Hi
Really enjoyed this thread, as just updated our site this year and tried to bring it up to date with the tech needed (mobile friendly) As its mainly a side business that we want to build into something more, (the plan of building a retail space once we have enough interest online). So we are trying to do it the other way around... Speaking with a few of some the physical stores we stock, they reckon it's a hard road online and a lot of work compared to the sale which come through the stores door. Average is 2.8% of online visits buy.. (similar to what we have experienced) compared to about 40-50% buy (depending on what you are selling and how specialised you are for your customer, a fashion clothing store would only expect 20% buy) instore on a visit. So some of them would rather focus on the instore customers.

Happy to receive feedback on the website as we are trying to make it as easy to shop. www.sanded.com.au even though our products isn't what you guys are after in this thread it's good to know if our platform is right.

I'm a little surprised that more windsurfing shops don't use eBay. You can setup your own shop, categorise goods, add variations (colours, sail sizes) and what not. Obviously there's a cost of selling on eBay, but then there's a cost of selling anything, including from a bricks-and-mortar shop.

Hand off all your credit card processing to PayPal. The fees are pretty competitive. No lock in, no tech worries. If it goes great and you want to drive down costs, sure, go for your own shop (but do me a favour and ALWAYS hand off the CC processing. Your bank has an online gateway for this).

A previous poster points out the issue with current season pricing and RRP not being what the "street price" of that item is, fair enough. So list everything that isn't current season. To be honest (and I'm NOT criticising shops here, I know this is an industry thing), I hate this whole "secret pricing", "lets do a deal" business. Why can't the price just be the price? You have something I want, mark it up, offer it to me. I either have the money or I don't. It's a sail for gods sake, it's not a Ford Ranger.

I LOVE going to my local windsurfing shop, despite having not much money and taking far too long to decide on things (sorry Simon), but the fact of the matter is the shop is open when I'm at work, and Saturday morning doesn't always work either. For me, online shopping is where it's at, and where it's headed.

Good thread.

MP