For all the beauty and value within the world of vintage and antiques, one quiet obstacle continues to hold many dealers back: inventory that still exists only offline.
The antiques trade, with its heritage of artistry and story, remains one of the last frontiers of the digital age. While buyers — from interior designers to collectors — are discovering and purchasing online, much of the world’s most exceptional stock remains hidden: catalogued on paper, stored in binders, or known only to those who step through the door.
This isn’t a question of willingness. Dealers want to be found. They want their pieces to reach the right hands. Yet as the market accelerates toward global visibility and instant access, many are still navigating spreadsheets and handwritten notes — relics of a slower, analog era.
An Industry Rooted in Tradition, Paused by Process
In a 2025 analysis from The Art Newspaper, journalist Martin Bailey noted that “of the hundreds of dealers surveyed, most were still using spreadsheets, Word documents, and even handwritten notes to track their inventories.”
It’s a reflection of a trade rich in tradition but often underserved by technology. Dealers may possess extraordinary pieces — each carrying provenance, craftsmanship, and soul — but without digital listings, they remain invisible to the very collectors and designers who would value them most.
In a world where connection often begins with a search bar, every unseen item is a story untold.
The Barriers Behind the Beauty
Ask a dealer why their inventory isn’t online and you’ll likely hear familiar refrains:
- “Photographing everything takes too much time.”
- “It’s hard to keep listings updated.”
- “I’ve tried other systems, but they don’t fit the way I work.”
And they’re right. Most software was built for standard retail or e-commerce — not for one-of-a-kind pieces, each with its own history, character, and patina.
The result? A world of remarkable objects waiting for the right bridge between past and present.
A Private Market, Not a Public Display
Where many dealers hesitate is the belief that putting inventory online diminishes its exclusivity — that once a piece is photographed and listed, it somehow becomes less rare, less protected, or at worst, “burned.”
But digitizing isn’t the same as broadcasting. It’s simply preparation.
Today’s buyers — especially interior designers working under intense deadlines — expect information instantly. They cannot wait days for photos or measurements while a dealer drives to a warehouse, opens storage, or flips through binders.
Digitization keeps your stock discreet yet ready: photographed, documented, and available to share in an instant only with the clients you choose. It preserves rarity while meeting the expectations of a world that moves at the pace of a tap. It ensures your pieces remain desirable — and discoverable — without ever being made publicly available in ways that diminish their exclusivity.
Visibility as the New Provenance
Bringing inventory online is more than an administrative task. It’s an act of visibility. It’s the moment a piece steps from the shadows of storage into the light of possibility.
When items are searchable and visible beyond the shop floor, they can reach a collector in Paris, an interior designer in New York working after hours, or a buyer halfway across the world who falls in love with a photograph.
Digital visibility doesn’t replace human connection; it amplifies it. It ensures that discovery can happen anywhere, anytime.
As interior designer Charlotte Moss observes,
“The rise of more prominent, trusted online retailers has made antiques shopping more accessible and appealing than ever to a wide range of buyers.”
Her words reflect a shift already well underway. Buyers are searching beyond the walls of shops and fairs; they’re exploring late at night, from another city, sometimes from another continent. The desire for heritage pieces has not diminished — the path to discovering them has simply changed.
And for dealers, that change requires a system that honors the way they already work.
Technology Designed for a World of One-of-a-Kind
That understanding is exactly why we built Ronati Studio — a suite of tools designed for the natural rhythm of the antiques trade. Dealers move fluidly between fairs, shops, warehouses, and client visits, often keeping track of hundreds of pieces in their heads. Studio gathers all of that information into one clear, connected space.
The system works in two parts. The mobile app is your on-the-go companion: photograph pieces at estate sales or fairs, remove backgrounds instantly, and add details by voice while traveling between appointments. When a buyer expresses interest — whether across the aisle or across an ocean — you can share images and information in seconds via text, email, or social media.
On your computer or large tablet, Studio provides the structure that so many dealers have been improvising for years. It becomes the centralized place to track purchase costs, restoration expenses, storage locations, online listings, and sales — all in one searchable workspace. You can prepare marketplace listings once (copy and paste everywhere), create polished tear sheets and catalogs for designers, and even view real-time profitability for each piece.
And for dealers who prefer to keep their inventory private until the right moment, Studio supports that rhythm as well. Digitizing a piece doesn’t require broadcasting it. Instead, it allows every item to be documented, photographed, and ready to share — instantly and only with the clients you choose. It protects exclusivity while reducing the friction of responding to today’s fast-moving inquiries.
The two parts are seamlessly connected. An item added from your phone at a buying trip appears instantly in your main inventory; a price updated at your desk is reflected on your mobile app by the time a buyer asks.
It’s not about changing how dealers work. It’s about giving them a way to keep doing what they do best — sourcing, selling, and storytelling — with less friction between intention and execution.
Toby Lorford of The Lorford’s Group puts it simply:
“Ronati is enabling so many more dealers to bring so much more stock to view. It’s got to be the most amazing enabler for commerce.”
Since launching Studio, more than 2,000 dealers have added their unique inventories to the platform — pieces that were once tucked away, unseen, waiting for the right moment to surface.
And when those pieces become visible, they don’t just enter the market — they re-enter the conversation. That is the heart of visibility as the new provenance.
Interior Design by Alexa Hampton/Mark Hampton Interiors.
When the Hidden Becomes Seen
When visibility expands, quietly transformative things happen. Dealers begin finding pieces they had nearly forgotten. Collections once seen only in storage rooms make their way into the world again. Conversations spark, inquiries surface, and sales begin to follow.
This transformation isn’t about speed for its own sake. It’s about preservation and potential — honoring craftsmanship while opening doors to a new generation of buyers.
A Digital Renaissance for the Trade
This evolution extends beyond individual dealers. Buyers are sourcing online at all hours. Designers need searchable inventory and instant access. Fair organizers and investors are watching closely to see which parts of the industry are adapting, and which are poised to lead.
Fairs, shops, and face-to-face connections will always be at the heart of the trade. But in today’s world, digital visibility is no longer optional. It’s the foundation upon which the future of antiques will stand.
