Acquiring new customers is always a challenge for art dealers and gallerists. Even the Art Basel Report for 2019 indicated the same. What helps overcome this challenge, is knowing the demographics of your audience. With the art market no longer confined to a particular state or city or country, and newly introduced digitization of the trade, the art buyers of yore i.e. males have paved the way for younger enthusiasts who are seen investing in art. Millennials are, in fact, increasingly becoming art buyers and collectors as according to the 2019 Art Basel report they comprise 46% of the high net worth collectors surveyed in Singapore and 39% of the total share in Hong Kong. 69% of millennials purchased fine art and 77% purchased decorative art between 2016 and 2018.

Know thy customer

While customer demographics help in segmenting customers on a general level, psychographics help develop personas by telling customer needs and buying behaviour. Thus psychographics help in building their online personas and accurately predict what makes them convert. A combination of demographics, psychographics, as well as behavioural data for arriving at target groups would best help art sellers.

Make a move!

Another possible approach for gallerists and art sellers could be the use of precision targeting to help reach out to the right target audience among the customer segment that actually converts. To the customer, Precision Targeting gives a feeling that the marketer has crafted a personalized experience for them by reaching out with the right message at the right time. AI data points help in studying the buying habits of the customer for a particular product or service over a period of time. For example, gallerists may hold exhibitions at particular months of the year when customers are more likely to buy art or they may send newsletters announcing new pieces on particular days of the month.

What else to display?

ML zooms in into an artwork for its salient features and compares it with other artworks to find similarities and arrive at artworks which buyers would prefer. Advisors and dealers can know about their clients’ tastes and arrive at specific pieces which might be picked by buyers. Likewise, they can also determine which more artists can they add to their art line-ups.

Authentication and Validation

Besides the conventional analysis of material, authenticators, dealers, and auction houses can use AI-based software to detect the authenticity of an artwork. ML studies the artworks of various artists to know their aesthetic style such as the movement director of their medium (brush, pen etc.), the kind of pressure they exert on their canvas, and the previous works of the same artists to arrive at the authenticity criteria. These software can be deployed by sellers to encourage first-time buyers who otherwise may prefer to buy from particular galleries due to authenticity concerns.

With all these new techniques made available by AI, art sellers are poised to see their customer acquisition go up and have a better run in the market.