WordPress is surely a good choice for artists to showcase their portfolio. But can you sell art on WordPress, too? Yes! Selling on WordPress is actually super-simple – even for artists without any coding knowledge. WooCommerce is a plugin that lets you add a web store to your artist website with just a couple of clicks. All you need to do is choose your favorite WordPress art eCommerce theme and you are good to go!
Being able to sell prints and other items directly to customers online can open up a stream of new business opportunities for artists.
While every photographer, digital artist, graphic designer and illustrator should have at least a portfolio website, adding an online store lets you step up your digital art business!
In today’s world of digitalization, I think we all agree that an artist should have a website. So the only question remaining is: what’s the best website to sell art?
There are different website builders in the market that make it easy for everyone to create a website and e-commerce platform. Some popular website builders for artists are Squarespace, Pixpa, and Simvoly. And then there’s WordPress…
I’m sure you’ve all heard about WordPress. WordPress.org is not an actual website builder, but the most popular and most widely used content management system (CMS) on the web.
But can you sell art on WordPress and is it a good choice for artists?
Is WordPress good for artists?
Out of experience, I can say that WordPress is a fantastic website platform for artists! I’ve built this art website on WordPress, so I know what I’m talking about… (ᴖᴥᴖ)
Full Article: Is WordPress Good For Artists? – An Artist’s Opinion…
WordPress itself is completely free and has everything that artists need to showcase their portfolio and keep in touch with their audience through a blog. Of course, you can sell art on WordPress, too. Just take a look at my Web Store.
Building a website for your art with WordPress isn’t hard. You don’t need any coding skills and everyone can do it!
Related: How To Make An Artist Website With WordPress In 5 EASY Steps
There are a couple of things that your artist website should have. Those include an image gallery, about and contact page, and a blog to help you optimize your website for SEO.
Once you decide selling on WordPress, the next step is to add e-commerce functionality so you can sell art on WordPress.
Can you legally sell art on WordPress?
As long as you are the author of the works you are selling and you have the right to offer them for sale, there’s no doubt that you can legally sell art on WordPress.
Of course, you must respect the tax laws governing your country, and adhere to shipping regulations, etc.
In fact, the best way to sell art is actually on your own WordPress site. Why?
Because WordPress gives you full control over what you sell, how you showcase your products, and how you ship them. If you sell your artwork on one of the popular online marketplaces, you are bound to use their shipping provider, present your offerings within their design limits, and you can only sell those products that they allow you to sell…
On your own WordPress site, however, you can sell anything from physical prints, virtual files, downloads, eBooks, print-on-demand products, Photoshop resources, and much more.
On top of that, no one takes a cut off your earnings. Everything you make from selling on WordPress is yours!
This is my web store where I sell my art and other items on WordPress. All the images that you see here are from my Lip Service Collection.
Can you sell items on a free WordPress site?
As I mentioned above, WordPress is completely free and you can download the content management system at no cost from WordPress.org.
However, once you want to send your website live, you will need to purchase a domain name and web hosting.
Your domain name is something like yourartistwebsite.com and allows people to find your site on the internet. Web hosting basically means that you rent some space on a remote computer that stores your website and keeps it available online 24/7.
This is already enough for a basic portfolio website. Before you can sell art on WordPress, however, you will also need to get an SSL Certificate. This certificate ensures that your website is safe and that orders and payments can be processed securely.
There are hundreds of hosting providers out there and many of them give you an SSL Certificate for free. With some, you will even get a free domain name for the first year.
Hosting for your WordPress site doesn’t have to be expensive. Some hosting packages are available for less than $3 per month from Bluehost, ScalaHosting, and A2 Hosting, which also offer eCommerce support and managed WordPress hosting.
However, if you want to build a serious art selling platform, you might want to consider dedicated WooCommerce hosting by Pressable—the same company that also developed WooCommerce!
Selling on WordPress made easy:
WooCommerce for artists
Now that we’ve outlined the basics, let’s see how you can sell art on WordPress!
The little magic ingredient that actually enables you to start selling on WordPress is called WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a free plugin that adds e-commerce functionality to a WordPress site – and it’s the most popular free e-commerce solution for WordPress!
Just like WordPress itself, WooCommerce is open source and gives you full control over your entire web store.
You can sell anything from tangible items, digital downloads, affiliate products, software, e-books, services, bookings, and subscriptions – to just name some examples.
There is no limit. You can upload unlimited products, add unlimited product images, categories, tags, variations, coupons, etc. – and make unlimited sales!
WooCommerce is simple to set up. You can easily configure it by yourself and launch a fully functional eCommerce store in less than an hour.
Come follow me along and see for yourself!
Getting started with WooCommerce
Like with all WordPress plugins, you install WooCommerce by navigating to ‘Plugins‘ → ‘Add New‘ on your WordPress dashboard. As soon as you type ‘WooCommerce’ into the search field, the plugin will appear first in the search results.
Click on ‘Install Now‘ and after that on ‘Activate‘.
WooCommerce automatically creates the necessary pages for shop, cart, checkout and account.
As soon as the plugin is activated, you will find WooCommerce in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard and you’ll be taken to the setup starting with the General settings.
Here you can enter your store address, selling and shipping locations, select the countries you ship to, enable taxes and coupons, and choose your currency.
Setting up shop and payment details
Under the Products tab, you can select the measurement units for weight (lbs or kg) and dimensions (in or cm), and enable or disable reviews and product ratings.
The following Shipping tab lets you define shipping zones and classes, set fixed prices, offer free delivery, and more. If you want to use drop-shipping, then you’ll need to install an extra WooCommerce extension to handle drop-shipping options.
Being able to accept online payments is key for any eCommerce store. WooCommerce comes with several built-in payment options that you can activate under the Payments tab. Besides direct bank transfer, PayPal is already pre-installed and just needs to be switched on, if you want to use it.
In order to use Stripe, you’ll need to install the additional ‘WooCommerce Stripe Gateway‘ plugin. More payment gateways are available with Woo Payments.
Accounts & Privacy basically regulates your shop policies. You can choose the settings for guest checkout and account creation, set your privacy policy, and control personal data retention and removal.
By the way, speaking of extensions, there are a lot more extensions available for WooCommerce than just drop-shipping and payment gateways. You an add newsletter opt-ins, wishlists, live chats, Trustpilot reviews, printing providers like Printful that will handle physical print sales for you, and many, many more.
To get an idea of what is available, check out the WooCommerce Marketplace.
Notification emails and geolocation for your shop
Let’s move on to the Emails tab. Here you can set email notifications for yourself and your customers.
You can choose whether you want to receive an email when someone places a new order, cancels an order, or when an order fails.
Likewise, you can create automatic emails to notify your customers when an order is being processed, completed or refunded, or when a customers creates an account on your artist website or needs a new password.
WooCommerce lets you customize all these email notifications in terms of colors, fonts, headings, logo, etc. That means you can integrate your personal branding into each of these emails and make them look exactly the way you want!
The Integration tab allows you to install a geolocation app that can determine what country your customers are located in. Based on that data, WooCommerce will be able to automatically work out shipping zones and apply delivery costs.
Setting up your shop pages
In the last Advanced tab, you set up all the pages that you need for your online shop. This includes cart, checkout, ‘My account’, and the terms and conditions.
More advanced users can also modify checkout endpoints, add webhooks, a REST or legacy API.
If that sounds too complicated – don’t worry. It is not necessary to change these settings at all. Everything already works fine by default.
Creating your first products to sell on WordPress
This is where the fun starts! Once you’ve installed WooCommerce, you’ll find a tab in the left sidebar that reads ‘Products‘.
When you hover the mouse over that tab, you’ll see five options. One lets you ‘Add New‘ products to your store.
This is what we are going to do now!
Product title, slug, description, and categories
After clicking on the ‘Add New‘ option, you’ll be directed to the standard product screen. Here you can create physical and virtual products, downloads, e-books, subscriptions, affiliate products, and so on.
So let’s see one-by-one how that is done.
- Product title: In the first field, you simply enter the name of your product.
- Product slug: That’s the URL to your product. Ideally, the slug also contains the name of your product or other attributes that users would type into Google to find your product. The slug is important for SEO and helps your product rank in search engines.
- Product description: This is the main description of your product. The description shows below product images and details in the browser. You can add additional information about the product, such as shipping and contact information.
- Product categories: These serve to organize your products. You can click on ‘Add new category‘ to create a new category for your product or simply tick one of the categories you have already created. The categories you’ve selected for your product are shown in the product data and users can click on them to see more products in the same category.
Product data, tags and main image
- Product data: Here you can enter all data necessary for inventory management and shipping. Under ‘Linked Products‘, you can set upsells and cross-sells that show when someone views or buys the product. ‘Attributes‘ relate to type and medium of the product. ‘Variations‘ lets you create variable products, for example, different sizes for fine art prints. Under ‘Advanced‘, you can add a purchase note to the buyer and enable or disable reviews for the product. If you want to add extensions for more functionality, you can do that under ‘Get more options‘.
- Product tags: They also have the purpose to organize your products. Tags are a word or phrase that describe the product. They also show in the product description like the categories and can be clicked to view more products with the same tag.
- Product image: This is the main image for your product that is displayed in large and first in the gallery.
The image that you see in the sample screenshot is ‘M43‘ from my Surreal Stories Collection.
Product short description, gallery images and reviews
- Short description: For some more detailed information of the product. The short description is shown when a user selects a variation.
- Product gallery: More images to display your product, e.g. from different angles, to show close-ups, or mock-ups to demonstrate what a fine art print looks like when hung up on the wall.
- Reviews: If you’ve enabled reviews, then the reviews for your product are displayed here.
If you are now curious what the final product looks like in the browser once you are done with all the settings, then have a look at the screenshot below or check out the product live here.
Best WordPress Art eCommerce Themes
Now that you know how WooCommerce works, the only thing that remains is choosing the right WordPress theme to get your art store up and running quickly.
There are some themes that offer better WooCommerce integration than others. That’s why I’ve rounded up some of the best WordPress art eCommerce themes for you that allow you to start selling on WordPress hassle-free!
Have a look through them and then pick the best theme for your artistic needs!
1. OceanWP
OceanWP is a free but very powerful WordPress theme that already powers many artist websites, including this one you’re on right now ☺. It’s the best WordPress art eCommerce theme, in my opinion – but I’m biased…
OceanWP offers a portfolio extension to beautifully present your artwork, which makes it so popular among creatives. The Minimal OceanWP theme that you see below is a clean, minimalist WordPress theme, specifically designed for visual creatives, such as photographers, videographers, designers, and other artists.
Full Review: Is OceanWP A Good Theme For Artists? – Hands-On Review By An Artist
OceanWP works seamlessly with WooCommerce and is highly customizable, letting you design everything from the look of product pages, menu cart, checkout page, shop catalog, and much more.
The WordPress theme is compatible with all popular page builders. This makes creating pages easy because all you need to do is drag and drop elements on the page layout.
One of the most popular and powerful page builders is Elementor, which I also use for this website, along with Essential Addons for Elementor and Ultimate Addons for Elementor.
Other powerful page builders that also offer a free version are Divi and Brizy.
Elementor – The Leading WP Website Builder
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Brizy – Best No-Code
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2. Astra
Astra is a popular WordPress theme that is lightweight and fast. It offers perfect WooCommerce support, is highly flexible and easy to customize.
Astra has its native page builder, called Spectra, that will allow you to adapt the entire theme to your liking. If you prefer other page builders, no problem! Astra works with the WordPress’s native Gutenberg editor, as well as all popular page builder plugins, including Elementor, Divi, Brizy, Breakdance, and so on. This versatility makes Astra one of the best website themes to sell your art.
Needless to say that any layout you create with Astra is fully responsive and optimized for SEO (search engine optimization). Selling on WordPress can hardly be any better!
3. Divi
Divi is a popular multi-purpose WordPress theme and page builder. The visual Divi editor lets you edit your website directly on the front end in real time – just like Elementor.
Customizing your pages is simple and intuitive. You can use any of the 800+ pre-made website layouts that are available for free with the Divi package. They come complete with royalty free photos, icons, and illustrations – all you need to do is start adapting them to your needs.
Of course, Divi also allows you to create an online store to sell your art on WordPress! The theme is compatible with WooCommerce and special WooCommerce modules that give you full control over the design of your shop and product pages.
4. Basti
Basti is a classic and versatile WordPress theme right from Automattic’s collection for the arts & crafts industry. It is specifically designed for artists and creatives who want to launch an online store with WooCommerce. There’s even a dedicated ‘Basti Art Market‘ layout that you can import with one click of the mouse.
Basti makes your artist website look good on both mobile devices and desktop computers. It is fast-loading and offers all the customization options you need to adapt the theme to your personal artist branding.
This WordPress art eCommerce theme is optimized for the Gutenberg block editor, but also works well with most other page builders, including Elementor, Divi, and Brizy — and of course all WooCommerce extensions available on the Woo marketplace!
5. Folio
Folio is a minimalist and fast WooCommerce theme with a strong focus on visual appeal and usability.
The theme is responsive, flexible and offers seamless integration with WooCommerce and its extensions. The coding is clean and professional, which is a prerequisite for SEO performance.
The built-in portfolio feature makes it easy to showcase your artwork. You can choose from different gallery styles, and with the live customizer, you can start designing your portfolio and store right away to fit your brand and liking!
6. Affiche
Affiche is a beautiful multi-purpose WordPress theme made for artists that want to sell physical and virtual products. It offers seamless WooCommerce integration for creating an eCommerce website to sell your art.
Affiche features a clean design and powerful coding infrastructure ready for popular WordPress plugins. Automattic specifically made this theme for visual storytelling, meaning visuals like images, videos, typography, and layout are in the main focus.
The theme comes complete with everything you’ll possibly need for a full-fledged artist website, including a pre-designed blog with appealing layout ready to publish articles that rank in search engines!
7. Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes‘ e-commerce suite is the one-stop solution to build a WordPress site to sell your art. When you sign up to Thrive Themes, you get all the tools you could possibly need to monetize your work.
The package includes Thrive Architect (a visual drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress), Thrive Apprentice (to sell online courses and memberships), Thrive Suite (for blogging and affiliate marketing), Thrive Quiz Builder (for interactive quizzes and surveys), and Thrive Leads (opt-in forms to grow your email list).
→ 40+ TOP Lead Magnet Ideas For Artists To Grow Your Mailing List
To install WooCommerce all you need to do is run the intuitive setup wizard that walks you through all the steps necessary to launch your store. With WooCommerce set up, you can simply connect the Thrive Theme Builder and start designing your website and storefront.
You can customize any aspect of your WooCommerce store, from sidebars to headers, product category pages and product sales pages. Besides that, you’ll get access to premade templates, pages, and content blocks tailored to ecommerce brands.
Some premade templates from Thrive Themes that I can recommend for building an art ecommerce site are Allure and Gallery.
8. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is not only the developer of a super-fast and light-weight WordPress theme, but a whole suite of assets complementing it.
Shop is one of my recommendations from GeneratePress’s collection of WordPress themes for selling art. As the name implies, this template is perfect for creatives wanting to sell their work. It showcases your creations beautifully on the homepage as well as on the shop and product pages.
Each product page features an image carousel that allows potential customers to view your products, e.g. art prints, from multiple angles, aiding them in making their purchase decision.
→ How To Display Art Prints For Sale Online [*6 Tips That Work*]
When you sign up for the GP Premium package, you will not only get priority email support for one year, but also access to the exclusive font library, the theme builder, and a whole range of other starter templates.
Is WordPress truly the best platform for artists to showcase and sell their artwork, or are there better alternatives out there?
Hi Fiona, WordPress is the best platform for everyone who is willing to put in a bit of work, because the system itself is completely free and gives you full control and ownership of your website. If you don’t want to deal with so much of the techy stuff, you might want to check out Squarespace. The platform does most of the tech work for you, but comes with a monthly subscription fee. To learn more, you can read my Squarespace review and find out about other free & paid website builders for artists here.
There is obviously a bunch to know about this. I think you made the important points very clear. Thank you for posting this tutorial!
Hi Gina, I agree, WooCommerce comes with a learning curve. I found it a bit overwhelming at the beginning as well, but once you got the hang of it, it all get very straightforward (:
This is very interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!
Hi Queros, thanks for stopping by and sharing the content. Highly appreciated (: