6 Types of Art That Sells Best Online

Published on January 12, 2017 at 7:29 am by Amber Hewitt in Lists, News

With online shopping being the primary way people purchase the things they want, it’s no surprise that art is included, and there are 6 types of art that sell best online.

Art is often viewed as a luxury in a home, especially when it comes to a beautiful painting hung on the wall. With the ease of the internet, though, distribution of nice art pieces has increased. We can take a close look at the 7 types of art that sell best online to see exactly how art sales are doing on online marketplaces. Before examining the art that sells best online, it’s important to distinguish between the different types of art. There’s fine art, decorative art, and commercial art.

Fine art is meant to be viewed and is often also called the visual arts. It’s made by artists and generally shown in galleries or museums. It encompasses paintings, sculptures, drawings, performance, installation, digital and video art, among others. Decorative art is also made by artists, but they’re referred to more often as craftspeople. Decorative art makes functional objects and includes woodworking, metal work, textiles, and ceramics. Commercial art is things like advertising, graphic design, logos, branding, multimedia, and others.

The most popular places online to buy art are online art marketplaces, gallery portals, and online auctions. Online art market sales reached $3.27 billion in 2016, which is up 24 percent from the past year. Art is so accessible now and people often want to support smaller artists, so it makes sense that sales have increased. There is so much variety on the internet that you can get almost any type of art you could possibly want. It’s also quite common these days for anyone’s walls to be adorned with art.

The simplest way to measure the art that sells best online is to look closely at fine art sales. Decorative and commercial arts are simply much more difficult to measure since they encompass a large variety of pieces across a wider scope of marketplaces. Fine art provides a much smaller scope and gives a decent representation of art in the traditional sense being sold online. The ranking is determined by the percentage of online sales among art buyers as compiled by the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report in 2016.

If you’re looking to check out other online sales, take a look at the 5 Largest Online Retailers in the World.

Without further ado, let’s start with our countdown of 6 types of art that sells best online!

6. New Media

New media is art that’s video and digital. This is a type that’s still in its infancy, but it’s likely to increase in appeal for young buyers. About 18 percent of online buyers have purchased new media and digital art online, which is up 12 percent from the last year.

5. Sculpture

Sculptures are a bit more expensive, and cater to buyers with a heftier budget. Even so, 31 percent of online art buyers purchased a sculpture online in the last year, which is up 24 percent. Sculptures are also quite difficult to ship since they tend to be larger and heavier, so it probably explains why it doesn’t rank as high on the list of types of art that sells best online.

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4. Drawings

Drawings are increasing in popularity among online buyers and 39 percent of them have purchased one or more online in the past year. This is up 35 percent, making it one of the 6 types of art that sells best online.

3. Photography

Photography is the third most popular category, and is something that has remained relatively popular among those who purchase art. About 53 percent of online buyers bought one or more in the last 12 months, which is up 39 percent from last year.

2. Prints

Limited edition prints are the second most popular medium in the online art market, and this is largely driven by the lower end. Most of the prints purchased online tend not to be too terribly expensive. In fact, 72 percent of online art buyers said they purchased a print in the last 12 months, up about 59 percent from last year.

1. Paintings

Paintings dominate the marketplace and remain the most popular online medium with more purchases in the low and middle market. These include oil and watercolor paintings. It was reported that 72 percent of online buyers bought paintings in the last 12 months, and while this percentage matches prints, it wins simply because purchases are up 69 percent from last year.

Which types of art that sells best online do you prefer most?