Merchandising in the gun shop

Shooting Industry, Feb, 2004 by Massad Ayoob

It only takes a few minutes on a computer or even with a pen and a small sheet of notepaper for you or one of your staff to list a few of the features of a given firearm you want to sell. Place it next to or beneath the gun on the display shelf. Often, you can simply pull a one-page description off the manufacturer's Website. Now the customer can read about the item for himself. Not a second of a salesperson's time is wasted. By the time the customer asks, "Can I see that pistol?" he has a good briefing on why he needs to make a purchase.

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Gun magazines also can be used to help you sell your products. It makes sense to have them prominently displayed in your shop. Slip a copy of a magazine, folded open to a story about a particular handgun, right under the firearm in the showcase. It's a sure attention-getter.

As an example, say you have a customer who has been eyeing the Kahr PM9, but can't quite make a buying decision. If you display the small pistol with the November 2003 issue of GUNS Magazine, you'll not only draw a lot of attention to the handgun, but also provide your customer with top-selling points.

In the article, I relate how easy the PM9 is to carry, concealing in a trouser pocket even better than a baby Glock. Your customer will learn that the light, flat and super-compact semi-auto produced a five-shot group of 2 inches at 25 yards using Pro-Load ammo. For a pistol with 3-inch barrel, that's impressive. Your customer will likely say the same thing I did in closing the article, "I'll take that."

Are you looking to increase your sales of the Smith & Wesson Model 4040 introduced last year? The average customer sees a plain black pistol that doesn't look all that much different from the Bersa .380 on display nearby for half the price.

It might just pique his interest to read my article on the Model 4040 in an upcoming issue of GUNS Magazine. He'll learn the test gun performed with 100-percent reliability and delivered five-shot groups at 25 yards that measured 1 5/8-inch with top-grade hollowpoint defense ammo. He will learn how Smith & Wesson engineered the small a pistol, how it worked so well and recoiled so mildly--all in the powerful .40 S & W caliber.

Your customer will learn that until the introduction of the Model 4040, only two people in the country owned custom Smith & Wessons, modified Model 3913s, that could deliver this type of performance, and that now he can buy it at a reasonable price instead of paying thousands of dollars for custom labor. What a moment ago looked like just another pistol is now recognized as a breakthrough firearm.

One caution here. Be sure to read the article and know what it says. It's true that some gun magazines only print puff pieces, but that is emphatically not true of GUNS and American Handgunner, both of which review new firearms "warts and all." That's good for you and your customers.