Does your startup need an elegant web presence? It's amazing that some very simple websites are hugely effective. Take Hearts Brew Beer Supply for example. Hearts has a very simple website: http://www.heartshomebrew.com/ Check it out.

I dropped by Hearts one day and saw order fulfillment as the primary activity going on in their store. Their owner and I talked and he said a greater percentage sales came from their website than from the store!

Parts Guru is another example of a successful web business run with a simple website. The owner and I talked about the site, which he created entirely himself. What's the conclusion? I believe it's form vs function and function wins! http://www.partsguru.com/

I've heard many similar stories. What do we conclude? I believe that the workflow in online product sales is important, just as an elegant web design is ... nice. But, the business can cruise along fine with a simple web presence.

What do you think? Do you have experiences to share that shed light on this subject? We're all ears!