To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Roy Huntington GunsAmerica: A Dealer’s Online Best Friend? T oday, the Internet affects virtually everything we do, including how firearms are sold. As early as 1996, guns were a hot item on eBay, but sellers found it difficult to police the purchasers. Who was qualified and who was not? Consequently, eBay dropped gun sales in 1999. GunsAmerica, a startup created by Paul Helinski in 1997 based entirely on the classified ad print model, filled the void. Initially, eBay sent everyone to GunsAmerica. As the site gained popularity more gun dealers and individuals listed their guns for sale on GunsAmerica. Now, 10 years later, Helinski and his www.GunsAmerica.com Web site is trying to revolutionize the gun industry again. GunsAmerica is still doing its core classified ads as well as auctions, and has engineered a series of services to help stocking gun dealers — the backbone of our indus- try — discover a new point of customer contact in the form of online buyers. “When a gun is sold online it has to be picked up at a local FFL dealer,” Helinski said. “To use that point of connection — that radius of stocking dealers around every visitor to GunsAmerica — is the goal of our stocking dealer programs. By making the stocking brick-and-mortar dealer profitable, our entire industry benefits. Without them, nobody can buy guns. By making a connection between a real store and a real buyer, we have created a relationship that will help not only the store, but also GunsAmerica offers stocking gun dealers a variety of programs. Visit www.gunsamerica.com. the industry as a whole.” Ordering Through Guns On Demand FFL license and no overhead. Results from searches in Guns On Demand showcase the closest FFL dealer first — so the closest stocking dealer gets the order. According to Helinski, not every FFL dealer is eligible for the program. Accounts are “given permission” to sign up for Guns On Demand by distributors and manufacturers, and only stocking brick-and-mortar stores are welcome, Helinski said, pointing out that Guns On Demand is only for the “A-Listers” and these are, by nature, the brick-and-mortar stocking dealers. Also in this suite of tools is what GunsAmerica calls “Live Inventory Storefronts.” They are easy, automated Web sites for gun dealers that can be used to help a dealer maintain their own store’s Web site. A dealer can enter his entire inventory into the “Inventory” section of GunsAmerica and the guns will automatically display, with pictures, on the dealer’s Web site. “The beauty of the system is there is no posting or after-item fee for guns and non-gun stuff sold directly off the Web site,” Helinski said. “All Web-site communication is done directly through e-mail, not GunsAmerica, so the monthly base fee of as little as $15 for the basic Web site is all you pay. And, if you have even one ad running on GunsAmerica, every one of our million-plus visitors a month will be able to drill into your full inventory through that one ad. It is extremely powerful and Visitors to Beretta’s Web site have the option of purchasing a firearm designed to not nickel-and-dime the dealer.” through GunsAmerica. 34 t the lead of these programs is Guns On Demand. As manufacturers join — Beretta and Mossberg were the first — any gun in current production can be ordered on GunsAmerica — On Demand. What makes the program important for the stocking dealer is GunsAmerica requires manufacturers to include a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) for each SKU so everyone on the site can take orders for the gun at exactly the same price. This protects the shelf price of the dealer from being undercut by those with just an A Read SI DIGITAL www.shootingindustry.com • SHOT SHOW SUPER ISSUE 2009