Should my retail shop have a separate distro?

[Crysta]

I'm opening a brick and mortar craft supply/retail store (hopefully) Aug 1st. My question is, should I have a separate online shop/etsy/whatever for zines? I'm thinking having a separate site with "distro" in the name might make it easier for zinesters to find me, and me to find new zines to carry. Any thoughts? 

PS: I'm in BC Canada if that makes any difference :P

[Derek Neuland]

While it may make it slightly easier for people looking for zines to find them, you're eliminating the possibility of getting people who are interested in craft supplies to stumble upon zines, and vice versa.  Most zine creators I know are office supply nerds (myself included). 

When Alex and I were starting to plan out the Portland Button Works website, we knew that it would be in everyone's best interest to keep it all together.  That way if someone wants to buy the new issue of Zine World from us, they can also get a button that says "Death to Decaf" at the same time.  If I was ordering from a zine distro and saw that they also had rub on letters or a bone folder, I would definitely be excited.

[Crysta]

I should have explained better - I still plan on having zines both in my shop and on my shop's site, but I was thinking about *also* having a separate site with the the zines in stock with a eye-catching link to my brick and mortar shop's site.

But I definitely see what you're saying! I'm just paranoid about the zines getting overlooked.

Derek Neuland said:

While it may make it slightly easier for people looking for zines to find them, you're eliminating the possibility of getting people who are interested in craft supplies to stumble upon zines, and vice versa.  Most zine creators I know are office supply nerds (myself included). 

When Alex and I were starting to plan out the Portland Button Works website, we knew that it would be in everyone's best interest to keep it all together.  That way if someone wants to buy the new issue of Zine World from us, they can also get a button that says "Death to Decaf" at the same time.  If I was ordering from a zine distro and saw that they also had rub on letters or a bone folder, I would definitely be excited.