I've been drawing and painting for about 3 years now, and some people have been asking to buy my work. I've never sold anything before and I'm kind of lost about how to set up a shop or whether I should use a platform like Shopee. What's the most practical way for a beginner like me?
The most practical way is honestly to start directly on platforms like Shopee, Mercado Livre, or even Instagram with a purchase link (Pix, PayPal), because you don't need to worry about infrastructure, payment processing, or shipping at the beginning. If your work has quality and you can get good photos, these platforms already bring ready-made audiences - you spend little to nothing to get started, unlike setting up your own store which requires more cost and technical knowledge. What really matters is high-quality photos, clear descriptions of your work (technique, size, delivery time), and fair pricing based on your time. Once you gain experience selling and have steady flow, then you think about something more professional.
Don't fall into the trap of creating your own website right off the bat, that's throwing money away when you're just starting out! I agree that using a platform is the way to go, but I wouldn't rely only on Shopee or Mercado Livre - Instagram is WAY more powerful for art, seriously! People are gonna want to see your process, your stories, the vibe of your work, not just static product photos. Start posting regularly there, put your Pix in your bio (way faster than PayPal for Brazilians), and once your sales start picking up, then you expand to other platforms. The thing is, on Insta you build community and keep customers coming back, it's not just cold transactions like on marketplaces.
If you already have people asking to buy, take advantage of that before setting up a shop anywhere - start selling directly to whoever's interested, through WhatsApp or Instagram, getting paid via Pix. That gives you real sales volume and customer feedback without spending anything, which later helps you decide if it's worth jumping into a platform or not. In the meantime, put together a basic catalog on Instagram (doesn't need to be fancy, like 10-15 good photos is enough) and drop your Pix link in the bio - most people who become customers come from word of mouth and networking anyway, not from marketplace algorithms.
You're in a good position legally because you already have demand - that's the hardest part. The most straightforward way right now is to start small, like selling to friends and acquaintances on Instagram while you learn how an actual store works. Post a photo of your work in stories, comment the price, put your Pix in your bio and you're done. This gives you experience with packaging, how to take decent product photos, how to handle delivery, all without spending a dime. Most people just want to know they can pay and receive quickly, they don't care if it's a giant platform or not.
Once you've sold like 20, 30 pieces (or a few months of that), then you can feel out whether it's worth using Shopee, Mercado Livre or creating a link on Linktree with prices. But here's a detail people haven't mentioned: test different types of art, different prices and different audiences before you lock yourself into anywhere. Maybe your watercolors sell better on Instagram with a more creative audience, while book illustration-style drawings might work better on a marketplace. You only figure it out by doing it.
A really practical hack: create a WhatsApp group just to alert your clients about new work. Sounds silly, but that builds a community and recurring traffic that no big platform gives you. And if at some point this grows and becomes real income, then you invest in a better storefront - but while you're starting out, focus on selling to people who already want it, not on setting up infrastructure nobody's using yet.
Log into answer.
