Design Shop, a rare concept

[yankodesign]

My name is Takashi and I run a retail business in Canada, the shop is doing very well but simply because I am the only shop in town that has this concept. My next business plan was to expand at a international level, more specifically targeting the american market. The cost effective solution as you know was to go online. I and my partner has created a website that literally took 3 months to make, the postive side is we did it with no cost at all except for the domain name and hosting. My questions to you markting Gurus is first what do you think about the website we created? Please be honest even if it's mean or rude. Second how can I imporve it. I have read the internet marketing research site and I plan to read each categpry and apply it to the website. But as you know creating a brand in my opnion needs creativity, somthing that will make a emotional connection with the customers so that he or she will come back.
I guess what I'm really trying to do is create a brand online and how do I do that? Simply put marketing on internet is completely different than markting in my local area and I need help on the online is concerned. Please visit my website at www.yankodesign.com Please keep in mind that it is still under construction and the minor details such as company info is not on yet. www.yankodesign.com http://www.yankodesign.com/ (http://www.yankodesign.com)

[Cameleon]

i dont know too much about opening a marketing online but i really like your opening page, i just wish the whole site had the same look to it. maybe you could also start selling things on ebay an put your website address so people could go to it an look thought your site?

[MstrBob]

Your website is visually very well done. My main concern is with your user login/shopping cart system. From why I could see, without actually signing up, is that it was a standard http:// connection. I hope this isn't the case. Can visitors buy directly through your site? If so, you are using a secure connection (SSL) or page encryption of some sort, right? People's names, addresses, and credit card info are important, and not something that should be able to be interecepted.

Otherwise, your site seems very well done, I particularly like the option to switch currencies, very handy. Your site looks very proffessional, and your products are quite interesting and unique. If you had a secure connection, it'd seem like a great place to shop.