Setting up an online music store would cost a bit, but nowhere near that of a conventional store....you don't have to keep physical stock at first, and setting up a good site that makes you look like the biggest and oldest in the business won't cost much either if you don't let yourself to be ripped off by web designers.....of course though, there are probably many other costs I haven't even thought of though :/
Web design is not a problem - I can do it myself. The whole online store thing is no problem at all and wouldn't cost me anything but time - I have knowledge, I have experience with the software and I have a reseller hosting account and space.
Stock is an issue however. I know the industry well, and wholesale stockholding is rarely good on anything but the most popular models. You can take a supplier's price list and easily a third of what is listed will not be available at a given time - much will only available as a special order, ex factory. That would lead to a situation where someone would buy from you and you would have to call them back to say it will take 6-8 weeks to get stock and the price will depend on the exchange rate on the day it lands - I don't think that customer would buy from you again.
There is another big issue, which is pricing. I firmly believe that online pricing has to be lower than in-store to make up for delivery charges, the lack of try-before-buy and the delivery time. Unfortunately, If I tried to sell at a good discount I would get into trouble with my suppliers - there is a lot of politics involved and if you sell cheap, the brick and mortar stores all complain to the supplier.
There's more, but it's late...
