FinerWorks offers FREE order fulfillment in the form of white label (drop shipping) for artists and photographers who want prints shipped under their name or brand.
This brief guide is meant to highlight those features we offer at FinerWorks for artists and photographers who use us as their order fulfillment service. At FinerWorks, we believe providing reliable order fulfillment must be simple. In addition, we want artists and photographers to be confident that their customers will receive the prints exactly as intended. There is no application process, and it does not take any special knowledge or technical expertise. If you know how to access photos or image files off your computer and use the Internet, your basic requirements have been met. If you have used FinerWorks before for online ordering, this guide will help you make sure you have not overlooked some of the tools we offer.
What is Drop Shipping?
One of the first things we did when we built our initial ordering system over a decade ago was provide an automatic drop shipping option. Drop shipping simply means you do not need to carry any inventory or worry about packaging and shipping. You commission the drop shipper (which would be FinerWorks) to send the order to your customers, but branded under your name, so it looks like you or your company shipped it.
Many big online companies rely on this method either solely or to let them ship products that they normally would not be able to inventory. Amazon.com uses this method for some of the items sold, and at the individual level, eBay and Etsy sellers use this method all the time.
How it Works
At checkout in the area where you select your “Shipping Method,” there will be a check box you can click to indicate you want it drop-shipped. If you provide a valid address in your account’s business profile, we will automatically check this for you. The order is then shipped and made to look like you are the sender. No information about us will be included. Prices will also be removed from the packing slip.
Some Examples
Posting and Selling Prints
Currently, we do not offer custom URLs.
When someone buys one of your printed products, the order is automatically forwarded to FinerWorks for fulfillment and shipped to the buyer. Within 30 days, once the order ships, details of the order (including the buyer) will be available to you.
We will not notify sellers when a sale is made. FinerWorks is not involved in your sales and has no knowledge of transactions relating to gallery sales. Read more…
We do offer COAs as an option at checkout. You will see an option to order a COA once you add a print to your shopping cart
This can be done using your gallery’s URL. The link will look something like this
https://geogalleries.com/my_username
Make sure you replace “my_username” with your actual name.
Note: If you used to use FinerWorks old gallery, your FinerWorks gallery url now automatically redirects people to your Geo Galleries link.
FinerWorks virtual inventory is a system that allows artists and photographers to save their artwork as pre-configured products within their FinerWorks account. Instead of having to re-upload and set up a print’s specifications (like size, paper type, and framing) every time an order comes in, a virtual inventory item acts like a blueprint for a product. This streamlines the print-on-demand and order fulfillment process.
How It Works
The system is designed to simplify selling on third-party platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce or Etsy. Here’s a breakdown of the key steps:
- Create Virtual Inventory Items: An artist uploads their digital image to FinerWorks. They then create a virtual inventory item from this image, which involves specifying all the product details like size, print medium (e.g., giclée fine art paper, canvas), and framing options. Each virtual inventory item is assigned a unique **SKU** (Stock Keeping Unit) that begins with “AP”.
- Sync with an Online Store: The artist lists the product in their own online store (e.g., a framed print of their artwork). When they create the listing, they enter the unique SKU from FinerWorks’ virtual inventory into the SKU field of their store’s product variant.
- Order Fulfillment: When a customer purchases the product from the artist’s online store, the order is transmitted to FinerWorks through an integration app (e.g., for Shopify or Etsy). FinerWorks uses the SKU to identify the exact product from the virtual inventory and produces it on demand.
- Shipping and Branding: FinerWorks then prints, packages, and ships the product directly to the customer. The packing slip and shipping label can be customized with the artist’s name and logo, making it appear as though the order was shipped directly from them.
Key Advantages
- Efficiency: It eliminates the need for artists to manually set up each print each time they order, saving a significant amount of time, especially for those with high order volumes or who sell the same products repeatedly.
- Print on Demand: Artists don’t need to hold physical inventory. Prints are only created when an order is placed, reducing waste and financial risk.
- Integration: It connects an artist’s online storefront with FinerWorks’ fulfillment center, creating a smooth, automated workflow from sale to delivery.
Only lower resolution web versions of the images are shown. These contain a watermark which provides some protection. If you are too worried that people will copy your web viewable images, we recommend not participating in the gallery experience.
Aside from having artistic value, the image must be a suitable print quality/resolution. It must also be properly titled, include a well written description, and be submitted to the appropriate category and assigned to a collection.
No. Buyers can only purchase printed works.
If you plan on using Finerworks to fulfill your order, you should check the shipping page for shipping rates to determine the shipping cost and then charge accordingly. Also consider reviewing our blog post titled What to Charge Your Customers for Shipping.
When someone completes the purchase of one of your offered prints, PayPal will send you a notification of the order details as well as your customer information. It is your responsibility to fulfill this order in a timely fashion by either having us fulfill the order or you ship it out yourself.
Order HD Face Mounted Acrylic Prints
Printed on high-quality photo paper and face mounted to 1/4″ acrylic with polished edges. Choose between satin luster or metallic photo paper. Included is easy-to-install hanging hardware in the form of a French cleat.