One of the most complex challenges you will face as your career expands is managing your relationship with multiple galleries. You might have one local venue charging a 17% commission, while a high-end gallery in a major city takes the industry-standard 50%. It is tempting to adjust your retail prices based on these margins, but doing so is a recipe for brand confusion and lost sales.
The Golden Rule of Consistent Pricing
To a collector, your work has a specific market value. They do not care about your overhead, your shipping costs, or the commission split you negotiated with a gallery owner. If a buyer sees a large landscape for $4,800 on your website but finds the same size piece for $4,200 in a local shop, you have created a trust problem. They will wonder why the price is lower and if something is wrong with the less expensive piece.
Always set your retail price based on your highest commission tier. If you are represented by a gallery that takes 50%, your website and every other venue must reflect that price. This ensures that no matter where a sale occurs, your brand remains professional and your relationships with all gallery partners stay intact.
Managing the Profit Margin Shift
When you maintain a singular retail price across various venues, your take-home pay will fluctuate. This is normal and should be viewed as a strategic trade-off. A gallery taking a higher commission is theoretically providing more value through high-traffic locations, active marketing, and access to wealthier clientele.
- Calculate your base retail price using your highest commission rate (typically 50%).
- Apply this price to your own website and studio sales.
- Ship work to lower-commission venues at the same retail price.
- Monitor the volume of sales at each venue over a six-to-twelve-month period.
- Reallocate your best inventory to the venues that generate the highest total revenue, regardless of the individual commission percentage.
Avoiding the Race to the Bottom
Many artists mistakenly believe that lowering prices will automatically increase sales volume. In the art market, this is rarely true. Price is often a signal of quality. If you are ready to move up-market, you must be disciplined enough to raise your prices across the board.
- Don’t leave old, lower prices on older work while raising prices on new pieces of the same size.
- Don’t offer ‘studio discounts’ that undercut your gallery partners.
- Don’t ignore your website; it must be the anchor for your current market value.
- Do realize that a higher commission gallery that sells three pieces a month is better for your business than a low-commission gallery that sells nothing.
The Inventory Strategy
If a gallery is taking a 50% commission but isn’t moving work, while your 17% venue is selling everything you send them, your inventory should reflect that reality. You aren’t ‘losing’ money by giving the 50% gallery a chance; you are testing a market. If the test fails, move the work to the venue where it prospers. By keeping the retail price the same, you can shuffle inventory between these locations without ever having to re-tag or explain a price change to a collector.
Question for Readers
Have you ever struggled with the urge to lower your prices for a direct sale, and how did that decision affect your relationship with your galleries?