THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: Today I’m breaking down the seven biggest e-commerce trends. Every artist, every creative entrepreneur really needs to be prepared for starting now. Because whether you sell originals, commissions, prints, courses, coaching, whatever it is, if you are doing anything on the internet and we all are, these shifts are going to shape your income for the next decade.
Speaker 2: It’s The Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to The Inspiration Place podcast, an art World insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Hey, it’s Miriam Schulman here. Welcome back to The Inspiration Place. So as we close out 2025 and we’re moving into 2026, I’ve been putting together a lot of prediction episodes. So you heard about psychic predictions and home decor predictions and color trends. Today we’re talking about e-commerce predictions and these predictions. I just want you to know these are not like crystal ball things. This is based on where the market is already heading. So we have a pretty good idea that it’s going to continue to head in this direction and even get stronger. But before I get into the meat and potatoes, you know, I just want to be a little bit personal and say hi. I became a grandmother this summer, and I’ve been to see my grandbaby twice now, and whoa, that has really cracked me open in ways I just didn’t even imagine or expect. Like that unconditional love from this little child, which is different than becoming a parent. When you’re a parent, you’re just so overwhelmed by all the responsibility that you have. And being a grandmother, I just get to enjoy it all. This is stuff that you maybe heard other people already say before. I know I’ve heard it, but it’s always different when you experience it yourself. So I just thought it’d be a little personal and share that with you. I’m really enjoying being a grandmother, and I’m excited for what 2026 has ahead.
Miriam Schulman: It’s definitely also shifted my perspective a little bit on how I want to nurture you, my audience, no matter what level you experience me, whether that’s just through this podcast and YouTube channel or if you’re already in my world, inside the Artist Incubator or in my inner circle containers. So we’re going to talk now about what online art selling is going to look like and how to prepare. If you think that the online art market has already changed a lot in the last few years. You’re right. But buckle up because the 2026 e-commerce landscape is about to be unrecognizable. And not because of the algorithms. Although, of course, that’s important because of a new shift towards and I’ve been talking about this a lot already trust, personalization and AI assisted buying. So today I’m breaking down the seven biggest e-commerce trends. Every artist, every creative entrepreneur really needs to be prepared for starting now. Because whether you sell originals, commissions, prints, courses, coaching, whatever it is, if you are doing anything on the internet and we all are, these shifts are going to shape your income for the next decade. Prediction number one. This is something we’ve already seen. It’s AI, personalized storefronts, and this is going to be standard. Now we’ve experienced this on Amazon. Like my husband says. Like he only buys books based on what Amazon recommends. But by late 2025, Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, they’ve already been rolling out AI driven product recommendations that behave like like Netflix.
Miriam Schulman: So it’s going to analyze what a visitor clicked. It’s going to cross-reference browsing behavior, and it will predict what they’re most likely to buy next, including art. So what does this mean for you? Collectors are actually expecting a curated experience, not a catalog. So if your shop is flat, you might look a little bit outdated. Now, for those of you who are fine, fine artists, this may not be something you want to go for. But if you’re selling anything, and I know a lot of my listeners are in this category fiber artists, handmade clothes, jewelry artists, things like that. You need to pay attention to this trend. Here’s what you need to do now to get ready for it. You need to clean up your collections, group them by themes, group them by moods, group them by palettes. And then even if you don’t have any AI stuff, you could put in a. If you liked this, you might also like. And a nice analog. Well, not exactly analog because we’re talking about email. A nice way that sort of do this is in your email. I always talk about a great email to send out. Is this sold? You can’t get this. But then in that email you say, but if you liked that artwork, you’ll like this. Maybe in that sold artwork listing on your website, you might link to if you like this artwork, you might like this.
Miriam Schulman: So that’s something you can definitely put in. You don’t need AI skills to put that in, it’s just a hyperlink to something similar. The other thing, AI tools are something that’s going to be big and I am really leaning into this hard. So I learned recently that my team was struggling to create YouTube titles. They didn’t think they were struggling, they were just using AI, using ChatGPT, and whatever ChatGPT came up with, they would create a title and they would put that in, but I wasn’t happy with what they were doing. So instead of saying, hey, I don’t want to use their names, but you know their names, I didn’t want to say, hey, team member, you’re not doing this right because something’s wrong with you. I basically said, let’s look at the process of how you’re doing it. So I looked at the process and when I saw what they were doing, I was like, oh, they’re not telling ChatGPT enough instructions to get the results that I want. So I created a custom GPT for them on how to get the best YouTube titles. Now my Inner circle members, they’re going to get access to all these GPT that I’m developing. So that’s just a little aside. If the inner circle is something you’ve been thinking about, inner circle members are going to have access to all of my ChatGPT tools that I developed for my own company.
Miriam Schulman: This is not something that I share with the world, because I don’t want other artists business coaches using my custom GPT. But I’m happy to share it with my clients. Prediction number two email becomes the number one sales channel again. Ooh, look at that. All right. This is something I’ve been talking about for a long time. Anyway. Email is the cockroach of marketing with AI, feeding algorithmic feeds, baring things that do not, you know, make the algorithm happy. Email remains the only the only follower based channel. Youtube is algorithm based. Obviously Instagram is algorithm based. Tiktok is definitely algorithm based. You can have a million followers on TikTok, and people don’t even know who you are because you can see somebody’s post there and never see them ever again. And LinkedIn is definitely algorithm based. When I go into LinkedIn, I don’t see posts by people I’m following necessarily. I see what the algorithm is choosing to show me. So platforms are shifting away from followers. And in other words, it’s not about building an audience anymore. The algorithm builds the audience for you. Email is the only place where when you send something, when you create something, they will receive it. So what does this mean for you artists? Collectors are going to buy things through your inboxes, not through the feeds.
Miriam Schulman: I know that I buy most of my stuff happens through my inbox. By the way, it maybe a few years ago it was true that I would see something on Instagram and I would buy it there. It’s not true for me anymore. I don’t know if what’s true for you, but yeah, I’m not buying stuff anymore on social media. Once somebody gets me as a customer, then they’ve got me because I will go back over and over again. The brands that I buy the most from are sending me stuff the most often not annoying me, but giving me different reasons. If you’re watching on YouTube, you’ll see I have like the wicked nails. You see that? Like I got that for the wicked premier. That’s because of email that had nothing to do with social media. Here’s what you can do now. Yes, send an email every week. It’s not bothering people. People may be open once every four emails. If you’re sending every week, they’re probably only opening your emails once a month. You want to use personal storytelling Just like I talked about my becoming a grandmother today, you might want to share your personal stories and personal stories. A story is not a chapter. We’re not talking about something you would publish in The New Yorker. A story can be literally three sentences like, oh, um, I visited my granddaughter last week, and now I’m so glad that I’m back in the studio creating art.
Miriam Schulman: That’s a story, two sentences, a story. It basically lets people into your world, lets them know what’s going on. So weekly emails, personal storytelling, nurture sequences like a welcome sequence. I do teach this inside the Artist Incubator and campaigns around drops shows your travels, things like that. One of my clients, both Sapphire, let me know the other day that because we audited some of her emails, there was a simple tweaks that she made that moved her Emails from being landed in people’s either spam or promotion tabs into their inbox. And that’s huge for artists. So it’s not just a question of sending emails, but making sure you’re following the best practices that it will land in their inbox. The things I shared with Bo, it is inside the Artist Incubator training, but there’s so much in there, and sometimes that’s where being in the inner circle really can make a difference. Because I can be an eagle eye and say, oh wait, you see this one thing here you’re doing change that. So it’s hard to absorb so much information and make all the changes at once. And it’s great to have someone looking over your shoulder. It’s kind of like a coach for athletes or Simone Bolles, like her coach might say, hey, if you pull your stomach and squeeze your knees in at this right play, you’ll get an extra spin.
Miriam Schulman: I’m just making things up. I know nothing about gymnastics, but I’m just guessing that being able to give, like, a A little nuance. Coaching really makes a difference. Okay, so inner circle members know that we treat email as your most valuable revenue channel. Period. And one week we just spent the whole inner circle time auditing everybody’s emails. So you learned not only from the advice I’m giving to you, but the advice I’m giving to everybody else. Moving on to prediction number three. Etsy and TikTok shops become micro-trend engines, not long term sales platforms. Oof! So here’s what’s happening. By 2026, Gen Z buying continues to be trend driven, not brand driven. This is something I talked about in my audience building workshop and that is Gen Zers. They follow micro trends. They’re not as loyal as Millennials and Gen Xers and Baby boomers. That’s why I said, once you got me on your email list, like this nail brand, I’m not shopping around to different brands. I’m not looking for a different trend from a different nail company. I’m like, this nails works for me. This is what I’m popping on my on my fingernails. Same thing is true with with other things that I buy. Maybe a certain t shirt brand on Amazon. I’m going Amazon, but I trust a particular brand that I like the way it fits.
Miriam Schulman: I’m going to be looking for that brand. What else do they sell? Because I’m loyal to brands, but not the younger generations. The younger generations. They’re not loyal to brands, they’re loyal to trends. So what that means for for e-commerce, selling fast movement, lower price points, novelty and volume over depth. Now, if you’ve been around my universe for a while, you know that that’s not something that I think makes a sustainable business. So I would say don’t sell to the younger generation. But if you insist, for artists who want to sell to that generation, this is print on demand, this is merchandise, this is illustrator, this is low ticket. If you want to go high ticket, you’re selling to millennials. You’re selling to Gen Xers like me. You’re selling to baby boomers. But let me tell you, we’re worth it. We buy high ticket, we’re loyal, and we’re not about micro-trends. So I just want you to know, the key insight is that this trend that I’m talking about, which is we’re up to prediction number three. It doesn’t replace high ticket collector behavior. So decide intentionally if you are serving microtrend markets or long term collectors. And spoiler alert, long term collectors are going to be much more profitable for you. So diversify. So you don’t want TikTok to determine your income. You can use microtrend platforms as lead generators, but not your business model.
Miriam Schulman: So that’s where I use Instagram and and LinkedIn in my ecosystems, because I know people are commenting and following me. That or people are commenting on my stuff that aren’t followers necessarily. It’s a lead generator. I’m trying to get people into my world, get them onto my email list, get them to listen to my podcast, get them to watch this YouTube video. That’s that’s what those other channels are for, to get people into your world, get them on to email. Prediction number four high ticket collectors are going to shift toward LinkedIn newsletters and private invite only sales. And there was one that just hit my inbox today. I was like, oh, this person knows where it’s at. So it basically so today I’m recording this on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and it said, hey, if you are whatever, and it’s a it’s a brand I bought from before, it’s some sort of marketing agency. They weren’t very clear on what they were offering, but they’re basically, hey, if you want to be one of the first people to know what we’re offering and we think you’re going to love it, just click this button. I was like, okay, yeah, I don’t want to miss out on that. That’s the kind of strategy that’s going to work really well, and that’s the kind of strategy that really always worked well is kind of the, hey, sign up for this VIP thing so you can find out this thing I want to sell to you before anybody else.
Miriam Schulman: Yes. That strategy works. People like that. They like that. On LinkedIn, we’ve talked about artists like Casey Lynn Hancock. She’s selling art between 30,000 and 100,000. So she is definitely reaching affluent buyers that way. Affluent buyers are leaving Instagram. They actually prefer being on LinkedIn. Youtube. They prefer long form newsletters. Yeah, newsletters are actually back. Who knew? And they like private buying experiences. So what does this mean for you? Your best collectors are looking for trust and expertise, not viral content. So here’s what you need to do now. Establish authority. Build rapport on LinkedIn by commenting and creating storytelling posts. And here’s something that I’m doing. So those of you who are already producing content on Instagram, he’s like, oh my God, another social media platform. I thought Miriam didn’t want us to burn out on social media. I don’t what I do is I write all my month’s content in one day, in one day, and then I schedule it, and then I schedule it to post on both Instagram and LinkedIn at the same time. So it’s one day a month that I use to plan my content, and I think I actually am creating a post. I’m painting a post. I’m pretty sure it’s on LinkedIn, so go find me on LinkedIn, Miriam Schulman or Schulman Art.
Miriam Schulman: Go search for me over there and not just follow me there, but make sure you’re getting the notifications. Because if you sign up for my notifications whenever I create a post, then you’ll get a notification that there’s a brand new post. And I created like kind of that old fashioned blog post style over on LinkedIn. I tell you step by step exactly how I create my content and where AI comes into that. Now, the other thing that I want you to do is start creating premium private offers. So you’re creating something. I’m just going to use one of my clients as an example. Sangeetha is creating a Golden State collection. That might be something that she might want to send an email just to people who’ve collected from her already and say, hey, I am creating this collection and it’s going to a gallery and I wanted to know if you want me to let you know if as soon as this is done and they have to kind of like opt in now, you can have it be an automation where they opt into something, or they can just write back and say, yeah, I want to know by the way, I do this strategy socially. I was just thinking about that. I don’t know if you heard me talk about how I host salon dinners in my apartment. This is not something that I sell. This is not monetized.
Miriam Schulman: I just invite people who I think are cool, who I want to get to know, who already have businesses in, are operating at a high level, and I invite them to my apartment. This is like a few times a year. Well, there’s a few people who I started reaching out to on LinkedIn who I don’t really know that well. And when I introduced myself, what I said to them is, hey, I’m doing these dinners. Do you want me to let you know next time I’m doing one. Not. Hey, I’m doing a dinner on whatever, February 15th. No, I said let me. Do you want me to let you know? And then if they say aha, then in January I can say, hey, Joe, you told me to let you know next time I’m having a dinner. And I’m having one on February 15th. Do you want to come? It just creates a different sense around a different sense of exclusivity. And you can absolutely use this for selling your art or your offers or whatever it is that you sell. Now in Inner Circle, we build premium collector ecosystems like this. I talk to them about how and I’ll just give you the tips right now, but this is just an example of the type of thing we talk about. Well, you can host a virtual open studio. You can book virtual calls with people.
Miriam Schulman: Those are the types of things that we will strategize together about inside the inner circle, like how to create those events so that they are seamless and profitable and they feel good to you, like you’re really creating an experience for your collectors. Prediction number five. This one is about SEO and long form content. And guess what? It’s valuable again because what happened is the short form content. By short form content. We’re talking about Instagram, TikTok, blah blah blah blah. Short form is oversaturated. And now we have AI search. So here’s what’s happening. We have Pinterest has AI visual recognition. Youtube is continuing to dominate for long form learning. People like those long videos. We have Google AI overviews. So what does this mean for you? Our artists who create evergreen. Notice I said evergreen because I don’t want you to be on a content hamster wheel. Evergreen blog post studio tour videos search optimized behind the art content will win with long term traffic. So basically we’re talking about not writing a blog post every day, not even writing a blog post every week. I’m talking about create four pillar blog posts that you can do over the course of the year, or you can do it all in January when you’re motivated. But these just kind of live on your site all year, and maybe you refresh them every year. That’s it for these four studio video tours, behind the art content, that kind of thing.
Miriam Schulman: And if you’re a teaching artist, maybe it’s a little more teachy, but you, it’s not about volume, it’s about optimizing things. All right. So let’s talk about what you need to be doing right now. So like I said, you need to add 3 to 5 optimized evergreen articles to your site. That’s it. That doesn’t mean 3 to 5 week. That’s not even 3 to 5 a month. That’s 3 to 5 periods. So like for the whole year then you can use YouTube but not don’t think of it as trying to grow your audience. Think of it instead as that you’re using it to convert people into your world and Pinterest. You want to use that as a search engine, not a social feed. Now we’re up to prediction number six. Live will make your art business thrive. This is about hybrid selling online. Plus, in real life events this is going to become normal. Already started happening in 2025. People are so tired of digital, especially with AI. So what they want are real life, real studios, real experience, real artists, things that are real. So what does this mean for you? Artists succeeding in 2026 are running open studios, private appointments, pop up shows, plus online launches, email drops, virtual studio tours. So this was very important for Sarah Dudley, who is in Berlin, and she knows it.
Miriam Schulman: A lot of people who might be interested in her art do not live in Germany. So I said, well, you should add a virtual studio tour to your next open studio and let people book appointments for you to do that. I know with Daniel Trollenberg, he sold a lot of art using FaceTime to sell art. Okay, so here’s what you need to do. Now I want you to think about hosting one IRL event per year. In fact, even better, one per quarter. I tell artists 3 to 4 a year in person will make your business really hum and soar. You also want to build a simple system for capturing emails at every event. That’s why I recommend the email collection card. That’s something I talk about in my book, and you should pair every single in-person event with a digital campaign. Prediction number seven collectors demand meaning, identity and story. This is something that’s probably has always been true, but AI generated art is going to be everywhere by 2026, and collectors are starved for human stories. Lived experience, cultural identity and personal symbolism. So what does this mean for you artists who can articulate why they make the work, who it is for. What the collector feels will dominate the market. Now, I always include a messaging session for every one of my inner circle members, and I figure this would be a good place for you to hear from them how important that messaging work is.
Speaker3: It gave me clarity that I didn’t realize I was missing. I didn’t realize that I paint certain things and I do certain things for a reason. And clarifying also gave me confidence. Like I see like a difference in how I feel about the art and how I can like, talk about it to people. It was just like everything made sense all of a sudden.
Speaker4: It just really blew my mind in that I just it was clear all the connectivity that you were telling me about, just being feeling connected, all these different parts are starting of me. And what I’ve been doing, I feel are really coming together now. It’s a big one deep inside of me to understand myself and my work and what I’m doing. And sometimes, you know, I’m just so busy doing all these things, I. I miss all the connections there because it’s all connected. So Miriam helped me realize that it’s like, wow, that’s a big one. Like in so many other things outside, even my art, just in my own being and my person, what I do, what I like, how I feel, it’s like, Holy cow, it’s all connected and I can share it all together with my art.
Speaker5: It was like the best therapy session I’ve ever had in my life. Worth everything.
Miriam Schulman: Now, if you want to see if you qualify for the inner circle, head on over to SchulmanArt.com/apply and you can learn what the Inner Circle is all about and sign up to talk to me about your art business. There is a small fee to meet with me because we do meet for half an hour. However, if we decide that the incubator or the inner circle or any program is right for you, then you can just apply what you paid for that session towards your enrollment. And if not, you’ll come away with a lot of insight about your art business. That’s SchulmanArt.com/apply. Now, if you want my help implementing these shifts instead of trying to catch up next year, I would love to work with you inside my inner circle. Applications are now open. This is my highest level coaching. You get messaging, refinement, pricing strategy, personalized opportunity, and year round support. We keep the group intentionally small. So if you’re curious, now is the time to apply. Again, that’s SchulmanArt.com/apply. Okay, let’s wrap up 2026 is going to belong to artists who embrace both the Both attack and the human yes, AI tools, but also relationships, emails, collector trust and storytelling. You do not need to chase the trends, but you do need to understand the landscape and build a strategy that comes along with it. All right, my friend. So thank you so much for joining me here today. I hope you enjoy a beautiful holiday season, and I will see you back here next week. Same time, same place. Until then, stay inspired.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, at Facebook.com/SchulmanArt, on Instagram at @SchulmanArt and of course on SchulmanArt.com.
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