Artsy is one of the most well-known and respected online platforms which purpose is to discover, purchase and collect art, design and photographs from galleries, museums, foundations, auction houses and art fairs.

The platform conducted a survey on the basis of 3.638 collectors registered on the site who have acquired two or more works of art in the last year.

The results, contained in the “The Online Art Collector” report, are interesting to understand the characteristics and behaviors of collectors 3.0 , as well as useful to galleries and auction houses to set up their marketing strategy.

In particular, the report highlighted some insights on the reasons for the purchase:

• Aesthetic factors: it seems that online collectors buy for the pure aesthetic necessity of inspiration or furnishing their own house, thus not investing in an asset that will acquire value over time;
• Price transparency, speed in purchasing, access to inventories and information are the motivations for collectors to buy art online rather than in physical galleries;
• Social media, Instagram in the first place, are used to discover and meet new artists and keep up with the art world;

Regarding the characteristics of online collectors, Artsy points out that:

• 50% are aged between 24 and 44;
• 61% spend less than $ 5,000 annually;
• 57% of respondents stated that they intend to spend a larger budget in 2020;

However, we should keep in mind that the due diligence phases related to the artwork (documentation on its history, origin, certificate of authenticity, quotations etc.) are of crucial importance,  as well as the verification of the safety and reliability of the platform, the transactions, payments and dissemination and protection of personal data.

The art market evolves thanks to new technologies and consequently the collector’s trend is to build collections of works of art found and purchased online.

And you, are you ready to buy art online?