What a gallery owner should demand from an online sales platform

01Control over image and identity

A dealer builds their visual identity over years, sometimes decades: the choice of typography, the tone of texts, the quality of photographs, the atmosphere of their space, the type of invitation cards they send. All of this composes an identity that collectors recognise and that constitutes an element of trust. The online platform must respect this identity, not flatten it under a standardised format that erases each gallery's distinctive qualities in favour of uniformity supposedly designed to ease navigation.

The dealer should demand a customisable presentation space that allows them to transpose online what makes their programme unique. This does not necessarily mean complete design freedom, which would be technically challenging to manage, but at a minimum the ability to present works with their own texts in full, their own photographs in their original framing, and a layout reflecting their editorial sensibility. If your gallery is known for the rigour of its minimalist hangings, your online space should be able to reflect this approach. If your gallery distinguishes itself through the importance it places on critical texts accompanying works, the platform must offer the space needed for these texts without truncating them. A dealer who has spent years building a recognisable identity cannot accept that identity disappearing behind a generic template. Visual recognition is an element of trust for the collector who finds online the same codes they associate with the physical gallery.

02Full transparency about the audience

The dealer participating in a fair knows how many visitors are expected, what their profile is and where they come from. They have data allowing them to evaluate whether participation costs are justified by sales potential. They must demand the same information from the online platform. How many active collectors does the platform have. What is their geographic distribution. What is the monthly transaction volume. What is the buyer return rate, meaning the proportion of collectors who make a second purchase.

These figures are not confidential: they are the minimum required for the dealer to evaluate whether the platform merits their investment of time, money and reputation. A platform that refuses to share these figures or presents them vaguely asks the dealer to trust it blindly, which is acceptable in no professional commercial relationship. When a dealer invests 10,000 euros in a fair booth, they know the number of accredited collectors. When they invest time and money in an online platform, they should have equivalent information. Transparency about the audience is not a favour the platform grants the dealer: it is a professional obligation that reflects the platform's respect for its partners. Platforms that practise this transparency attract the best galleries, which in turn attract the best collectors, in a virtuous circle from which all participants benefit.

03Direct, unmediated relationship with the collector

In the art market, the sale is not a one-off transaction but the beginning of a relationship built over time. The collector who today buys a work for 3,000 euros may be the collector who in five years purchases one for 30,000 euros, who recommends the gallery to friends, who lends works to a museum citing the gallery. This relationship is built through personal exchanges, studio visits, opening invitations and advice on how a collection is evolving. The dealer must demand that the platform allows them to know the buyer's identity and communicate directly with them, without intermediary.

Platforms that intercept the client relationship to generate dependency and recurring commissions work against the dealer's interest and, ultimately, against the collector's interest, as the collector is deprived of a competent and committed interlocutor. The dealer should regard any platform that refuses to share the buyer's identity as one that does not respect the very nature of the art trade. The client relationship is not an operational detail that can be outsourced without consequence: it is the heart of the gallery profession, what transforms a one-time buyer into a loyal collector, what enables the building of a solid client base over the years.

04Real protection of the margin

The dealer's margin is not excessive profit: it funds the gallery's operations, artist remuneration, exhibitions, catalogues, fairs, shipping, rent, insurance and the salaries of any staff. The dealer must demand financial terms that preserve this margin at viable levels. Commissions exceeding 15 per cent on a contemporary art sale, added to the artist's commission that typically represents 50 per cent of the sale price, reduce the dealer's share to a level that no longer covers operational costs.

The dealer must calculate, for each platform under consideration, the net amount received after commission and verify that this amount is compatible with their business model. If the gallery sells a work for 10,000 euros, pays 50 per cent to the artist and 20 per cent to the platform, it retains 3,000 euros. From this 3,000 euros, packaging, shipping and insurance costs must be deducted. The question the dealer must ask is simple: does what remains after all these deductions justify the prospecting, relationship-building and promotional work invested in this sale. The platform should be a growth lever, not an additional cost centre eroding profitability.

05Quality of logistics service

Online sales often involve shipping a work to a geographically distant collector. Art transport is a delicate operation requiring packaging suited to each type of work, specific insurance covering the declared value and rigorous tracking at every transit stage. The dealer must verify whether the platform offers an integrated logistics solution or leaves the gallery to manage shipping alone. In either case, service quality must match the value of the works being transported.

A work damaged in transit destroys the relationship with the collector, engages the dealer's liability and represents a financial and emotional loss for all parties. Serious platforms offer partnerships with specialist art transporters and insurance covering the full value of the work during transit. The dealer should also ensure that the return process is clearly defined: in the art market, distance-selling withdrawal rights apply, and managing a work return is a complex operation that must be governed by clear procedures. A platform that does not anticipate these scenarios leaves the dealer alone facing potentially costly and contentious situations.

06A say in the presentation context

At a fair, the dealer chooses fairs where the selection committee guarantees a consistent quality level. They do not wish their stand to neighbour that of a reproduction seller or a dealer with questionable practices. The same standard must apply online. The dealer should verify the platform's selection process and the quality of other galleries present. If the platform accepts professional galleries and amateur sellers indiscriminately, the professional dealer's credibility is diluted by association. Digital neighbourhood is as important as physical neighbourhood: collectors judge a gallery partly by the context in which it appears, and a platform without selection sends a negative signal to any discerning collector.

07Data ownership and freedom to leave

Data generated by the gallery's activity on the platform — viewing statistics, visitor behaviour, sales history, collector contact information — belongs to the gallery and must be accessible at all times. The dealer should demand full access to analytical data for their space and verify that the platform does not reserve the right to use this data for purposes that do not serve the gallery's interests. Data ownership is a major issue in the digital economy, and the dealer must be as attentive to it as any entrepreneur. The data you generate on the platform represents a valuable commercial asset: knowledge of your audience, visitor preferences, viewing trends for your works. If you decide to leave the platform, this data must follow you, not remain the property of the platform which could exploit it to your detriment.

Finally, a platform that imposes a long-term commitment without the possibility of termination reveals a fragility in its value proposition. The best platforms retain their galleries through service quality, not through binding contractual clauses. The dealer must verify termination conditions before committing: notice period, potential penalties, data portability, history preservation. The ability to leave freely is the best guarantee that the platform will make continuous efforts to deserve each gallery's presence. A dealer who stays on a platform by choice, because the service satisfies them, is a far more valuable and engaged partner than one retained by a contractual clause.

Artedusa was designed for galleries that want an international showcase without sacrificing their identity. The platform provides partner galleries with a tailored space to present their programme to qualified collectors worldwide. Every demand listed in this article — control over image, transparency, direct relationships, fair financial terms, professional logistics, rigorous curation, data ownership, contractual freedom — is written into the platform's founding principles.