Función
Sell art on Shopify without running two inventories
Shopify is excellent at cart checkout, shipping labels, and a polished storefront. It is not built for numbered edition copies, confidential viewing rooms, or consignor splits. Most galleries that "use Shopify for art" are actually running Shopify plus a spreadsheet — and the two disagree within weeks.
What Shopify is actually good at in a gallery
Shopify solves commerce: fixed price, add to cart, pay, ship. Edition print drops, artist books, merchandise, and studio multiples at predictable prices are the right fit. Checkout, tax apps, shipping integrations, and a custom-domain storefront are mature.
That is a real job. Many commercial galleries sell forty edition copies through commerce in a month while closing two paintings through coordinated deals — private rooms, holds, negotiated offers, deposits. Shopify handles the first mode well; it has no native concept of the second.
Where the two-inventory problem starts
Shopify thinks in products and variants. A gallery thinks in works, edition copies, consignments, and locations. Mapping 4/50 to a variant works until you also need: a hold on copy 12 while copy 11 is in a viewing room; a price that must never appear on the public store; a consignor statement that debits when copy 7 sells overnight.
Teams patch this with a parallel spreadsheet or gallery CRM. Within weeks: an edition sells on Shopify but internal inventory still shows available; a price changes in the gallery system but not on Shopify; a work is unlisted from Shopify but still physically in the rack. See commerce vs deals for why both modes need one record.
A split that works — temporarily
Some galleries deliberately run Shopify for commerce only and Art.industries (or similar) for deals. That can work if someone owns the sync ritual:
- Shopify: print drops, books, merch, fixed-price multiples with simple shipping.
- Back office: unique paintings, viewing rooms, pipeline, consignments, invoicing with deposits.
- Manual bridge: every Shopify order marked sold in the back office same day; every unlist on either side mirrored manually.
When to consolidate on one catalogue
Signals the split is costing more than it saves: double-selling an edition copy; a viewing-room sale that does not update the storefront; consignment statements rebuilt from Shopify exports; or a fair-week where the director does not trust either list.
Art.industries runs commerce and deals on shared records — storefront checkout for self-serve sales (including print-on-demand on Advanced), viewing rooms and Stripe invoicing for coordinated sales. Compare on the Shopify comparison page.
Importing from Shopify
Export products from Shopify Admin → Products → Export. Map columns in Art.industries import with the validation preview. Mark which works are storefront-eligible. Images and edition structure often need cleanup — especially numbered copies that were flattened into variants.
For a full cutover checklist (redirects, parallel run, cutover order), see migrate from Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify.
Preguntas frecuentes
- Can we keep Shopify for commerce and use Art.industries for deals?
- Yes, but you maintain two catalogues unless you rigorously sync. Most teams consolidate when an edition sells on Shopify but internal inventory still shows available. Art.industries runs both modes on one record.
- Does Art.industries replace Shopify for print and edition sales?
- Yes, for galleries that want checkout on the same catalogue as deals. Storefront checkout on Advanced handles cart orders and live edition counts.
- What about Shopify POS at the gallery shop counter?
- Retail POS still makes sense for high-volume merchandise at the counter. Unique works, editions with consignor splits, and fair deposits belong in gallery sales infrastructure — see gallery POS alternative.
- Which is cheaper?
- Shopify Basic plus apps adds up; Art.industries Core is free for deals and Advanced is $30/month per workspace for commerce. Compare your real SKU count on pricing.
- Can we import our Shopify product CSV?
- Yes. Export products, map columns with the validation preview, and mark storefront-eligible works. Edition copies may need manual restructuring.
Prove the loop on free Core
Import a slice of inventory, send a viewing room, take a Stripe payment. Add commerce on Advanced when you are ready to retire the second product list.