For artists selling at meaningful price points, logistics is the invisible second studio. It is also where deals quietly die: a damaged corner, a customs hold, a missing CITES document, a tracking number that never updates.
This piece is a survey of the basics — the things every artist running an online store should have decided before the next listing goes live.
Packing is part of the work
Do not let the gallery or the courier define your packing standard. Build it once with a conservator or experienced art handler, and then enforce it.
- A two-layer system: glassine or interleaving against the surface, then a rigid outer crate.
- A condition report photographed at every handover.
- Hardware (D-rings, wire, hanging instructions) shipped attached, never loose.
Pick two carriers, not five
A small carrier list is a feature. Pick a domestic specialist for in-country shipments and a fine art freight forwarder for international. Build relationships. Their failures will be your failures, so know them well.
Customs is a paperwork practice
For cross-border sales above customs thresholds, the buyer's tax and duty experience is part of your brand. Decide in advance:
- Are you DDP (you cover) or DAP (they cover) on landed costs?
- Is your shop generating the right HS codes by default?
- Do you have a customs broker on retainer for high-value moves?
Condition reports earn the next sale
A short, photographed condition report on arrival — sent unprompted from the studio — does more for collector retention than a discount code ever will. It tells them: this object was cared for the whole way, and you are now its caretaker.
Closing
Logistics will never appear on the site. But it is the substrate the entire store is built on. Spend the time once. Then forget it, and let the work travel.
Studio Editors
Written from the studio. For more notes on the practice, return to the magazine.
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