DESIGN ITALY EDITORIAL by Ranieri: Long live the e-commerce.
Despite the suffering, the art sector starts its recovery by looking at new channels.
In 2020, the turnover of art investments on a global scale lost 22% – to $50.1 billion compared to $64.4 billion in 2019 – and 27% compared to 2018, marking the lowest point since the crisis of2009.
Travel restrictions and contracts' reductions further weakened this market multiplying logistical issues. Let us mention the crucial role played by art galleries in our social fabric. While in most cases larger companies (auction houses in this case) have better reacted to the crisis, galleries succeeded in containing their losses at 20% of total sales compared to -30% recorded by auction houses. Thus, beating more prominent players in terms of market share: 58% of the market has turned to the galleries.
Another data worth mentioning concerns the comparison between fairs and the web. Out of the 365 art fairs planned for 2020, 61% were cancelled, while 37% were held online. The e-commerce boom matches this figure: +28% in retail sales overall, tripled annual online sales for gallery owners and doubled the volume of lots sold at auction.
Despite their ability to manage the pandemic, eastern countries couldn't stop the bleeding: China, with total sales of around 10 billion, contains the losses (only -12% YoY) and ranks second on a global basis, behind the United States and ahead of the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the country recorded, for the third year in a row, a market contraction.
