Firearms and shooting industry companies recognize the importance of a robust firearms ecommerce platform for both current and future success. This awareness has heightened, particularly in response to shifts in consumer behavior driven by changes in customer behavior since the COVID-19 pandemic. As we pass this past year’s election cycle, online competition is expected to intensify due to AI, the ever-present gun ban attempts, and evolving state politics and laws. To navigate this landscape effectively, it is crucial to grasp the essential elements of conducting business online.
In this article, you’ll learn about:
- How to build your firearms ecommerce website for your buyer persona
- The importance of preparing your product library
- Identify product fulfillment methods
- Security issues
- Should you consider an enterprise solution?
With more uncertainty and disruption within distribution, some large firearms and hunting brands are bypassing distribution and dealers and going straight to the customer. The manufacturer/dealer relationship is still vital to most brands, and will remain so for the foreseeable future — but the trends are getting harder and harder to ignore because of customer behavior changes.
Here are some interesting statistics according to Fortunly:
eCommerce Statistics You Need to Know Before Launching
Understanding the latest eCommerce trends is critical before launching your firearms website. Here are some compelling data points to keep in mind:
- 70.19% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout — often due to poor UX, lack of trust, or surprise shipping costs. Make your checkout process seamless, transparent, and mobile-optimized.
- 79% of U.S. customers say free shipping makes them more likely to buy. If you can offer it, promote it clearly across your website.
- 53% of users abandon a mobile site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Site speed isn’t optional — it’s a sales killer if ignored.
- Global eCommerce sales hit $6 trillion in 2024 — and niche industries like firearms are gaining ground as consumers turn to digital-first buying habits.
- 85% of shoppers research products online before purchasing. That means your product pages must be detailed, educational, and compliant.
- 50.5% of U.S. consumers expect to see at least three product photos before buying. Use high-quality visuals that clearly show your products from multiple angles.
- 55% of U.S. consumers trust brands less than they used to. This makes it critical to build trust through FFL disclosures, SSL certificates, reviews, and customer service.
- 84% of shoppers are convinced to buy after watching a video. Product demos, safety overviews, and how-to content are all high-converting formats.
- 67% of customers will switch to a competitor after a single bad experience. Your customer service and post-purchase communication matter.
- 2.7 billion people shopped online in 2024, and that number is still growing. There’s never been a better time to move your firearms brand online — but only if you do it right.
In this post, I want to give you five critical “must-dos” (before you consider how to generate traffic) if you’re evaluating a new e-commerce website initiative that will help you organize your firearms marketing team, save time and make it easier and faster to implement your new e-commerce-based website if you are a manufacturer or retailer.
1. Build Your Firearms Ecommerce Website for Your Buyer Persona
Before you get to the part of what you want your website to look like, nothing will bring your web team more clarity and focus than understanding your buyer persona.
You most likely have a good idea of who your customer is—but taking the time to understand what they want from your website will make all the difference. Seek to understand what their wants, needs, problems, behaviors, and questions are.
Create a web experience based on them and use story to create clear messaging. This will ultimately make for higher sales and less abandoned carts.
2. Prepare your Firearms Ecommerce Product Image Library
The second step is establishing your product library. If you’re a large manufacturer, you may have over 2000 SKU’s that are jumbled into a hundred different sizes, on gray backgrounds, outdated, or that show your product in a less than ideal format. Since this aspect of the project can take the longest, you can save a lot of time by starting now.
Start by creating a shot list:
- What products need to be reshot?
- Which product images can be reused?
- Locate a lifestyle photographer
- Have the photographer provide the raw sizes and cropped images set to 1000 x 1000 pixels for use on the website
Sort all these on a spreadsheet so the photographer can easily sort and organize when it comes time to shoot your products. Make sure you place all your products on a white background. Placing products on a clean white background allows your product to be the hero and creates a clear understanding in your customers mind without any unnecessary background clutter.
3. Identify how you’re going to fulfill orders
With over 20,000+ laws on the books—determining how you want to fulfill orders that comply with federal, state and local laws is the next consideration and if you’re a firearm manufacturer. Below are five considerations.
1. Utilize a third-party cart.
Ruger, for example, utilizes the GearFire, Gallery of Guns.com and other providers to sell its products directly online. All you need to do is apply for membership with your FFL and set up an account. This can also be done through your distributor. This allows your products to be embedded in hundreds if not thousands of online gun store websites and outdoor specialty retailers and takes the hassle out of you (or your staff) having to deal with running your online store. The downfall is you rely on their somewhat antiquated looking shopping cart that doesn’t align with your website’s look and feel.
2. Ship direct to customer via an FFL
Daniel Defense’s website is an example of how to set up a shopping cart where the product is shipped directly to an FFL of your customer’s choosing. They will enter their local FFLs address, notify them that your firearm is being shipped to them, and the FFL will handle all the paperwork. This all happens after the purchase. There are hundreds of shopping cart software solutions on the internet from WooCommerce and Adobe Magento to name a few. Choose the software that best suits your needs and one that you feel is easiest to use. I recommend either WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
2025 UPDATE: Payment processors will be your biggest hinderance to selling online. Most of the larger ecommerce platforms are intertwined with processors like Stripe, Paypal and others that restrict firearm sales. I do not recommend signing up with any third-party solutions like Miva, Volusion, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and especially Shopify, who in August 16, 2018 banned Franklin Armory from using their platform. When building on these networks, you are essentially handing over your lawful online business that puts you at risk because these providers can shut you down at anytime—sometimes without warning. Big Commerce, Adobe/Magento (larger custom sites) and WooCommerce are better options. There are also FFL-based platforms designed for dealers like Celerant and Orchid that can be more suitable for your needs.
3. Dealer only
Springfield Armory, Benelli and Beretta only sell through their dealer network—some use a hybrid (dealer and third-party cart). You can purchase other accessories on their websites, but to purchase a firearm you are redirected to a dealer locator.
4. What States should I NOT ship to?
Some manufacturers do not ship to New York, Illinois or Hawaii. Other states have magazine restrictions like Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and California. The anti-gun laws in these States are very confusing and can leave you open to a lawsuit. It’s better to not even take the risk unless you have a good attorney advise you on your options.
5. What shipping provider should I use?
The shipping of firearms seems to constantly change. The main rule of thumb is to always ship to an authorized FFL—never to a personal residence. Below is the latest information from GunBroker.com. If you have any questions, it’s always wise to check with your attorney, USPS, UPS or FEDEX representative.
- Eligibility: Only customers holding a Federal Firearms License (FFL) may ship firearms.
- Requirements:
- Must execute a FedEx Firearms Shipping Compliance Agreement.
- Shipments must be approved through a FedEx account executive.
- Firearms cannot be shipped with ammunition.
- Packages must not indicate firearm contents.
- Restrictions: Non-FFL holders are prohibited from shipping firearms.
- Eligibility: Only FFL holders with an approved UPS agreement may ship firearms.
- Requirements:
- Handguns must be shipped via UPS Next Day Air services.
- Use Delivery Confirmation Adult Signature Required and Direct Delivery Only services.
- Firearms must be shipped in new corrugated packaging without any indication of contents.
- Ammunition must be shipped separately.
- Restrictions:
- Firearm shipments are not accepted at UPS Access Point locations or third-party retailers.
- Non-FFL holders cannot ship firearms.
- Eligibility:
- FFL holders may ship firearms.
- Non-FFL holders may ship rifles and shotguns to residents within their own state or to FFL holders in any state.
- Requirements:
- Firearms must be unloaded.
- Shipments should be sent via a service that provides tracking and signature confirmation.
- Packages must not have markings indicating firearm contents.
- Restrictions:
- Handguns are not mailable by non-FFL holders.
6. Flat rate or box size?
The easiest and most hassle-free way to ship your products is by weight. You can set-up different weight tiers of pricing for all of your products. However, if you’re in a segment that is highly competitive and $5-$10 is a factor in getting the sale, then be prepared to discount your shipping.
4. Get the Firearms Ecommerce Security Issues Out of the Way
The next “must-do” is security and encryption. Everyone who sells online must take precautions for their customer’s data. And with every website now a target for hackers, it’s more important than ever.
1. Payment Processor or Gateway
To take payments online, you first need a payment processor. Authorize.Net acts as the middleman in between you and your merchant bank account that securely transfers funds from your customers’ credit card to your account. During this process, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover—whatever credit cards you accept on your site all take a percentage of the sale, usually 1.5-2%. Your bank may also charge a percentage as well. Be sure to configure these fees into your product costs.
Do I need under 18 age verification? Most payment processors and emerging State laws (especially in California and Illinois) now require you to verify age before allowing minors to enter your website. Check with your attorney if this applies to your website.
2. A Secure Socket Layer or SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and your customer’s browser and is now required on all websites. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.
3. Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy pages are essential in protecting your site from users who may encounter problems. These important legal pages on your website ensure your business is protected from any fraudulent behavior from users. Read here for more information and some horror stories. Always get an attorney to look over your T&C and PP before launch.
4. Secure and Speedy Hosting is usually the last component considered when building your firearms ecommerce website. But beware, there are many services out there who sell you on services and packages you don’t need and who guarantee speed and security but fail to deliver. One #2A friendly company that we recommend is WP Engine. WP Engine provides you with a secure and fast platform to run your WordPress website. For many years, we have enjoyed little to no downtime and fast speeds. With Google now ranking websites based on speed, WP Engine remains a good choice for the firearms industry.
- Content Delivery Network
- Included SSL
- Content Page Performance
- Fast 24/7 Support
- Staging Server
- 24/7/365 Backup
5. Consider an Firearms Ecommerce Enterprise Solution
For enterprise manufacturers, it may be time to connect your CRM, ERP, and WMS and eCommerce altogether. Companies like NetSuite, Sage, SAP and HubSpot serve larger companies with large global inventories with complex supply chains. These software solutions allow you to manage your inventories in greater detail and with greater efficiency. If you’re a large manufacturer, taking the time to explore these solutions may be what you need rather than a simple shopping cart. A SAP or NetSuite implementation can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If that seems like overkill, there are other solutions that can be connected to your back-office operations and warehouse that tracks inventory, shipping, and accounting – all who are FFL friendly.
In conclusion, when considering your next firearms ecommerce store, it’s important to identify who your buyer persona is, get a good product image library created, identify what kind of shopping cart setup you want, make sure you have the right security components in place to take payments securely and if you’re an enterprise manufacturer, consider a larger solution to more efficiently run your operations.
By taking into consideration these five “must-dos,” you’ll have what you need to engage a firearms web development company and make your website project go much faster.
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