When most business owners think of selling online, they think of it as a Yes/No question: either they do sell online or they don't.

The reality is that there are so many possible new revenue streams you can create that it's not a Yes/No question.

Recently we launched a new online store for Distinct Impressions that's a great example. DI is an established boutique in historic Downtown South Boston, VA, that sells gifts, fashions, and custom apparel, and offers embroidery and screen printing services. Their e-commerce project now brings in:

• sales through the e-commerce site itself,
• sales through their Facebook page's Facebook Shop tab,
• and sales generated automatically by comments on specific Facebook product posts.

There are lots of Shop Local sites around, but the online store we recently launched for Virginia's Growth Alliance is a bit different.

This groundbreaking project, funded by Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, provides a free platform for businesses in Virginia's Growth Alliance economic development region to sell physical and digital products online, bringing support to local businesses on a world-wide scale.

• Buyers can purchase from several vendors in one transaction.
• PayPal distributes proceeds directly to each vendor.
• Vendors have full control of all of their products, including pricing and shipping.
• Vendors can create discount codes for use exclusively in buying their products.
• VGA is providing all setup, training, and presence on the website free of charge to vendors.
• A directory of currently 1200+ businesses is included, as not only retail sales are "shopping.”

In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, thought I'd share a design from back in 2006.

Did you know we've been doing this since 1996?!?

James Dietz is an award-winning military and aviation artist whose work is collected worldwide, and even hangs in the White House. Back in 2006, our Ballowax small business division was actually a separate company (owned by Glerin and a couple of partners) that provided e-commerce order fulfillment services. We were contracted to develop a site to sell collectibles that featured Dietz's art; the new online store offered full-featured e-commerce including live interaction with USPS.com for shipping, live chat customer support, and the ability for customers to manage their existing orders.

We actually developed our very first e-commerce site in 1997 and had to code everything from scratch!