The real time it takes to manage an online storefront as a gallery owner

01Initial setup: a one-time investment

The most time-consuming phase is the initial setup of your online presence. If you join a marketplace, you need to create your gallery profile, write your presentation text and assemble your first selection of works with their complete entries (photographs, descriptions, dimensions, medium, price, artist biography). For an initial selection of twenty to thirty works, this setup represents between twenty and forty hours of work, spread over two to four weeks.

This figure may seem impressive, but it must be put in perspective. It is a one-time investment made only once. Moreover, much of this work corresponds to building a photographic and documentary inventory of your works, a task you should be doing anyway for your internal management, loan requests, fair applications and collector mailings. Going online merely accelerates and structures a task that good gallery management already requires.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has noted that the initial constitution of its online artwork database was a considerable investment, but that this effort had benefits well beyond the digital sphere: better knowledge of inventory, up-to-date artist files, structured photographic archives. The initial work pays multiple dividends.

02The weekly routine: less than you imagine

Once setup is complete, the ongoing management of an online storefront breaks down into regular tasks whose volume is well below what most dealers imagine. Updating inventory, meaning adding new works and removing sold ones, represents between thirty minutes and one hour per week for a gallery organising four to six exhibitions per year. Each new work requires an entry comprising a photograph, a title, dimensions, medium, price and possibly a short text: a task that takes between ten and fifteen minutes once the process is well practised.

Managing enquiries takes variable time depending on the volume of requests. A gallery starting out online generally receives between five and fifteen enquiries per week, some from serious collectors and others from casual browsers. Responding to these enquiries takes between thirty minutes and one hour per week. This time is comparable to the time you already spend responding to phone calls and emails from people who discovered your gallery through other channels.

Social media management, if you choose to be active, represents between two and four hours per week for a quality presence: preparing images, writing captions, responding to comments and direct messages. This item is the one most likely to spiral out of control if you are not careful. The discipline lies in defining dedicated time slots and sticking to them, rather than checking your account every hour.

In total, the ongoing management of an online presence represents between four and eight hours per week for a medium-sized gallery. This is the equivalent of half a day to one full day, depending on the level of ambition and volume of activity.

03Activity peaks: exhibitions and fairs

Certain periods require additional effort. Opening a new exhibition necessitates uploading new works, creating dedicated content (presentation text, exhibition views, possibly a virtual viewing room) and increased social media activity. This activity peak represents between eight and twelve additional hours, spread over the week before and the week after the opening.

Participating in an art fair is another moment when online activity intensifies. Many galleries publish real-time images of their booth, views of exhibited works and fair highlights. This live communication work takes between two and four hours over the duration of the fair, in addition to the time devoted to the fair itself.

These peaks are predictable and can be planned in advance. Some galleries prepare their digital content ahead of the exhibition, so that publication happens almost automatically when the time comes. Pace Gallery, for example, prepares all its digital content (photographs, texts, viewing rooms) in parallel with the physical preparation of its exhibitions, integrating the digital work into the existing production flow rather than adding it as an extra layer.

04Strategies for optimising your time

The first strategy is to systematise the artwork documentation process. Every work that enters the gallery should be photographed, measured and documented according to a standard protocol. If you adopt this habit, uploading requires nothing more than a data transfer from your internal system to your online storefront, reducing publication time to a few minutes per work.

The second strategy is to delegate tasks that do not require your expertise as a dealer. Uploading artwork entries, posting on social media, handling first-level enquiries: these tasks can be entrusted to an assistant, an intern or an external service provider. You retain editorial control, meaning the decision about what is published and how, while freeing your time for the high-value tasks that only you can accomplish: the relationship with artists, advising collectors, curatorial decisions.

The third strategy is to batch digital tasks into dedicated time slots. Rather than checking your notifications constantly, devote two slots per day — one in the morning, one at the end of the day — to processing online enquiries, posting and updates. This discipline eliminates the fragmentation of attention that is the true enemy of productivity.

05What you gain in return

The time invested in an online presence is not time lost: it is time invested in a collector acquisition channel that operates around the clock. Your online storefront welcomes visitors twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including when your gallery is closed, when you are travelling or when you are sleeping. A collector in Tokyo, New York or Sao Paulo can discover your artists and express interest at any hour.

Many dealers who have taken the step report that their online presence has generated contacts they would never have obtained otherwise. Collectors who do not attend the fairs where they exhibit, art enthusiasts in cities where they have no network, foreign institutions that discover their artists online before contacting them about an exhibition project. These opportunities would have been invisible without a digital presence.

06A balance to find, not a burden to bear

Managing an online storefront is neither as time-consuming as reluctant dealers fear, nor as trivial as digital enthusiasts claim. It is a real commitment that demands regularity and discipline, but one that remains entirely compatible with a dealer's existing responsibilities, provided it is approached methodically.

Artedusa supports galleries in this transition by offering a space that respects their identity and positioning, with an audience of serious collectors and full control over pricing and presentation. The platform is designed to minimise management time while maximising the quality of presentation, allowing dealers to focus on their core activity: discovering artists, building exhibitions and accompanying collectors.