My current series “Wavelength” has reignited my passion for sharing my Art. So much so, I’ve created my own online shop to extend it’s reach and exposure. As time is limited at this stage of my life, I went on a journey investigating all things “Print on Demand.”
Finding a Shop Builder & Print on Demand Partner
I began by researching online Shop Builder sites and Print on Demand Partners. I read reviews, watched YouTube videos and found mountains of information on this topic.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/online-store-builder
I already had my own website built with Squarespace, which informed by final decision to choose Shopify Shop Builder and Gelato Print on Demand.
https://www.shopify.ca/
https://www.gelato.com/
Preparing My Art to Print
Now that I have an Print on Demand account I can start building out my product list. However all I had to start with was some of my finished Paintings. I attempted to take my own photos with my Android Smart Phone, and as you may guess, the results were not desirable. Scanning was not going to work, as the scans would not pick up the subtle colour shifts in the lighter areas of the paintings. Fast forward a few weeks and I have recruited a local photographer and painter to photograph my pieces and provide high quality image files. There was an investment to receive these files, but I am thrilled to own these copies forever.
Testing Prints and Colour Correcting
I spent some time using a free photoshop-like site called Photopea, to edit some texture out of my original painting file, giving it a slightly cleaner look. After utilizing the discount with Gelato to order prints, my first sample was a little dull. My second sample was just a bit too cool. I also tried out two different types of paper, where I fell in love with the premium archival paper. With those samples I was able to fine tune a beautiful print I could be proud of!
Building Products & choosing media and price
Within my Print on Demand account I was able to upload my final image file, choose my favorite paper, frame options, media files that will display my Art Print in my shop and at what price. Price is very subjective, so I do agree with the sentiment to price what the market responds too. These Print on Demand and online shop platforms work very well together and it was very easy to connect my Gelato and Shopify account. I create all the product details in Gelato and then ‘publish’ to my shop. I only ever have to create the products once. I later added an Etsy Store too for a more diversified exposure and it too was super easy to load all the same products.
Adding Buy Button to My Website
If you don’t already have a website, you can absolutely create an online store with the help of these ecommerce shop builders like Shopify. Because I already have a domain I opted to add products to my existing website. After some more research I found a tutorial on how to do just that, connecting my Shopify products onto my Squarespace website with a Buy Button.
Publishing and Marketing
Then I was live! I can update the products anytime and visitors on my site can easily shop my prints. Now off to the next adventure… marketing my shop! Without traffic to your store, even the best Art can’t sell. Social media, Pinterest, Tiktok, google ads.. lots of options. Stay tuned to find out what worked best for me!