Downtown Glendale stores now just a click away

Downtown Glendale's Bead Museum recently opened its museum store to the world at store.beadmuseumaz.org.

Customers will find 100 items listed, from a Greek metal pendant for $20 to a Yemeni necklace with coral for $650.

In the first few weeks of e-commerce, the store has taken an order from the Field Museum in Chicago, along with private buyers.

The store inside the Glendale museum, at 5754 W. Glenn Drive, is a way for the non-profit to earn revenue, and expanding it on the Internet increases that opportunity, said Katie Anderson, the museum's executive director.

"Having an online store will allow us to reach people who might not otherwise shop in the museum store," she said.

She's not alone, as at least a dozen quaint downtown shops now are selling their products online.

No downtown store symbolizes small businesses' use of technology better than Military Items.com.

Robert Quan, an avid collector of military items, bought the store at 57th and Glendale avenues in 2002.

"I shortly realized I was not going to survive without the Internet," he said.

By 2003, he branded its current name, and today Quan estimates 60 percent of his sales come from the Internet.

He said the key is to create a highly searchable Web site with daily updates.

"I have a lot of respect for the stores that still hold to the old model where they just have a brick-and-mortar store," he said. "However, with the housing market crashing and everything bad in the economy, they suffer but I don't.

"There's always someone, somewhere in the world with money."

Quan said his store, which sells military items from the Civil War through modern times, is on track to see a 20 percent growth in sales this year.

In Catlin Court, Bears & More, 7146 N. 58th Drive, began testing online sales in the late 1990s. Today, the store ships collectible bears around the world, from Alaska to Australia, accounting for at least 25 percent of store sales, according to owner Valerie Burner.

Just up the street, AZ Dolls and Gifts opened last fall and launched its online shopping site in January.

Owner Diana Steele said she prefers visits from in-store customers but sees clients increasingly being lured online.

"With the price of gas, people want to sit and shop," she said.

Not everyone is so convinced.

Some shop owners say they don't care for computers. Others say they haven't gotten around to building Web sites.

Antique dealer Bo Kvetko over at Bo's Funky Stuff, 5605 W. Glendale Ave., doesn't sell directly from his Web site, but he is a reluctant participant in online auctions.

"I don't (see a benefit)," Kvetko said. "I have to, though. It's just so many people are on eBay. It's all over the world."

He estimates as much as half of his sales come online, although he doesn't foresee it replacing quaint stores like his.

"Looking at a picture online and actually getting the items in your hands - it's not the same," Kvetko said.

Penelope Cagney of Phoenix tends to necklaces at The Bead Museum, which recently launched an online store for its high-end beads.