Online Multi-sided Marketplace

On Approval set out to do something most e-commerce systems are not designed to handle: enable the circulation of high-value, one-of-a-kind physical assets that neither the platform nor the buyer owned.

The platform coordinated 4,000+ original artworks priced between $5,000 and $100,000 from 250+ U.S. galleries, private collectors, and artists, managing ownership records, insurance, payments, inventory, condition, and last-mile logistics through a custom-built CMS and marketplace infrastructure.

What users saw was a familiar retail experience—add to cart, choose subscription, lease-to-own, or purchase. What the system executed was everything required to move fine art between third parties: who legally owned the work, who was insuring it, where it was physically held, how it moved, and how money settled across both sides of the marketplace.

Every transaction triggered a coordinated sequence of dynamic shipping quotes, carrier assignment, insurance binding, custody transfer, and financial settlement, routed through a national network of specialized art handlers providing white-glove pickup, storage, delivery, and installation.

Because neither On Approval nor the end customer owned the artworks, standard insurance products could not be used. The company worked with international brokers to design novel insurance structures capable of covering third-party, high-value works in third-party locations, making the entire model viable.

On Approval functioned as an asset-light, infrastructure-heavy marketplace: it held no inventory, but it carried the operational, financial, and risk burden required to make museum-quality art liquid, rentable, and transactable at scale.