How Ugallery cofounders used design to bring artists and buyers together online – with Stephen Tanenbaum

Stephen Tanenbaum, Ugallery, Customer Acquisition, eCommerce, Marketplace

Stephen Tanenbaum is the cofounder of UGallery, a curated online art gallery.

But how do you get potential customers to pull out their credit cards for a product like original art? In today’s interview Stephen talks about creating a marketplace, how site design changes buying habits and how Ugallery got their first customer.

Check it out.

Stephen Tanenbaum

Ugallery

Stephen Tanenbaum is the cofounder of UGallery, a curated online art gallery.

Andrew: Hey, before we dive into the questions here, I just wanted to make sure that this was the right move. Actually, what I’m trying to figure out is how big is the business? When we asked you for metrics, you said that you have 1.7 million social followers, which just doesn’t seem like a business metric. I mean it is, but it’s not.

Stephen: I’m not sure if we gave that as a business metric. We certainly would have given that as the social followers. The business has grown steadily every year. We don’t unveil our exact sales figures. But we’ve grown by double digits every year since launching in ’06.

Andrew: But if you started with like $1 in sales and you double every year for the last 10 years, that still doesn’t put you at a profit, right?

Stephen: Yeah. We have sales in over 50 countries. We represent about 500 artists, with international artists taking about 15 percent of that.

Andrew: Have you...

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