I was going to suggest maybe the guy involved wasn't interested in flipping the business & was happy working 5 hours a week and being able to run the business from anywhere.

However, the OP replied to this same comment over on Reddit [1]:

"Great feedback, and I agree. eComm is Phase 2."

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/6lmotf/i_make...