Tips for Pricing Your Artwork
Pricing your originals appropriately is critical to selling your work, obviously! As a selling artist, you should be prepared to explain how and why you have arrived at your prices. Therefore, a great way to think about pricing will be to adopt consistent, fact-based pricing principles and methods.
If you’re new to the market, the following are some basic pricing principles and methods for you to consider when getting started.
Tip 1 - Price your art like a retailer—at two times the cost of materials.
A common practice for new artists is to establish prices based on time, labor, and the cost of materials. Set yourself a reasonable hourly wage, multiply that by the number of hours it took to make the work and add that figure to the cost of your materials. For example, if the cost of materials is $50, your hourly rate is $20, and you spent 20 hours creating your art, then your work would be priced at ($50 x 2) + ($20 x 20) = $500.
Tip 2 - Be consistent in your pricing across channels
If you are selling one work in multiple channels e.g. brick and mortar galleries, other online marketplaces or a personal artist website or social media account, make sure its price is consistent everywhere.
Similarly, be consistent about pricing works within your portfolio--for example, your larger works should be consistently priced higher than your smaller works. A consistent pattern should be established by yourself when selecting pricing.
Tip 3 - Broaden your appeal by offering works at various price points.
If someone likes your work but can't afford a $3,000 painting, they will find a $500 painting more attainable.
You can always increase your prices after you have made some sales and have factual evidence to justify a price increase. Keep records of all your sales and the prices at which you've sold works. Remember that it's much better to competitively price and sell your work now to gain exposure (increasing your prices in the future) than to have your work sit unsold.
Additionally, you are also welcome to take this approach when considering the option to offer Open Edition prints. Taking advantage of Saatchi Art’s fine art printing can allow you to offer your higher priced artworks to a more entry level collector! For more information about our Open Edition print process read our article here
Tip 4 - Review Packaging Guidelines
If your artwork sells, the cost of packaging the artwork for shipping is the responsibility of the artist. The cost of packaging materials should also be factored into the price of your artwork. Please read our packaging guidelines to review the required packaging materials in the event that your artwork sells.
Oversized Works
Important note, for larger, oversized artworks that require a wooden crate, you may require professional crating services, these services may cost up to $500 USD or more depending on the complexity of your artwork. We highly suggest that you first research your total crating costs, and then factor these costs in when pricing your artworks. Estimating your crating cost can be done by calling to receive quotes from packing services or woodworkers local to you or searching online.
Tip 5 - Promotional Discounts
Increasing your price points by 10% - 15% when listing artworks.
We offer promotional discounts as an incentive for new and returning collectors to explore the constantly updating selection of artwork on our site. We have found that offering promotions from time to time allows artists to gain the attention of collectors previously unaware or unable to own their work and will in turn result in a better chance to make future sales.
The discount codes typically give collectors between 10% - 20% off original works, and do not exceed these amounts.
For works sold to the trade - interior designers and architects, for example - we give tiered discounts of 10% - 15% off original works.
Saatchi Art will receive a 40% commission on the final sale price, if you sell an original work. If a promotional discount code is offered, the discount will be deducted from the price of the artwork and the usual 60/40 split will then be calculated.
It is worth pointing out that Saatchi Art’s commission is 40%, whereas the gallery standard is 50%. This means that even with a discount you will be earning more through your sales with Saatchi Art than if you were to sell through a brick and mortar gallery that takes 50% commission.
For open edition prints, artists are entitled to 60% of the profit on each sale. Profit is calculated from the final sale price minus the costs of production.
Saatchi Art reserves the right to promote and market Original Works of Art and/or Digital Works through the use of sales and/or discounts. The sale or discount amount will apply to the listing price of Original Works of Art and/or Printed Works relating to the Digital Works. After the discount code is deducted from the sales price, our usual commission of 40% will be applied.
It's also important to note that during your initial sign up, you agreed to the following condition (included in our official statement of terms and conditions)
Tip 6 - Price your art based on comparables.
Another way to get started with selling and pricing works is to set your prices similar to those of other artists with similar experience and who work in similar mediums.
When comparing your works to others, consider factors such as dimensions, medium, materials, and the artists' achievements such as prizes, exhibitions, press, etc., as these will have a bearing on pricing.
Important for comparison, always consider art that has sold, not art that has not yet sold.
Introducing: Location-Based Prices for Saatchi Art Collectors
In an effort to make our pricing more accurate and best reflect variable shipping costs to different countries, Saatchi Art localized the website for each supported destination country, i.e. where the collector is shipping to. This means that collectors shopping from different countries might see different total prices, depending on their geographical location relative to your location. For example, the same artwork priced by an Italian artist at $1000 USD will be listed for sale at $1100 in the US, $1025 in Italy, $1200 in Australia, and $1050 in both Germany and France.
This price variability will not affect your commission as your commission is based on your listed artwork price excluding shipping rates.
Visit our FAQ page about Location-Based Prices to learn more about how this works and how to price effectively. We suggest reviewing and optimizing your prices for the United States collectors, since that’s where most of our collectors are located and the US price is most likely the price you will sell your artwork for.