Software for Selling Art: The Shop, Inventory and Collector Tools Artists Need

The software an artist needs to sell art comes down to four jobs: a website where buyers can shop, an inventory list of every painting you own, an email list with a separate collector list, and a record of what money came in and went out. One tool per job is plenty. Most artists who feel buried in apps have five tools doing the same job and nothing doing the other three.

This guide sorts the options by those jobs and pulls the advice from the business lessons inside the Mastery Program, where we teach students to set these up before they ever list a painting. If you came here for drawing apps and tablets, that’s a different kit, and our roundup of the best tools for digital illustration covers it.

What software do you need to sell art?

You need four pieces of software, or four habits that do the same job: a shop, an inventory, a contact list and a money record. Here’s what each one is for.

1. A website with a shop. This is where a collector who found you on Instagram or at a show goes to buy. It holds your originals, your prints and your story.
2. An inventory list. A record of every painting: what it is, what it costs and where it is right now.
3. An email list and a collector list. Two different lists. One holds everyone who asked to hear from you. The other holds everyone who has bought from you, and it’s worth more than anything else you own.
4. A money record. Every sale and every expense, so pricing and taxes stop being guesswork.

The lessons are blunt about order. You can run all four from a spreadsheet and a free website trial while you’re starting, and many working artists do. The tool matters far less than keeping the record at all.

Which website platform should an artist sell art on?

Pick a block-based website builder: Squarespace if you’ve never built a site, Shopify if selling is the main event, Webflow if you want the most visual control, or Weebly if you want the simplest setup. In the Mastery Program website lesson, these four are the ones we recommend from experience, and each one trades ease against control differently.

• Squarespace is the easiest to build on. You click to add a block or a section, the templates are free to start from, and there are free tutorials for almost everything.
• Shopify has the strongest shop and the best built-in marketing tools, which matters once you sell prints and products in volume.
• Webflow is harder to learn and the most visual. You can build effects and layouts the others can’t, which suits an artist who wants the site itself to feel like part of the art.
• Weebly is simple like Squarespace and handles mobile layout for you, with less room to customize it.

The same lesson steers artists away from WordPress unless you have a coding background, because design and code are mixed together and small glitches can need a paid expert to fix. Whatever you choose, check how it looks on a phone first, since most of your visitors will arrive on one. And start from a template. The lesson compares it to buying a canvas that’s already stretched and primed: someone else did the prep, and you bring the color.

One thing no platform fixes is weak photography. The images are what make an artist’s site look good or ordinary, so photograph every painting with even light, no glare and true color. Our guide on how to photograph your art walks through the setup.

What should an art inventory list track?

An art inventory list should record, for every painting, the date you made it, the title, the dimensions, the medium, the price, a small thumbnail and where the painting is right now. That last field is the one artists skip and later regret, because a painting might be hanging in a gallery, sitting in storage or leaning in a friend’s spare room.

The Mastery Program lesson on artist assets leaves the tool up to you: Notion, Artwork Archive, some other app or a plain Google Sheet. The only requirement is that you won’t lose it and can always find it. Here’s how the common options compare.

• A spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel) is free and fast, and it’s enough for your first hundred paintings.
• Notion works if you already use it to plan your studio, since a database view can hold thumbnails beside the details.
• Artwork Archive is built for artists who sell steadily. It keeps inventory, collectors, sales and certificates of authenticity in one place.
• Gallery systems such as ArtCloud and Artlogic suit artists who consign through several galleries and need consignment reports. Most independent artists don’t need this tier yet.

As your list grows, the lesson suggests adding a SKU number, whether each piece is framed, and the story or inspiration behind each painting. The story notes pay off later, when you’re writing a caption, a newsletter or a listing and need to remember why you painted it.

Do artists need a CRM or email software?

Artists need a place to keep contacts, and it can be as simple as Mailchimp or the customer list inside your Shopify store. If you don’t have a website yet, a spreadsheet of names and emails is fine. The important part is that you start collecting now and keep it current.

Keep two lists, because they do different jobs.

• Your email list is everyone who has agreed to hear from you: newsletter sign-ups, people who scanned a code at your booth, visitors who filled in a pop-up on your site.
• Your collector list is everyone who has bought from you, whether that’s an original, a print or a sticker. Record their address and email, plus anything you can remember about them: what they do, their family, their dog. These are the people you send a holiday card to, and the people most likely to buy again.

Artists who sell at art shows add one more field. In the Mastery Program art show lesson, the artist leading it puts a QR code on her booth that leads to a small page of links and an email sign-up, and recommends tagging each new contact with the show where you met them. When you return to that show the next year, you can email everyone from last year to say where to find your booth. A mediocre show can turn profitable through that kind of follow-up. If you’re building the list from scratch, our guide to building an artist email list covers what to send once people sign up.

What software helps buyers picture art in their home?

Augmented reality apps like ArtPlacer plug into a Shopify store and let a shopper hold up their phone and see your painting on their own wall. For an artist selling large originals online, that answers the buyer’s biggest question, which is how big it will look over their couch.

You can get much of the same effect without any app. The artist assets lesson recommends photographing each painting hanging in a real room with furniture around it, so a buyer can judge its size at a glance. Keep it honest: a small painting shouldn’t be shown as a giant mural above an enormous couch. A buyer who receives something smaller than they pictured is a buyer who doesn’t come back.

What software tracks the money side of an art business?

QuickBooks and Wave both track income, expenses and invoices, and Wave has a free plan that’s plenty for most independent artists. A folder of receipts with a monthly total of what you earned works too. The Mastery Program tax lesson points out that Dimitra Milan kept hers in a shoebox for years: receipts and notes in the box, a monthly tally of sales, and an end-of-year total of spent against earned.

Whatever holds it, the record pays for itself. Art supplies, classes, software, your website, shipping, ads and the miles you drive for supplies are typically deductible, and the lesson notes an accountant often charges only a couple hundred dollars when you hand over an organized package. Check the details for your situation with an accountant.

Two more records belong here. Give every buyer of an original a certificate of sale (the date, the price, the title and a thumbnail), because that paper trail is the painting’s provenance if they ever resell it. Signed and numbered prints need a certificate of authenticity. And if you sell at shows, track costs per show. The art show lesson sets three stages: cover your booth, travel and other per-show costs, then cover the tent and display you bought once, then make a profit every time. Shopify can calculate cost of goods sold for you if you enter the cost per item.

How do you set up your shop so it sells?

Make every button tell the visitor what to do and make sure no page is a dead end. The website lesson is specific: a button that says “Prints” becomes “Shop prints,” and an “About” button becomes “Learn about the artist.” At the bottom of every page, give the visitor somewhere to go next, whether that’s your prints, your originals or your contact form.

A few smaller settings from the same lessons are worth turning on early.

1. Compress every image. A tool like JPEG Mini shrinks files without visible loss. The lesson’s target is around 200 KB per image, or as small as you can go before the painting looks worse.
2. Add a free shipping threshold in an announcement bar. Dimitra’s site offers free domestic shipping on orders over $200, which gives a buyer a reason to add one more print.
3. Add an email sign-up. A pop-up or a footer form turns a browser into someone you can tell about your next collection.
4. Connect analytics. Google Analytics shows which pages people read and where they came from, so you know whether Instagram, Pinterest or a show is sending buyers.

How do you choose software without overbuying?

Name the job first, pick one tool for it, and add another only when the one you have can’t do something you need. A spreadsheet that’s up to date beats a subscription you never open, and you can move from a sheet to Artwork Archive, or from a free Squarespace trial to Shopify, once sales give you a reason.

Software is the easy part of selling art. The part no app does is making paintings people want to own, and the business lessons only work once there’s art to put in the inventory. If you’re still building that, our Two Week Challenge walks you through your first paintings one lesson at a time. When your shop is ready for them, read how to price paintings before you set a single number, and browse the rest of the sell and price your art collection for the next step.

Frequently asked questions

What software do artists use to sell art online?

Most independent artists sell from a website builder with a shop built in. Squarespace is the easiest to learn, Shopify has the strongest shop and marketing features, Webflow gives the most visual control, and Weebly is simple like Squarespace. Pick the one whose trade-off fits you, then spend your effort on the photos, because the images are what sell the art.

What is the best art inventory software?

The best inventory software is the one you'll keep up to date. A Google Sheet or Notion page works for most artists starting out. Artwork Archive is built for artists and adds collector records, sales and certificates in one place. Whatever you use, track the date, title, size, medium, price, a thumbnail and where each painting is right now.

Do artists need a CRM?

Artists need a contact system, and a simple one is enough. Keep two lists: an email list of everyone who asked to hear from you, and a collector list of everyone who bought something, with their address and any personal details you can remember. Mailchimp or your shop's customer list can hold both. A spreadsheet works until you have a website.

What software helps buyers picture art on their wall?

Augmented reality apps such as ArtPlacer plug into a shop and let a buyer see a painting on their own wall through their phone. You can get most of the same effect for free with a photo of each painting hanging in a furnished room at its true size, which also helps buyers judge it before they order.

How should artists track money and taxes?

Keep a record of every sale and every expense, whatever tool holds it. QuickBooks and Wave both handle invoices and expenses, and a folder of receipts with a monthly total is a perfectly good start. Art supplies, classes, software, shipping and the miles you drive for the business are usually deductible, so check the details with an accountant.