This is not so hard to answer IF I undnerstand our question correctly: I think you are asking how does a street based business add or migrate to an eCommerce business presence? I will proceed on that basis:

The question is really an SEO and/or online advertising question: How do I sell my products online, locally - how do I get buyers to my website? To do this, you need LOCAL SEO Google ranking OR online advertising.  You also have an opportunity to bring your current 'on the street' regular customers to your onlione store and reduce transaction costs.

I have covered these things in a recent article o our website but I don't want to abuse the privilege of posting here as it will seem like unagtoirised advertising! So I will try to distill:

1) Decide on your online business goals - new customers, exsisting customers, both, local and / or national.
2) Decide on your promotion strategy - specific products and/or brand and/or local identity e.g. n-name low cost drill or 'Bob's hardware Cronulla'.
2) Select a channel(s) for attracting customers: Organic traffic to website (SEO), Online ads, social media, mailing lists and so on
3) Design online campaign with or without website
4) Set budget and execute

So there is your answer - competently, professionally and profitably executing an online strategy. The biggest issue for the vast majority of business owners is then idnetifying a trustworthy online partner.

I hope that make sense.
Keith
 

Hi Hatty. Yes it can be both. My advice to customers with new websites is that it takes time to rank. Thus, ads are a good way to start bringing in business in the short term. However, a good SEO campaign will ramp up traffic volumes and business, so over time, if you wish, you can then scale back the ad spend. It all depends on the returns you are getting as well as the scalability of your business. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on this @Quentin Aisbett @Keith Rowley