The future of the online art market after the Covid boom

It is undeniable that, during the pandemic, it was essential to look for alternative ways to get in touch with collectors. The online sales market has thus exploded, with sales to date 5 times the volume of 2012. 

The Covid has therefore certainly put the turbo to this reality, so far poorly explored, and has increased familiarity with the platforms and confidence in them.

The survey conducted by Hiscox and recently published, shows us today a cross-section of the post-Covid art market: a world that is significantly slowed in the last year, with a decrease in online auction sales of 32% in favor of auctions in attendance. 

The huge expansion of the online art market seen in the last two years is therefore coming to an end. 

This growth was mainly due to the fact that buying online was the only alternative, but not only. There are, in fact, some factors that encourage us to buy online and that we should make sure we move into the traditional market as soon as possible.

Among them we find the transparency of prices, fundamental for almost all interviewed by Hiscox: the collector is tired of having to talk in secret about the cost of a work, and it is therefore essential to expose the tag, or you risk losing a potential customer. 

Similarly, for those who want to focus on online sales, it will be essential to provide all the necessary information at a glance without forgetting the quality of the work: it is therefore not advisable to use your own website for unsold gallery. It is also essential to reassure customers, concerned about the growing cyber crime, due to which they fear seeing their payment data stolen or the amount paid for the sale intercepted and diverted to another account. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents complain about the lack of the "human touch", buying online. In short, they would like an online consultant with them to help them make the best choice and to reassure them about the origin and conditions of the work.

With everything on the scale, we can’t help but wonder if the future for collectors will be online or offline. Almost half say undecided, they do not have a real preference. This makes us think that the buyer will choose the channel he prefers according to the circumstances and buy online will be more and more normal. All this will be made possible thanks to traditional sites but also thanks to social networks, in particular Instagram: social increasingly used not only to gather information on the trend of the market but also to buy, often directly from the artist.

Nevertheless, it is evident how the offline market is used by long-time collectors who have returned to the traditional in-person trade: with an average age and greater availability, they continue to move the medium-sized art marketand to prefer it for the possibility of studying the work closely.

At the same time, new and young collectors move more online, where greater transparency in information is required and are sold, on average, works of lower value (the average price per lot in 2022 was 16,955 dollars). This allowed this category to think about an investment for the future also thanks to the art market.

However, due to the current economic uncertainty of new and young collectors, it is difficult to predict whether they will be able to buy more art in 2023. It is therefore evident that the help of a professional is essential for both worlds.

The reality is that we need to start thinking about the two markets, online and offline, as now a single art market with multiple tools available. Both, in fact, now follow the same rules and it will be fundamental for the future that the strengths converge, creating an increasingly transparent and reliable market.