#9 - Should You Have Your Work in a Online Mall?

Should you have your work in a Online Mall?

By Chris Maher

The retail experience in America was radically changed by the rise of the shopping mall. People preferred the convenience and selection that malls offered, and many stores were driven out of business by the growth of large suburban malls.

Many promoters have seized on the concept of a shopping mall as a online metaphor, and have been recruiting people to setup "stores" in their electronic online malls. Does exhibiting your work in a online mall or cluster gallery make sense to a working artist?

The answer depends on what the "mall" offers, what they charge for their services, and what the artist's needs are. The plans vary, but generally they suggest that by going in with other "merchants", you will get more traffic, perhaps a pre designed formula for setting up your merchandise (they may do it all for you) and sometimes a "secure shopping cart" online ordering system.

Lets look at these features one at a time.

Will other stores or galleries bring your site more traffic if you are in the same virtual "mall" with them? Strong proof exits that online malls don't bring individual members more visitors. A study of customers in one large online mall found 90% of the buyers had used a major search engine to look for a product, came directly to the merchant to buy it, then left. A smaller number had searched for a name of a company, bought, and left. Only about 1% came to the mall directory, and bought on impulse from a store that they found there.

Sometimes the price of the mall includes setting up your page, scanning your work, and doing all the HTML to put your gallery on the web. If you are not computer savvy, or don't have the time to do the work yourself, this, if priced fairly, can be an advantage.

The downside is that the sites often follow a strict template - forcing your work to fit into their formula. A limit is placed on how many pieces you can show, and you usually must pay an additional fee to update your pages with new work. Be sure you like the look of what they have done for others, before you commit to their design.

A "secure shopping cart" service can be a real advantage. Some people are wary of putting their credit card information out on the Internet. A secure site uses encryption to keep the credit card data safe.

How well the secure ordering system is designed is something to be evaluated closely. I've been so frustrated by some sites that I've tried to buy from I left before the purchase was made. One merchant reported that his sales doubled when he added a toll free 800 number to his site, giving his customers the option of calling with questions and ordering the old fashioned way. A mall that forces customers to order only through the web site is not a good idea.

Be wary of the business that tells you they will do it all, you don't even need a computer. If you don't have an email address, and can't access the web, you are very unlikely to make any money from your web presence.

Promotion is still key to getting your work noticed. If you do go with a mall or gallery, don't expect to get much traffic from their promotional efforts. Bringing customers to your site will still be up to you.

In this regard, many malls have a feature that may help you promote your own personal site. Stephanie Hansen, a stained glass artist suggests that folks take advantage of the free link pages that many malls maintain. She has compiled a list of 37 sites that will list your website for free. I've listed them in article # 12, Cross Link For Traffic

Fabrizio Bartolomucci (from the ArtNet Italia site at http://www.thru.com/art/) points out that by having a number of artists showing their work on one site, the site is likely to be fresher, with more dynamic changes, and that is very good for website traffic. Also, the tasks of promoting the site can be divided in a more cooperative manor, with many people working on traffic building, not just one.

Fabrizo also points out that there is a big difference between non topical malls, and those that are specific to a kind of art work or craft. At the ArtNet Italia site 99% of the traffic come from other pages in the site, a sign that people do check out other artists on a site, if they have common thread.

The Michigan Guild of Artists and Artisans is trying an interesting variant on the mall idea. The Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair is widely known as one of the best art fairs in the United States. A local firm, Online Technologies Corporation, owns the domain name artfair.org, and plans to put the work of the artists and craftspeople who exhibit at all three Ann Arbor Art Fairs up on the web.

The site is not up yet, so I can't comment on the quality of the design, or the ease of ordering. The idea of associating the site with a event of national reputation is a good one. Unfortunately, the financial model is somewhat questionable, with a low initial fee ($75.00) and a 15% commission on sales.

I've yet to see a commission model work well with online sales. From the malls standpoint, direct contact between the customer and the artist could complicate it's collection of commission. From the artists standpoint, sending clients to purchase from a site that collects a commission is not as desirable as selling the work directly themselves.

Conclusions

In general, I don't think that being associated in non topical mall is an advantage that is worth a great deal. Having your own domain name and control over your site is a much more effective position to be in. Even IBM has given up on the general mall idea, having just shut it's ambitious online shopping mall down, encouraging the merchants to go it on their own.

Still, there is room for niche and topical malls. If the price is right, and the service fits your needs, they may be worth a try.

But remember, sales don't just happen. Identify a niche, know your customer, and focus the promotion of your site to specific clients and you will make sales, in a mall or not.

I would consider a mall or gallery cluster site only if you really are not ready to investment the time to begin a major new project by yourself, but can afford an experiment. If you can find a group of like minded folks, and feel good about cross promoting each others work, so much the better.

This page last updated: 09/02/04

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