Neighborhood stores on the web

Having been terribly busy trying to set up a two-small store "chain" that sells beauty and health products, on the web, has been a challenge and a major time consuming activity, done after office hours because I do have a job. The task itself started up being just setting up an informative webpage but one thing leads to another and lately I've just tried to fill the store's shelves, although there is no shopping cart yet. I don't even know if the store owners want or are ready for an online venture. I have no knowledge of programming at all, but there is a lot of software out there that make all the tasks very easy. I'm going to try the Easy Shop Maker, a Dutch program, for the shopping cart, it seems pretty simple, straightforward and easy, all I need. If not, a simple search in Tucows will bring dozens of shopping cart software packages, from free to very expensive.

My biggest frustration has been dealing with the real shop owners, who spend more time in the physical world and less time looking at a screen. I hadn't dealt with people like that in a while, everyone at home is a screen person, except for the to-be 2 year old, at least for the time being. People who do not use computers to work/live don't understand that:
- if you get an email you reply on the same day, if you're a business within the hour, not 48 hours later!
- when you put any webpage out there, you are out there for everyone to see and everyone will see you, not just your family.
- Your online business is as real as any store, people go in and out, they look at the windows, they check the special display shelves, the goodies they're interested in and they leave. They may talk to you and ask you questions. They may become upset and they might want to steal from you.
- If you want to sell you need to share the prices with your customers and the rest of the world, are you ready for the competition?
- Your place is a 24 hour operation.
- Are you ready to go to the post office very often?
- Is there enough stuff on your shelves or are you selling stuff you don't have?

This might be a checklist for internet selling when you already own a store somewhere, but it isn't, it's just personal venting!

Above, photo of one of my favorite stores ever, Foyles of London.