Always a little slow on the uptake, it is then not surprising that I continue to be surprised by the amount of sales activity we enjoy the result of our website. With the establishment and the proliferation of online sales platforms, it had originally seemed to me that these were designed for the sale of shall we say cheap and cheerful items of limited antiquity. Consequently, it appeared that successes were achieved mostly with that darling of contemporary design, mid-century modern furniture, and items of no great age that would be produced in multiples. With the dealers with whom we have a good relationship (read ‘those who will actually tell the truth’) it is the general consensus that, while an occasional better sale might be achieved utilizing a sales platform, it is mostly for the sale of what we refer to as price point merchandise.
An excellent adjunct to our bricks and mortar
With a consistent lukewarm response from peers, we’ve relied on our own website and seen, for a few years, roughly the same result- the occasional spot sale, usually for not very much money. What we have seen ongoing, though, is the phenomenon of any actual darkening of the gallery door preceded by a browse on our website. This, coupled with follow-on sales through our website related to an initial gallery visit has made our website a useful tool. While the virtual hasn’t replaced the actual, our website has, in the ten years we’ve maintained it, consistently been an excellent adjunct to our bricks and mortar.
That is, until recently. Markedly over the course of the last year, we are achieving a significant and growing proportion of our sales from website activity unaccompanied by an in-store visit. We always assume that the buyer of traditional material will continue to utilize a traditional method of making a purchase, with four if not five of the senses- not all of them internet accessible- informing the punter’s decision to buy.
In all this, I am reminded of a phenomenon of the ‘60’s, with the American public, largely unused to wine, suddenly exposed to it in greater volume. While it was assumed that the glass of tawny port consumed at Christmas had irrevocably shaped the American palate, sage oenophiles knew that consumers would over time achieve a comfortability with more sophisticated wines. The fortunes of the wine industry in California have certainly borne this out. Similarly, it seems that the internet has exposed so many prospective buyers to art and antiques that, over time, the purchase of items of increasingly better quality using the same method with which their exposure is ineluctably linked appears now to be a natural adjunct.
A Growing Entre to interaction
Though we had assumed that the nature of our internet sales would inevitably be dry and arid, as opposed to the intimate conviviality of our face to face client relationships, we’ve found that the internet is anymore the growing entre to interaction that is just as rewarding as before. Moreover, whatever it is that disposes a client to establish a relationship with a particular dealer seems, for Chappell & McCullar at any rate, to transcend our galleries, somehow infusing our website and those who browse it. I am possibly penning this blog entry too late, as we’ve renewed our lease and we’ll be ‘actual’ for a few more years yet. I suppose I might have got better terms from our landlord had this blog entry appeared a few weeks ago. Still and all, we cannot deny that in the fullness of time the virtual may make the actual gallery if not obsolete then the adjunct that the internet was formerly- even in what we have always steadfastly maintained is the highest of high touch businesses.
Copyright © 2012 Michael James Chappell, Chappell & McCullar
paperparadise
April 30, 2012
Having been a web seller almost primarily for 20 years, I can assure you that I have never been in the business of price point merchandise. Those of us who live in the egalitarian reality of “the net” are aware that every year the volume of web sales increase exponentially. Speak to some of the auction houses and you will find that they too are relying on the net for an increasing amount of sales volume whether directly from internet bidding or phone bidding after viewing on the net. Net sales involve all price points. Some pieces are frankly offered via the net, while others are invitations to stop by and “talk to us about our exclusive inventory.”
What the high-end brick and mortar marketers don’t seem to realize is that “the net” requires more work than a stand alone store. Just in terms of the amount of merchandise available and the number of “stores” offering it, web stores need to work very hard at promoting themselves.
Need I mention price competitiveness? While antique on the high-end has always carried the panache of rarity, there is actually very little that is one-off. Someone looking for 18th century Meissen (as an example) can probably find twenty similar examples and price compare. While that ebeniste side table in your inventory may be rare and beautiful and made for Marie Antoinnette , some one else on the net is offering a similar table made for the Duc D’Orleans and both will come up in a web search. One can no longer get by with a posh address, discreetly designed showrooms and an attitude.
Given the computer dependency of today’s buying public, the lack of time to physically shop, and the ease of comparison shopping on the net, there is every reason to believe that an internet presence is not only a fact of life in the antiques business, but is becoming the life blood.
Sarah Ann Filler
April 30, 2012
The ability for dealers to differentiate in an increasingly occupied on-line venue will likely become increasingly important as the movement to on-line contrasts the in-person experience – whether it be at shows or in dealer spaces. Branding in a way which best represents the material, as well as the dealer behind the material could help dealers compete in this mixed-venue world.