According to reports in luxury daily, high-end shoppers with a taste for buying online will get something of a unique opportunity to combine their dual passions next week, care of an effort undertaken by Sotheby’s and eBay.
The auction house will be bringing two of its auctions online with the Web’s premier designation for digital today (May 10) and Thursday (May 12).
These auctions will hold some high-end items for a Web auction, including such rare and coveted items as paintings by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí.
High-end auctioning has been up until now a primarily “real-world” commerce experience, as luxury brands and retailers have been hesitant to move to the Web for fear of tarnishing their branded reputation and exclusivity. But as brands are moving increasingly to keep up with consumers who are moving online, those walls are crumbling.
This is not the first pair-up with Sotheby’s and eBay; in 2014, the two firms livestreamed a New York based auction on the marketplace.
And online art is a growing business that is expected to double to as much as $3.76 billion over the next half decade.
While Sotheby’s is working with eBay, its nearest competitor, Christies, has also been making moves to get online, though they are doing it on their own via their own online-only auctions platform. That platform launched in 2012. According to Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy, 2012 saw 30 percent be both new to Christies and had been brought in through the online portal.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More