KÖNIG Galerie: How an art gallery entered e-commerce

The KÖNIG Gallery decided to set up its own presence on Shopify Plus to sell its own art through its own online shop and to make its digital content world accessible to everyone.

Dunkler Ausstellungsraum mit großformatiger leuchtender abstrakter Farbskulptur davor drei Menschen als Silhouetten
Services
  • Shop Setup
  • Concept & Consulting
  • Individual design
  • programming
  • Individual functionalities

This enabled the KÖNIG Gallery to launch its own e-commerce presence with an online shop on Shopify, sell art online and offer its content world digitally .

  • The initial situation

    KÖNIG Galerie is one of the leading art galleries globally. It operates galleries in major cultural centers such as Berlin, Monaco, Seoul, London, and Vienna, and continually breaks the traditional rules of the art market. In addition to its core function as a gallery, the KÖNIG team has also been organizing the "Messe in St. Agnes" art fair since the pandemic. They have also launched an art marketplace offering unique artworks, fine art prints, NFTs, and merchandise. To make the wide range of products offered more accessible, the team also publishes its own digital magazine.

  • The challenge

    Before the pandemic, the gallery's website was primarily an information resource, with no options for selling artwork online. With the onset of the pandemic, a Shopify platform was tested, but it didn't offer the expected high-quality presentation options for the products. The challenge was to find a suitable platform for selling artwork that could accurately represent the value of the high-priced products.
  • Drei schwarze Smartphones zeigen App-Bildschirme mit Menü Balance of Time Gebäudeprojekt und Galerieansicht abstrakter Gemälde

  • The solution approach

    The KÖNIG team turned to tante-e to support the transition to a customized Shopify solution. With a custom design for the KÖNIG Gallery and close collaboration with the gallery team, the Shopify store was optimized and customized. Following the successful relaunch, tante-e continued to offer support as an extended e-commerce team, helping to implement customized requirements.

The implementation

Unique shop design
The new digital space created for KÖNIG Gallery was designed to be distinctly different from traditional online shops. Instead of prioritizing sales, the online shop focuses on presenting the gallery, its artists, and its works. Selling artwork is just one aspect of the overall presence.

Diverse entry points
For this purpose, various entry points into the shop have been created. There's the classic entry point, which displays the shop's categories and products. There's also a special artist overview. Here, users can learn more about the artists, read their stories, and then explore the available artworks.

Individual pricing
Some of the artworks don't have listed prices because they are very expensive. In these cases, an "Inquiry" button is placed on the product page. Interested buyers can click this button and submit a request, which will be forwarded directly to the Gorgias customer support tool. Other products have clearly stated prices.

Digital magazine
KÖNIG Galerie is also known for its print magazine. However, due to rising printing and distribution costs, the decision was made to offer the magazine digitally. To achieve this, the native Shopify blog section was expanded and customized templates were created. This allowed the high quality of the content from the print magazine to be maintained.

Collaborations and partnerships
Special projects have been implemented in collaboration with major partners such as Porsche and MISA.art. For MISA.art, a project in the field of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in art, a technical interface for the sale and presentation of NFTs has been created.

Automated content updates
An interface to art.facts has been created for content related to current exhibitions. This allows for automated extraction of content and information about artists and their entry into the shop. This ensures that the content is always kept up-to-date without requiring additional manual effort within the team.

Price evaluation by AI
Additionally, a tool called Limna.ai has been integrated. This tool uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide visitors with estimates of the actual value of a work of art. This helps buyers better assess whether the price of a work of art is justified.

Authenticity certification
To ensure the authenticity of the artworks sold, the Verisart tool has been integrated into the shop. Each artwork sold comes with a Verisart certificate of authenticity.

Transparent shipping cost calculation
Shipping costs for artworks can be significant, so it was important to make the calculation of these costs as transparent as possible. Using the Convelio tool, shipping costs can be calculated based on the actual size and weight of the artwork.

The implementation

01

Unique shop design

The new digital space created for KÖNIG Gallery was designed to be distinctly different from traditional online shops. Instead of prioritizing sales, the online shop focuses on presenting the gallery, its artists, and its works. Selling artwork is just one aspect of the overall presence.

02

Diverse entry points

For this purpose, various entry points into the shop have been created. There's the classic entry point, which displays the shop's categories and products. There's also a special artist overview. Here, users can learn more about the artists, read their stories, and then explore the available artworks.

03

Individual pricing

Some of the artworks don't have listed prices because they are very expensive. In these cases, an "Inquiry" button is placed on the product page. Interested buyers can click this button and submit a request, which will be forwarded directly to the Gorgias customer support tool. Other products have clearly stated prices.

04

Digital magazine

KÖNIG Galerie is also known for its print magazine. However, due to rising printing and distribution costs, the decision was made to offer the magazine digitally. To achieve this, the native Shopify blog section was expanded and customized templates were created. This allowed the high quality of the content from the print magazine to be maintained.

05

Collaborations and partnerships

Special projects have been implemented in collaboration with major partners such as Porsche and MISA.art. For MISA.art, a project in the field of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in art, a technical interface for the sale and presentation of NFTs has been created.

06

Automated content updates

An interface to art.facts has been created for content related to current exhibitions. This allows for automated extraction of content and information about artists and their entry into the shop. This ensures that the content is always kept up-to-date without requiring additional manual effort within the team.

07

Price evaluation by AI

Additionally, a tool called Limna.ai has been integrated. This tool uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide visitors with estimates of the actual value of a work of art. This helps buyers better assess whether the price of a work of art is justified.

08

Authenticity certification

To ensure the authenticity of the artworks sold, the Verisart tool has been integrated into the shop. Each artwork sold comes with a Verisart certificate of authenticity.

09

Transparent shipping cost calculation

Shipping costs for artworks can be significant, so it was important to make the calculation of these costs as transparent as possible. Using the Convelio tool, shipping costs can be calculated based on the actual size and weight of the artwork.
Drei schwarze Smartphones zeigen App-Bildschirme mit Menü Balance of Time Gebäudeprojekt und Galerieansicht abstrakter Gemälde Zwei nebeneinander stehende Smartphones zeigen links Rasteransicht von Künstlerporträts rechts Detailseite eines Künstlers mit Bild und Text schwebendes schwarzes Smartphone zeigt Website mit perspektivischer Hochhausaufnahme und Kugelskulptur Schwarzes Smartphone auf weißem Hintergrund zeigt Galerie-Webseite mit News-Sektion und Kunstinstallationsbildern Zwei schwebende schwarze Smartphones vor hellgrauem Hintergrund links Artikelporträt sitzender Mann rechts König Online-Magazin mit Neoninstallation Drei überlappende Smartphones mit Kunstwerkübersicht moderner Galerie-App

The results

KÖNIG Galerie now has a modern online presence that serves as both an information resource and an e-commerce platform. Thanks to the automation of many processes and an intuitive user interface, the team can stay up-to-date and maintain the online shop with minimal personnel effort.

Lessons Learned

The case study demonstrates that even high-priced products, such as the artworks of KÖNIG Galerie, can be successfully sold online. The key to this is the proper presentation of the products and their stories, as well as creating space for the story behind the artwork and the artists. The case study also highlights the potential for creating and maintaining sophisticated content and blog worlds on Shopify.

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