It used to be that gun shops relied on traditional advertising media or word of mouth to get potential customers in the door. All that has changed.

Now to survive, it is almost essential that gun stores have an online presence. The web is how most new customers locate a shop or get information about it.

Some customers don’t even want to go to the store. They’d rather shop online. And if they do go to the store, many still get their product information online first.

A strong online presence can have a huge impact on revenue. Not only does a website make your shop visible to buyers, it also greatly increases the number of potential buyers. Instead of selling products primarily to customers who live within a small radius of the store, you can now open your doors to anyone with a web browser.

But establishing and maintaining an online presence takes knowledge, time and money. All those things can be difficult to obtain, especially for a small shop. Paul Angell saw the problem and decided to do something about it, so he created AmmoReady.com.

Building a Presence

Angell is the CEO of AmmoReady.com, a company that provides small stores and large chains with all the services necessary to sell firearms and accessories online, including domain name registration, website creation, account hosting, security for transactions, fraud prevention, credit card processing, order completion, shipping arrangements, order tracking and even reordering so you don’t run out of products to sell.

A major selling point for AmmoReady.com is that customers need not sign a contract — they can cancel at any time. And the retailer doesn’t have to buy or maintain software and doesn’t need web developers or designers to run the online store. AmmoReady.com is software as a service, so the retailer essentially rents rather than owns the software.

Because it is SaaS, the retailer picks and chooses what services to buy, and can add or delete services at any time. That saves a great deal of money because AmmoReady.com maintains the software and works full time to make sure it delivers what is promised.

AmmoReady.com may seem like an odd name for a company that provides a full-service e-commerce platform, but there is an explanation. Angell, a self-proclaimed gun guy with years of experience in computer services, was creating software for gun retailers that would allow them to offer their customers a monthly subscription service to automatically keep the shooter supplied with ammunition. As he got further into development, he kept hearing from retail gun shop owners that what they really needed was a better full-service e-commerce platform. So in 2016, Angell stopped working on the ammunition supply subscription program and turned his efforts to developing an e-commerce platform specifically for gun dealers.

The software had to be cloud based, but Angell had experience building similar programs for other industries and he knew how to get it done.

Shopify is a well known SaaS e-commerce platform used by many online vendors. But Shopify is decidedly unfriendly to guns and will not provide services to gun shops. So, retaining the name of AmmoReady.com, Angell stepped in to fill the void. The service launched in 2017. At the time I interviewed Angell, AmmoReady.com had 425 customers and was growing rapidly.

That rapid growth is not surprising given the results enjoyed by AmmoReady.com customers. Most of the company’s new customers start with no online presence, and Angell says it’s possible for them to begin an email campaign and realize sales figures in six figures within a couple weeks. 

Sales Integration

AmmoReady.comis integrated with CoreStore, a point-of-sale solution for gun shops that handles face-to-face sales at the store’s counter. Even though CoreStore is integrated, AmmoReady.com allows customers to use other POS solutions, although those other POS providers may require a contract.

Communicating automatically with the point-of-sale system is very important because the store’s inventory is updated instantaneously with a sale whether it is made in the shop or online. That way the retailer won’t think an item is in inventory when in reality it was just sold to another customer. So, whether the item is sold in the store or through the website, the inventory count is accurate.

And with AmmoReady.com, inventory can be automatically replenished. If, for example a gun is sold, the system can automatically order a replacement from the store’s distributor. At this point, AmmoReady.com is integrated with six distributors, but more are being added. And the distributors’ inventory can also be listed on your store’s website. That increases your apparent inventory, which can boost sales without requiring extra warehouse space or tying up money.

With a traditional in-store sale, after a clear background check, the buyer walks out with the merchandise. But if a sale is made online, AmmoReady.com automatically handles the transaction and can arrange shipping directly from the distributor to your store or the selected transfer agent where the customer is located.

If the item is shipped from your store rather than drop-shipped from the distributor, ShipStation, a worldwide e-commerce shipping solution and another AmmoReady.com partner, automatically takes care of shipment tracking and notification. It’s much easier than doing all those things manually. And ShipStation is able to pass along low shipping rates because it handles a large volume. 

Easy Inventory

AmmoReady.com is easy for gun shop owners to use. If you can scan a barcode, that is about all you have to do to keep your inventory up to date.

Say you accept a shipment that includes a gun from a manufacturer. Scan the gun’s barcode and AmmoReady.com adds it to your inventory and lists it for sale online. AmmoReady.com also scours the distributor’s website for the gun’s features and specifications, and then automatically adds that description to your webpage. At the same time, the gun’s serial number is added to your computerized bound book. Keying errors and duplicate entries of the same information are eliminated.

Using a POS system other than CoreStore requires a little more time and money, but it is still easily arranged. AmmoReady.com accommodates the integration of other POS systems; it just requires a software developer to make some software changes. Making a simple change like that is much less expensive and less time consuming than creating your own enterprise-owned software.

Responsive Design

Things have changed in the last 20 or 30 years. While some of your retail customers still shop the old fashioned way and like to browse through the store and talk to a sales clerk, many, especially younger customers, shop and seek their information online. Complicating the matter is that an individual customer may use a desktop computer, tablet or smart phone at different times when looking at the same item. But AmmoReady.com handles it all.

When a retail customer adds an item to their online shopping cart using a desktop computer, then goes back to the shopping cart using a tablet or smart phone, AmmoReady.com detects the type of device being used and displays everything properly. This mobile-ready capability, or responsive design, is increasingly important so that websites don’t run slowly or display improperly when the customer switches devices.

If an item is bought online, no matter what type of device is used, the shopping cart is updated and the gun shop’s inventory reflects the purchase. And if a customer puts an item in their online shopping cart and then leaves the website without completing the purchase, an email reminder is automatically sent encouraging the customer to complete their purchase. This abandoned cart reminder can be very helpful in increasing sales.

Getting Set Up

For the small store just getting started with online sales, rates are very reasonable at $29 per month. Rates increase depending on the services purchased with flexible pricing available for a large operation enjoying a high volume of online sales. And AmmoReady.com is happy to work with large and small customers, or those who have little or no computer expertise.

AmmoReady.com's quick-start program includes the first month’s service as well as website customization for a one-time price of $500. Then to maintain the shop’s site and continue basic monthly service the charge is $98 per month. It would be much more expensive for a gun shop to create and maintain its own site.

AmmoReady.com's staff knows the e-commerce business and you know the gun shop business. Combining that knowledge and experience can help you create a professional website, drive customers to that site, capture customer email addresses and use them to craft an effective email marketing campaign — a key to successful online sales.

“The single most valuable asset of anyone doing e-commerce marketing today is the email list,” Angell says, noting that the real money to be made online is through direct email marketing and not competing with other vendors on price.