000
• $400,000 - $500,000
• $500,000 - $750,000
• $750,000 - $1,000,000
• $1,000,000 - $1,500,000
• $1,500,000 - $2,000,000
• $2,000,000 - $3,000,000
• $3,000,000 - $4,000,000,
• $4,000,000 - $5,000,000
• $5,000,000 - $7,500,000
• $7,500,000 - $10,000,000
• Over $10,000,000.

If the minimum and maximum fields are left blank, the work will automatically be placed into one of Artsy’s pre-determined price buckets based on the original single value entered. Thus, a work priced at $5,000 will be placed in the $2,500 - $5,000 range. A work priced at $5,001 will be placed in the $5,000 - $7,500 range.

“Contact for price”

“Contact for price” can also be used if sharing prices publicly is not a viable option for your gallery. This option requires a bit more legwork on your end since Artsy users will require a manual response from your gallery to discover the price of your work.

As soon as a collector requests the price of a work, make sure to respond promptly. Chances of converting a price inquiry to a sale decrease significantly after 24 hours.

Choosing a Listing Option

Depending on your business’s location, you may have a few options when it comes to how you’ll sell your work. Keep in mind that collectors can filter works by the listing options you’ve selected when they browse works.

Collectors expect a seamless, efficient purchase experience online. Whether selling with Buy Now, Make Offer, or Inquiry, collectors trust that their experience on Artsy will be secure and frictionless. Here’s an overview of when to use each of Artsy’s listing options and our experts’ suggestions on making the most of them.

Buy Now

Our most secure selling option, Buy Now, means users can purchase your work instantly at a fixed price.

Tip: List works with Buy Now and Make Offer. These types of listings are 40% more likely to sell than works that only use one listing option.

With this listing option, make sure buyers have all the information they need to confidently select “Buy Now.” This means including complete artwork information—dimensions, artist information, edition numbers, and so on.

Make Offer

Make Offer gives you the flexibility to negotiate with buyers while still reducing the time it takes to make a sale. Price range works can also be opted in to "Make Offer". This is a great way to give the collector some guidance on the range of offers you'd potentially be willing to accept.

Datapoint: Sales made via Make Offer typically complete in an average of 14 hours after a buyer submits their first offer.

Inquiries

Treat online inquiries as you would in-person inquiries. Regularly review your inquiry response rate in the Home section of CMS and focus on keeping it as low as you can. Galleries with the highest conversion to sales respond within 24 hours, and many respond within 12 hours.

The best way to improve the quality of your inquiries and optimize your sales process is to add public pricing to your works. This will help ensure that only high-intent buyers end up in your “Conversations Inbox” and reduce back and forth between you and buyers not looking to spend in your work’s price range.

Data point: Adding public prices means your inquiries will be up to six times more likely to turn into a sale than works listed with “Contact for price.”

Up next: Promoting Your Works.