Creating a P2P art marketplace
I led the redesign of Artsy’s selling experience, with the end goal of enabling art collectors to seamlessly list, manage, and sell artworks on the platform. Our goal was to become the Ebay of the art world.
Early results and impact
We improved user engagement, increased conversion rates and reduced costly manual work by automating key parts of the process:
Web submission conversion jumped from 12% → 69%; app from 32% → 43%
Manual outreach reduced from 100% of submissions to 56%, saving the team significant time (e.g. follow up on shipping, framing, condition), and a huge saving in resource.
Drop-off decreased, and re-engagement improved via smarter nudges and on-platform messaging
Key Improvements
Kept all communication on-platform for a seamless, automated experience
Connected with their art collection so listing works for sale from existing collection was simple and fast
Simplified the whole experience with clear, progressive steps to reduce cognitive load
Applied nudge theory to guide users in submitting the right details and photos
Added contextual guidance at every step, explaining what we needed and why
Enabled re-engagement through push/email reminders, allowing users to continue later
Improved tracking so sellers could see their submission status, reducing support queries
Balancing immediate impact with long-term vision
This project tackled a complex user journey with multiple layers of information and numerous manual steps requiring automation. My challenge was to drive immediate impact while working towards the future vision that excited our stakeholders.
Final note
The P2P marketplace project was cut due to a strategic shift by Artsy. So while it started successfully, we were not able to see through our vision.