HANDMADE CARPETS ARE nobody’s pick for an e-commerce sure thing. For one thing, they vary in color and design from piece to piece because they’re hand-woven and made with natural dyes. Then too, while the luxurious feel of a woven rug can sell the item in a retail store, where customers can visualize the piece in their homes, buying an expensive carpet on the Web could be an invitation to disappointment if the color turns out to be wrong or the rug just isn’t right for the room.
So when third-generation rug vendor Aslan Mirkalami opted to swap his small chain of Oriental rug stores around Toronto for an online Web site, he knew he would have to make up for lost
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