Art Ecommerce Marketplace UGallery Launches International Operations to Connect Artists and Clients Worldwide
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 04, 2015 -- UGallery (http://www.ugallery.com), a pioneer in art ecommerce since 2006, today announced the expansion of its operations to international markets. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company sells original artworks from top emerging artists through its curated online art marketplace.
“UGallery connects clients and artists online, eliminating the geographic restrictions that brick & mortar galleries face. A client in London can buy artwork from an artist in Los Angeles, for example. Now, with our international expansion, we are able to connect clients and artists from around the world more seamlessly,” said Stephen Tanenbaum, Co-founder and President of UGallery.
UGallery already ships artwork internationally to over 50 countries from its roster of U.S.-based artists, with international orders representing 9% of total sales. However, until now, the company was limited on shipping artwork from international artists back to the United States, or between two international markets.
“We’ve always shipped artwork internationally, but it was very uni-directional. Our packaging and shipping was all U.S.-based so we weren’t set up to coordinate fulfillment if the artist was located abroad,” said Tanenbaum.
To facilitate cross-border shipping, UGallery now warehouses its custom art packaging in London in addition to the United States. When an artist is located abroad, the art packaging and fulfillment will originate from the London facility.
“We chose the United Kingdom as our initial launch market. It’s the third biggest art market in the world and represents 22% of all global fine art sales*. The UK is still dominated by high-end auction houses which only apply to a small minority of artists and collectors, so there is a great opportunity to capture the mainstream market,” said Tanenbaum. “Organically, our sales to the UK grew 240% in 2014. Now that we have formal operations and dedicated advertising there, we expect it to grow exponentially this year.”
73% of dealers predict sales to international clients will increase over the next five years. After launching in the United Kingdom, UGallery plans to expand operations to Asia and the Middle East.
To date, UGallery has received $1.7 million in seed funding from Trailhead Ventures, located in the Bay Area. For further information on UGallery, please visit http://www.ugallery.com.
About UGallery
UGallery is a curated online art gallery that sells original, one-of-a-kind artworks. Founders Stephen Tanenbaum, Alex Farkas, and Greg Rosborough came together in 2006 to create a revolutionary approach to art sales that democratizes the entire art buying process. Through the online platform, clients can browse the collection by price, medium, style, size, color, or artist and give any piece a weeklong test run in their home risk-free. More information about UGallery can be found at http://www.ugallery.com.
*Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2015
Charlotte Nichols, UGallery, http://www.ugallery.com, +1 4157428417, [email protected]
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