Art and print stores have product data requirements that standard ecommerce doesn't anticipate — edition numbers, authentication certificates, artist provenance, medium and substrate information, and the challenge that "out of stock" means something fundamentally different for a unique original piece than it does for a mass-produced product. Migrating to Shopify requires mapping all of this correctly.

Art product categories

Original artwork: Unique pieces (oil, acrylic, watercolour, mixed media). One of a kind — inventory is always 1. May require special packaging and freight.
Limited edition prints: Giclée or screen prints produced in a defined run (e.g. edition of 50). Each print numbered and signed. Inventory decrements as sold.
Open edition prints: Reproductions with no defined run limit. Standard inventory management.
Artist prints (framed): Print + frame combinations. Size and frame variants.
Digital art downloads: High-resolution JPEG or TIFF files for home printing. No physical delivery.
Commissions: Custom original works. Typically sold as a product with a deposit, with the balance due on completion.
Sculpture and 3D works: Unique or limited edition three-dimensional pieces. Fragile freight requirements.

Edition numbering in Shopify

WooCommerce plugins like WooCommerce Sequential Order Numbers or custom meta fields track edition numbers. Shopify has no native edition tracking, but you can implement it with metafields:

product.metafields.art.edition_size = "50"
product.metafields.art.edition_type = "Limited / Open / Artist's Proof / Unique"
product.metafields.art.current_edition_number = "12"  // Next to be sold
product.metafields.art.edition_notes = "Numbered and signed by the artist in pencil"

For automated edition number assignment per order, use Shopify's order webhooks to trigger a function that increments the edition counter and writes the assigned number to the order notes and the certificate template.

Certificate of authenticity workflow

Many art stores generate a certificate of authenticity (CoA) PDF per order. In WooCommerce this is often handled by a custom plugin or manual process. On Shopify:

Printful / Printify: If using print-on-demand, some services generate CoAs automatically
Order Printer Pro: Shopify app for generating custom PDFs per order — build a CoA template with order details, edition number, artwork title, artist name, and print specifications
Manual trigger: Use Order Printer Pro + an order tag to generate CoA PDFs for art orders specifically (not all products need a certificate)

Artwork metafields

Metafield	Example	Product type
art.medium	Oil on canvas / Watercolour / Giclée print / Screen print	All artwork
art.substrate	300gsm Hahnemühle / Aluminium dibond / Stretched canvas	Prints
art.dimensions_cm	60x80 / 50x70 / 30x40	All artwork
art.framed	true / false	All artwork
art.frame_colour	Natural oak / Black / White / Walnut	Framed pieces
art.year_created	2024 / 2023	Originals
art.artist_name	Artist's full name	All artwork
art.certificate_included	true / false	Limited editions, originals
art.provenance	Purchased directly from artist / Gallery representation	Originals
art.ink_type	Archival pigment ink	Giclée prints
art.colour_fastness_years	100 / 75	Giclée prints

Print size and medium variants

Art prints are typically available in multiple sizes. Shopify's 100-variant limit can be reached quickly if you combine size × medium × framing as separate variant options. Strategy:

Size as the primary variant (A3 / A2 / A1 / 50x70cm / 60x90cm)
Framing as a secondary variant (Unframed / Framed oak / Framed black)
If medium varies (paper vs aluminium): keep as separate products rather than variants — the product descriptions, care notes, and shipping requirements differ enough to justify separate product records

Originals: inventory management

Original artwork should be set to inventory quantity of 1 with "Continue selling when out of stock" disabled. When the piece sells, it automatically becomes unavailable. Consider:

Archiving the product (not deleting) when sold — the product page can remain live as a portfolio reference with a "Sold" badge and no purchase option
Add a art.sold metafield to sold originals and use theme customisation to show a sold state rather than a standard out-of-stock message

Freight and packaging for originals

Original canvases and large prints require specialist packing (corner protectors, foam wrap, bespoke tubes or flat pack boxes). In Shopify:

Create a separate shipping profile for large or fragile artwork with carrier-calculated rates or flat rates that reflect actual packing costs
Mark original artwork with a weight and dimensions that trigger your specialist packing rate automatically
International shipping for originals: customs declaration for artwork is complex (value, artist, country of origin). Add notes to packing slip via Order Printer Pro.

Post-migration checklist for art stores

Edition size and type metafields populated for all limited edition products
Original artwork inventory set to 1 (not oversellable)
CoA generation workflow set up (Order Printer Pro or similar)
Artwork dimension metafields in consistent format (cm, width×height)
Artist name metafield on all products (enables artist-based filtering)
Separate shipping profile for fragile / large artwork
Sold originals archived (not deleted) with sold metafield for portfolio visibility
Digital downloads flagged as virtual (no shipping required)
High-resolution image uploaded for each product (prints look poor at low resolution)

Migrating an art prints and original artwork store from WooCommerce to Shopify (2026)