From experience I would suggest to just keep it simple and easy to update. The search engines look for content that's updated frequently so that's paramount. You don't want a site that's difficult or a hassle if you can avoid it. And make it very customer friendly.
As for the model? Do what you think looks the best and feels the most like your store and the image you want to project. If you do that, people will come, and if not enough are coming tweak it til they do. There are never enough sites to buy beautiful shoes!
MG
Oh, last advice- if you have someone assist you, or build it for you, make sure you have every last bit of information you need to get into the site and make changes etc, I lost control of one of my Domains for three years once because the webmaster had registered it under his name instead of mine and then wouldn't give it to me because of a personal issue. So now you can learn from my mistake.
