Selling Art Online and at Art Fairs: How to Make Both Work
How your booth and your online sales can feed each other, and how a managed line fits around a full show season.
A single art fair weekend takes a lot: building inventory, loading the van, setting up the booth, talking with a crowd all day and tearing it all down. Then Monday comes, and "do something about selling online" lands back on the list. For many festival artists it never gets done, because running an online store well is its own job.
Your booth and your online shop work better together. This guide covers how they help each other and how to keep both going through a full show season. For the full selling plan, start with how to sell art online.
Meet Brakebee
Brakebee is an art marketplace and selling platform built around the way festival artists work. One catalog powers your shop, the curated marketplace and your connectors. Make a Sale takes card, cash and other payments at the booth, and a reusable jury packet makes the next fair entry faster.² Artists who want the online side run for them can hand it to Brakebee through Managed Lines.¹
How the booth and the shop help each other
Booth visitors who aren't ready to buy
Plenty of people love your work and walk away. They may be traveling, need to measure a wall or want to think it over. A shop link on your card or table sign gives them a place to find the piece later.
Staying in touch between shows
A sign-up sheet or QR code at the booth grows your email list. Email blasts and drips then tell those visitors about new work and your next show.²
Show announcements
Posts and emails about upcoming fairs tell followers where to find you in person, which brings repeat buyers to the booth.
Prints and smaller pieces
If you sell originals, print-on-demand products give fans a lower-cost way to own your work online. The Phoenix lab prints, packs and ships each order after a collector pays, so a sale while you are three states away needs nothing from you.² See print on demand for artists.
Fulfillment around a show calendar
The practical question is simple: if a piece sells online while you are at a show, what happens? Plan the answer before the season starts.
| Approach | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Print on demand | The lab makes and ships each order | Prints and products while you travel |
| Ship it yourself | You ship originals on an agreed timeline | One-of-a-kind work |
| A mix | The lab ships prints, you ship originals | Most festival artists |
| Print runs for the booth | Order a batch from the same lab for show stock | Inventory you carry to fairs |
If you sell the same piece online and at the booth, update stock the moment it sells in person. One catalog makes that a single change.²
What a month can look like with a managed line
In a managed line, the work splits cleanly. This example shows a typical division, and your plan may differ.
| You | Brakebee |
|---|---|
| Make new work | Add new work to your catalog |
| Do your shows | Update listings on every channel your line uses |
| Send photos of new pieces | Schedule social posts through Social Central |
| Ship originals or restock, if that's your arrangement | Send your email marketing |
| Share your show calendar | Run print-on-demand products and the back end |
Your fairs, festivals and commission work stay yours in a managed line.¹ Brakebee runs the online and wholesale selling for the products in your line, and you keep the booth.
What stays the same
- Your booth. Your pricing at events, your display and your in-person customers.
- Your commissions. Custom work stays between you and your collector.
- Your schedule. Tell us your show calendar, and we plan around it.
If that sounds like the help you need, read is a managed line right for you? or send us a note.
Talk to us about a managed line
Sources.
¹ Brakebee, Managed Lines page: program scope, organic marketing, in-person events and commissions stay with the artist. brakebee.com/managed-lines, confirmed Oct 15, 2026.
² Brakebee, Makers page: Make a Sale, festival tools and reusable jury packet, print-on-demand and print runs from the Phoenix lab, email blasts and drips, Social Central, connectors. brakebee.com/makers, confirmed Oct 15, 2026.
Part of series: Managed Lines
- How Managed Lines Works: From First Conversation to a Line We Run
- What's Included in Managed Lines: Everything Brakebee Runs for Your Art Line
- Who Owns What in a Managed Line: Your Art, Your Accounts and What Brakebee Builds
- Is a Managed Line Right for You? Who It Fits and Who It Doesn't
- Selling Art Online and at Art Fairs: How to Make Both Work
- Marketing for Artists: How to Market Your Art Without Paid Ads
- Sell Art on Etsy, Faire, Wayfair and More From One Catalog
- Introducing Managed Lines: Brakebee Will Run the Online Side of Your Art Line
- Shopify for Artists: Why Artists Are Moving to Brakebee Managed Lines