Instead of trying to make your brick-and-mortar store into a full online retailer, use your web site to strengthen your connection to customers to build a community. In other words, work on growing an advantage you already have by being brick-and-mortar store.

But by adding e-commerce to my site, I can sell to customers all over the world!

Building a fully-functional e-commerce web site that competes with well-established online retailers is very hard. To be successful, you have to compete on product pricing and shipping costs because online shoppers are looking to find the product they want at the lowest total cost that they can find. As long as your order is shipped quickly, there are no other competitive advantages beyond price. Building a community of repeat customers that are more likely to have an ongoing relationship with your business is going to be much more valuable than slashing your margins to compete with online retailers.

So how do I build community?

Instead of paying for e-commerce software that costs thousands of dollars or takes a cut of your online sales, make your site connect with your customers and connects you to their friends and family. In other words, make your site the hub of a community that exists both in your store and online.

we can help IT

Together, we can build a web site that will link you and your customers into a community. For a short time only, we are offering this service without an initial setup fee, so don't wait to sign up.

Cost

• $50/month, or
• $540/year if paid annually

What you get with your site

• Three hours of personal help to get you started
• Complete content management system (Drupal) maintained by us
• Integration between your Facebook and your web site
• Event calendar
• Site forums
• Choose from one of our free design themes or buy a custom one
• Two free support requests per month, unused requests accumulate to a maximum of 10

Early adopter bonus!

If you sign up before November 2011, we'll give you these additional benefits for your first year!

• One hour of consulting per month on how to grow and make use of your community in growing your business
• Support requests that take us less than 15 minutes to resolve don't count towards your monthly limit

Sign up today, and we'll get started!