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If you have ever visited an art gallery or an art exhibition then you know how inconvenient it is for a first time visitor to get a hold of everything. Art galleries are rooms full of paintings, sculptures and other art relics made available for the purpose of viewing and in some cases, selling. An art gallery is a great way for the people who take a keen interest in art to connect with their favorite artists and keep themselves updated about what new is happening in the world of art. It is a good option for artists as well to connect with buyers. So in a way, an onsite art gallery acts as an interface between the buyer and the seller. Some art galleries even hold auctions from time to time for the purpose of selling world-famous and rare art pieces. But when it comes to catering to the needs of budding artists and helping the people who are not that much in touch with the world of art, there is very little a traditional art gallery has to offer. Many such galleries are in the money-making business. They charge heavy commissions from the artists in return of helping them sell their work. Even to conduct auctions, they charge some fees from both the parties involved.

When it comes to buying paintings, there are many other options a regular Indian art gallery-goer can explore. The most recent trend is to buy paintings online, from either the website of the painter or from a web gallery. A lot of artists have gone tech-savvy and with an aim to target a lot of people at once, they make available their works on their websites. This way they are able to garner more audience than they would have targeted through onsite exhibitions. But maintaining a website is also a herculean task. To avoid the hassle of going through all this, many artists use the services of online art galleries. Online art galleries are virtual platforms that allow users to sell and buy paintings. Basically, the concept is just like an onsite art gallery except everything is conducted over the internet.

The best thing about online art galleries is that they do not have any storage limitations. Literally thousands of art pieces can be displayed online and interested people can buy paintings from them anytime they want to. Unlike traditional art galleries, web galleries cut down on the need of the middlemen. Hence, artists are able to connect with their audience in a more transparent way. Web galleries have done a lot for young artists who cannot spare enough resources to set up their own website or sell through auctions, exhibitions etc. Web galleries charge very fewer commissions from them. They have made spotting of talent easy.

For the first time visitor also, the experience of browsing on an online art gallery is quite pleasant. Firstly, web galleries can be visited at any time of the day from anywhere. Secondly, they are free. No charges are deducted for entering and ordering from an online art gallery. Thirdly, you can get shipments delivered right at your doorsteps. All in all, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home while purchasing from a web gallery.

Now a question arises. How does an online art gallery earn? Since web galleries don’t charge any commissions from the artists, they use depend on other strategies to generate revenue. The most common ones are:

  • Providing the services of art advisories: Due to ease of browsing, a lot of first-timers end up purchasing from web galleries. To help them with anything that is art-related, to curb their queries and help them select the painting that best fit their needs, the services of art advisories is made available. Web galleries charge for this and the costs varies from one gallery to another. 
  • Advertisements: In order to generate the audience for a specific seller or artist, web galleries tend to advertise them, that is, they use online marketing strategies. They charge for this service and it adds to their list of methods to generate revenues.
  • Online auctions: Web galleries also conduct online auctions. The best part about such auctions is that the bidder can stay anonymous and participate. Just like their offline counterparts, web galleries also charge a little something from the seller as a fee. However, fees charged by them is very low as compare to that of traditional art galleries.

More and more Indian art gallery users are flocking over to the online option as it is way convenient and cheaper to buy paintings and other art relics form them. Sellers, as well as the buyers, benefit from the services of web galleries as everything can be done with just a few clicks of the mouse.