Solutions, that's really what we devise for every client. Websites could be selling the same thing and have a whole different set of problems of why their website under performs. No matter that an online store has less overhead than a brick and mortar business, it comes down to taking in more in sales than is going out in expenses. Word of mouth has to be established through social media networking, that is the main ingredient that search engines don't provide.
That is an arguable point with internet start-ups that are able to draw venture capital. Amazon is the poster child of running huge losses before becoming highly successful. If pockets are deep enough to capture market share, reaching a volume of business to sustain and grow, takes a leap of faith to go past broke and see it through to success.
One thing that has become a much bigger part of SEO in the last year is Universal Search. Now almost any 'location' keyword will trigger a Google Local Business listing. These are now such a big part of the SERPs that the 'normal' organic listings are pushed down. There's lots of speculation whether Google will monetize Local results. This will make a lot of people upset if Local Business listings are positioned within organic results. MSN's Bing search engine is gaining a little ground because of the quality of returned search results. Google's experiments with paid search in the middle of organic listings based on 'universal search' or other new criteria could slowly degrade their user base. Paid search is a risky investment and takes a fair amount of testing, figure half your ad budget gets thrown away just testing to find bid levels and keywords that return a profit. 
