Five Places To Sell Your Art Online Using Print on Demand
SELLING ARTWORK
6/16/2025
Want to start selling your art online but not sure where to begin?
With so many platforms available, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. In this blog post, I’ll share five top platforms for selling your artwork using the print on demand company Gelato.
Gelato allows you to create products from your artwork likes prints and greeting cards without the hassle of inventory and shipping. You can upload digital templates of your artwork and Gelato will arrange with local print partners in different countries across the world to print these on your behalf and send directly to your customer.
This makes international sales much easier, and once set up, it requires minimal effort on your part, you don’t need to worry about having inventory in your studio, packaging your items or shipping your products which can be a headache especially with international shipping.
But once you have created these products where do you sell them? The best part about Gelato is that you can link your products to several selling platforms, five of which I’ll be discussing in this blog post.
Setting Up an Account on Gelato
To set up an account on Gelato, go to the Gelato website and click “Sign Up” at the top right corner. Enter your name, email address, and create a password—or sign up using your Google account.
Once you’ve set up your Gelato account, you can start browsing the wide range of available products. It’s a good idea to place a sample order to see how your artwork looks when printed. If you order your sample within 48 hours of signing up, you’ll receive 50% off your order. If you’d like to learn how I photograph and edit my artwork to prepare it for printing, you can read all about it in my blog post here.
Once you’re happy with how your test products—such as prints, greeting cards, or calendars—turn out, you’ll be ready to list them for sale on the various selling platforms that Gelato integrates with. Let's run through just 5 of these one by one.
Etsy
The first selling platform I’m going to talk about is Etsy which in my opinion is one of the easiest to connect to your Gelato store.
Etsy is just one example of an online marketplace meaning that it’s a platform that connects sellers and buyers but it also handles transactions, marketing and customer reach making it an ideal platform for those artists who want to focus on their work and not worry about the logistics of selling and marketing.
Benefits:
Gelato integrates directly with Etsy, unlike some other platforms which I will discuss later, and this is why it is so easy to set up and doesn’t require any technical expertise.
Orders placed on Etsy are automatically sent to Gelato for production and shipping.
Drawbacks:
Some of the cons of selling through Etsy are that Etsy charges transaction fees and payment processing fees, which can add up and cut into your profit margins—especially when combined with Gelato’s product and shipping costs.
Also, Etsy is a crowded marketplace with many similar products, making it challenging to stand out without strong branding, SEO, and additional marketing efforts.
Shopify
The next platform is Shopify which I’m sure you’ve heard of, it’s an e-commerce platform that allows you to create your own online store to sell products. The benefit of using Shopify is that it’s user-friendly and works well for small businesses - you don’t need to be a tech expert to build your online store. It walks you through everything step by step.
Benefits:
Like Etsy it’s easy to connect your Shopify store to Gelato. Orders are fulfilled automatically meaning that once you’ve set everything up you don’t need to do anything and it's pretty much passive income from that point onwards.
Shopify comes with helpful tools to manage inventory, take payments, track orders, and understand your sales through reports. And If you ever get stuck, Shopify offers 24/7 customer support to help you out.
Drawbacks:
Some of the drawbacks of using Shopify is that, unlike Etsy, Shopify charge a monthly subscription fee. This can add up, especially for new or smaller artists.
Also unless you use Shopify Payments, you’ll pay extra transaction fees for each sale — which cuts into your profits.
While it’s easy to use, customizing your Shopify store beyond the basics (like advanced design tweaks) might require some coding knowledge or hiring help.
And finally Shopify provides the tools, but you’re responsible for driving traffic to your store. This means investing time (and possibly money) in marketing and promotion.
TikTok Shop
I’ve added in TikTok shop which may not be to everyone’s liking but there is no denying that having a TikTok shop is becoming hugely popular. Apparently according to research 2 out of 3 users are likely to buy something on TikTok!
To sell through TikTok you have to create a TikTok Shop Seller Account. You can then sync your TikTok account with Gelato and start creating products.
Benefits:
Selling your work through TikTok is a great way to reach a huge, engaged audience.
It's perfect for visual products like art, and the short videos make it easy to show off your work in fun, creative ways.
With TikTok Shop, people can buy directly in the app—making the whole process quick and seamless.
A single trending video can drive significant traffic and sales, offering strong potential for rapid growth.
Drawbacks:
Some of the cons of selling on TikTok are that success on TikTok often depends on understanding trends, video creation, and content algorithms—skills that take time and effort to develop.
Sales can be heavily dependent on video performance and virality, which can fluctuate unpredictably.
Relying solely on TikTok also means your sales are vulnerable to algorithm changes, account restrictions, or policy updates.
Your Website
Selling your products through your own website gives you complete control over how you show and sell your art. However, there are some costs involved. You'll typically need:
Website hosting ($3–$50 per month, depending on the plan)
A domain name ($10–$15 per year).
An eCommerce platform (if you plan to sell directly through your site)
If you do have an eCommerce plan, Gelato integrates with platforms like WooCommerce that allows you to turn your website into an online store. It provides all the tools you need to sell products, manage inventory, handle payments, and track orders. WooCommerce is suitable for small businesses and allows you to sell print-on-demand products like prints and sets of greeting cards through your website.
Benefits:
The benefits of selling through your own website is that unlike online marketplaces like Etsy, you avoid paying fees or commissions, allowing for higher profit margins.
As your business grows, your WooCommerce site can scale to meet increased demand without the limitations of third-party platforms
Selling on your own site lets you build a direct relationship with your customers, which helps with loyalty, repeat business, and targeted marketing.
Drawbacks:
Driving traffic to a new site can be difficult, so it's essential to use SEO, social media, and email marketing to attract potential buyers.
New websites may struggle to build trust with customers compared to established platforms like Ebay or Etsy, and face competition from these larger marketplaces, which offer more buyer protections and product variety.
Big Cartel
This is a selling platform I discovered recently and probably one that I would use if I didn’t have my ecommerce platform on my website or my Etsy shop.
Big Cartel helps artists sell their products and it’s ideal for creators who want a simple way to manage and show their work online without complicated features. You can set up an online store on Big Cartel for free and sell up to five products at a time.
Although you cannot direct link your Gelato products to your Big Cartel account you are able to use what is known as an order management tool as the ‘middle man’ . Essentially this helps automate the process of sending orders from your Big Cartel store to Gelato without you needing to get involved in the process. This tool is called Order Desk and it connects your Big Cartel store to Gelato and automatically routes your orders, tracking info, and reduces manual tasks that you have to carry out.
The benefits of using order desk are that it saves you time, you don’t need to manually enter customer or shipping details. Orders are processed more quickly, improving customer satisfaction.
A couple of cons of using order desk are that it requires a paid plan, which may be an additional expense, especially for small businesses. Setting up the integrations and workflows can take some time and effort if you're not familiar with the platform.
Benefits:
Here’s why Big Cartel might be a great option for you: If you promote your paintings on social media, you can link directly to your Big Cartel shop, making it easy for people to purchase. Big Cartel handles the transaction process and currently supports PayPal and Stripe payments.
Big Cartel doesn’t charge any transaction fees on sales—though keep in mind that Stripe or PayPal may have processing fees.
You can also link your big cartel shop directly from your website, which is especially useful if you don’t have an eCommerce plan in place on your website.
Drawbacks:
A couple of potential drawbacks to consider: you'll be responsible for all the marketing of your products yourself—unlike online marketplaces that handle promotion for you with Big Cartel you have to put links in various places yourself and drive people to your products.
Additionally, you're limited to listing just five products with the free plan, each with a single photo. To list more, you’ll need to subscribe to a paid plan, which is reasonable as long as your sales can cover the cost.
Final Thoughts
Selling your work through online shopping platforms with print-on-demand is a great option! Here's just a few reasons why:
Low Startup Costs: No need to invest in inventory—products are only printed when a customer places an order.
Broad Reach: Platforms like Etsy and TikTok Shop give you access to large, ready-made audiences.
Easy Setup: Many platforms are user-friendly and quick to launch, letting you focus more on your art and marketing.
Automated Fulfillment: Print-on-demand services handle production, packaging, and shipping, saving you time and effort.
Scalability: You can grow your business without worrying about storing or managing stock.
Flexibility: Easily test new designs or products without financial risk.
The big advantages of using print on demand for me are that I don’t have to invest a lot of money up front in buying inventory, the products are only printed when a customer places an order and you don’t need to worry about shipping, especially internationally which can be expensive.
Why not give print on demand with Gelato a try for yourself?