DIY Weapon Shop
I read several posts under the heading "My business", maybe my experience will be of interest to someone.
I spent almost a year on the creation and organization of the online weapons store. Now, when I transferred this project to another person, I can tell you how it was, maybe this will push someone to open their own business.
So, first things first.
I’ve been creating websites for quite some time, but I haven’t been thinking about creating my own online store. Once I made an online storefront for a company engaged in the wholesale supply of civilian weapons (hunting, traumatics, pneumatics) and after a while we talked over a cup of tea with its owner. It turned out that the money invested in creating the site paid off in a few months.
Then I looked more closely at the site, which without systematic work on it, and any kind of promotion paid off within a few months. If you deal with it more seriously, you can increase profits and earn a little bit. What I suggested to the owner: I do support and promotion, for which I get interest from sales. We didn’t agree on that day, but a few months later he called me and offered cooperation.
It should be said that opening an arms trade store from scratch is very problematic: you need to obtain the appropriate licenses, equip a weapons room, etc. All this is not very cheap.
Therefore, they began to work according to this scheme: I was engaged in the creation and promotion of the store, and sales were formalized through a company that has all the licenses, etc.
It took me about a month to create a store script and fill out a product catalog. Then start selling sales. As I expected, all the costs of creating a store paid off within a few months.
Open a weapons online store from scratch does not work. Initial costs are too high and plus you won’t get the necessary discounts from manufacturers if you don’t buy the required volumes per month.
An online store, opened with a dealer of manufacturers, is profitable within a couple of months.
If you take this seriously, within a couple of years you can catch up with the leaders of this market, whose turnover exceeds 1M rubles per month.
Obligatory registration in the online store is evil. Some buyers have only a fax, which does not prevent them from shopping for tens of thousands of rubles. If you force them to register by e-mail and confirm the registration, they will leave by.
Having worked in this area for about a year, I can say that almost all the solutions on the CMS market for online stores, of those that I tried, satisfy only about half of the requirements for a successful arms trade. Therefore, if you deal with this matter seriously, you will have to modify the turnkey solution for yourself. I just wrote my own - the minimum I need, which can be greatly expanded and this will lead to sales growth. Moreover, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the device of online stores of a couple of companies that are one of the market leaders and I can say that there is much to improve.
I wrote this post as the beginning of the conversation. Your questions would help me a lot in writing the sequel.
UP:
In the comments several times asked for a link. Unfortunately I have to refuse. Although I do not deal with the site, it is still on my server. The Habra effect is not what I would like to face today. For some reason, I think that most will only go see and not turn into customers.
UP 2:
Wrong about conversion. There were several personal calls that converted to customers (:
UP 3:
In the comments they ask the question: “What if the owner of the company doesn’t show you the whole turnover. For example, he will sell you 10 units, but he will tell you 3”.
The sale of weapons is different from the sale of mp3 players. There accounting is MUCH stricter. Therefore, tracking is quite simple: just look at the entries in the sales journal. When selling to wholesalers, they are not made; when selling to private owners, they are mandatory. Those. look at the entries in the sales journal (it is stitched and the pages are numbered, any correction in it is certified by a seal), it indicates the name and address of each customer and select your customers from there.
I spent almost a year on the creation and organization of the online weapons store. Now, when I transferred this project to another person, I can tell you how it was, maybe this will push someone to open their own business.
So, first things first.
1 Step: Idea
I’ve been creating websites for quite some time, but I haven’t been thinking about creating my own online store. Once I made an online storefront for a company engaged in the wholesale supply of civilian weapons (hunting, traumatics, pneumatics) and after a while we talked over a cup of tea with its owner. It turned out that the money invested in creating the site paid off in a few months.
Then I looked more closely at the site, which without systematic work on it, and any kind of promotion paid off within a few months. If you deal with it more seriously, you can increase profits and earn a little bit. What I suggested to the owner: I do support and promotion, for which I get interest from sales. We didn’t agree on that day, but a few months later he called me and offered cooperation.
Step 2: getting started
It should be said that opening an arms trade store from scratch is very problematic: you need to obtain the appropriate licenses, equip a weapons room, etc. All this is not very cheap.
Therefore, they began to work according to this scheme: I was engaged in the creation and promotion of the store, and sales were formalized through a company that has all the licenses, etc.
Step 3: Results
It took me about a month to create a store script and fill out a product catalog. Then start selling sales. As I expected, all the costs of creating a store paid off within a few months.
conclusions
Open a weapons online store from scratch does not work. Initial costs are too high and plus you won’t get the necessary discounts from manufacturers if you don’t buy the required volumes per month.
An online store, opened with a dealer of manufacturers, is profitable within a couple of months.
If you take this seriously, within a couple of years you can catch up with the leaders of this market, whose turnover exceeds 1M rubles per month.
A bit about the interface
Obligatory registration in the online store is evil. Some buyers have only a fax, which does not prevent them from shopping for tens of thousands of rubles. If you force them to register by e-mail and confirm the registration, they will leave by.
Having worked in this area for about a year, I can say that almost all the solutions on the CMS market for online stores, of those that I tried, satisfy only about half of the requirements for a successful arms trade. Therefore, if you deal with this matter seriously, you will have to modify the turnkey solution for yourself. I just wrote my own - the minimum I need, which can be greatly expanded and this will lead to sales growth. Moreover, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the device of online stores of a couple of companies that are one of the market leaders and I can say that there is much to improve.
I wrote this post as the beginning of the conversation. Your questions would help me a lot in writing the sequel.
UP:
In the comments several times asked for a link. Unfortunately I have to refuse. Although I do not deal with the site, it is still on my server. The Habra effect is not what I would like to face today. For some reason, I think that most will only go see and not turn into customers.
UP 2:
Wrong about conversion. There were several personal calls that converted to customers (:
UP 3:
In the comments they ask the question: “What if the owner of the company doesn’t show you the whole turnover. For example, he will sell you 10 units, but he will tell you 3”.
The sale of weapons is different from the sale of mp3 players. There accounting is MUCH stricter. Therefore, tracking is quite simple: just look at the entries in the sales journal. When selling to wholesalers, they are not made; when selling to private owners, they are mandatory. Those. look at the entries in the sales journal (it is stitched and the pages are numbered, any correction in it is certified by a seal), it indicates the name and address of each customer and select your customers from there.