Over the past few weeks you may have noticed some changes as we prepare for the next Artist Shops update. Behind the scenes, we’ve been conducting extensive user research with both artists and customers, and working on creating a more streamlined experience so customers can shop much more easily, and artists have a shop they’re proud to share. We’re excited to share some of that work, the vision behind it, and how Artist Shops are going to change over the next few weeks.

Our Vision for Artists Shops

Over the past 12 months we’ve spoken to thousands of artists and customers through interviews, surveys and user testing sessions. This has helped us better understand their needs and refine our vision for Artist Shops.

There are many things artists value about their experience on Redbubble but primarily, artists come to Redbubble to sell their artwork.

• Artists want a shop they feel proud of and that reflects their personal brand
• Artists want a shop that makes their artwork attractive to potential customers
• Artists are confused about where to send customers – Shop, Profile or Portfolio
• Artists want more control over the look and feel of their Shop
• Customers are confused when they see other content before art or products
• Customers find it challenging to shop from the Profile and Portfolio pages
• Customers seek a modern shopping experience designed well on mobile

Back in November, we released the sleek new Artist Shop page and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the artist community. Your customers told us that they too love the new experience, find it more accessible and are buying more. Our goal is to continue to deliver a top-class Shop, optimized for selling and connecting with your audiences.

The Challenge

There’s a lot of content vying for your customers’ attention, spread over three different pages. The original Artist Shop was designed in a time before mobile (yes, it’s true!) and although we’ve optimized it to be responsive, it was never designed with mobile users in mind.

Our challenge has been to look closely and carefully at everything contained within these pages, and redefine an experience that addresses the core needs for artists and your potential customers.

Today’s Update

We’re taking the first steps to merge your Profile into Shop. This means your Shop will be the main page for you to share with fans and customers. If you’ve previously shared links to your old Profile page, these will automatically be redirected to your Shop.

New Profile Section on Shop

We’ve added a new profile section to the bottom of your Shop for customers to learn more about you and your craft. From next week, the “view artist profile” link will anchor to the new profile section at the bottom of the page, keeping your customers in the shopping experience.

How to Update Your New Profile 

We encourage you to transfer what you would like to keep from your “public profile” into your “bio” via your Account Settings. Textile formatting is available (i.e. images, videos, and links) but we strongly advise keeping your bio short and simple so it’s optimized for SEO. A simple, clean bio will increase the chances of your Redbubble shop appearing higher in online searches.

Coming Soon

A New Achievements Badge for Featured Artists

If you’ve ever been featured on Redbubble’s homepage or “Found Feed”, your new profile will have a shiny new Achievements Badge, highlighting you as a Featured Artist. Congratulations!

Accessing Journals, Groups and Writing

Our research has highlighted that customers are often confused and distracted by features that don’t directly help them with their shopping experience. Some existing features don’t naturally fit on new Artist Shops, but we’re exploring how they might evolve. We’ll be looking at these features in greater depth as part of our next piece of work on Shops.

In the meantime, we’ll be adding a link at the bottom of your new Profile, so you can still access your old Profile page, and your Groups, Journals, and Writing. Your Journals will also be accessible in your “Manage Portfolio” page via a new Journals tab.

What’s Coming Next

Over the next few weeks, you’ll notice more changes to your Artist Shop, specifically how featured collections and your latest designs are presented to potential customers. You’ll also see the first couple of customization options (no spoilers yet) as we start to focus on our next piece of work – giving you greater control over how your art is displayed.

If you have feedback, thoughts and ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us your thoughts via the feedback widget in your account settings.

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Update: Thanks to everyone who has left comments below the post. We have been reviewing all the feedback you’ve posted here and via the feedback widget on your Artist Dashboard. We’re currently working on the next set of Artist Shop features mentioned above, which we hope will answer some of the concerns around artwork view vs product view. 

You can choose a default product image for each artwork, and this will display the artwork on a product of your choice on the shop page. We’ve written a guide on how to do this here. We’re also working on a fix so you’re able to choose and change your Collections cover images. Once again, we really do appreciate all your feedback. We’ll have another update for you soon.

Header Image: Under The Trees | Designed and sold by Clair Bremner