Antiques platform launches Pay-As-You-Go option
A leading antiques online platform www.antiques.co.uk has enhanced its routes for sales during the Covid-19 lockdown by launching a pay-as-you-go option where both trade and private clients can list items to buy and sell.
The site is also open to all antique dealers, fair, private clients and art galleries, wherever they are based in the world.
Traditionally a pay-for-membership site, www.antiques.co.uk founder Iain Brunt has now opened-up the platform enabling antique dealers, galleries, collectors and private buyers to list individual items for £3.75 with no other hidden fees or charges and the item remains live until sold. There is also no time restrictions or limits to the number of items that can be listed.To support customers engaging on the platform, www.antiques.co.uk also has a built-in online valuation service, allowing individual sellers to get valuations within a few days so knowing the value of their items before listing them on the site. The site said that the valuations pages are easy to use and intuitive, with many valuations available within 48 hours from as little as £10.
The site was launched in 1996 and has grown to be a leading antiques platform, with over 500,000 unique viewers each year and 50,000 items listed daily. The site has 1300 sellers.
With many auction houses and sellers moving online in a bid to continue to serve the market during the pandemic, the site said it has been ahead of the curve in carving out its niche in an industry that has been traditionally very conservative to adopt to e-business.
Founder of antiques.co.uk, Iain Brunt, said, “Having worked in the industry for over 40 years I thought it was time that someone represented all the world’s experienced and specialist dealers on one website.
“As we have found over the years, dealers throughout the world have been ignored in favour of contemporary art and design, and I hope with the development of www.antiques.co.uk that we can make aware to the rest of the world that we are in existence and very knowledgeable.
“With the present COVID-19 pandemic, the antiques sector faces a game-changing moment – we can either fully adopt to digitalisation and the benefits of technology, or we can continue to plough a lonely furrow which in the present and future economic climate would frankly be suicide. At this moment I also wanted to open the site to art galleries to provide another route to market for them.
Finally, we ask all our colleagues and friends to keep safe and continue to stay at home.”