Gun dealers, parts and accessory retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers
When you’re choosing the best firearms eCommerce platform, you need to factor in several firearm-specific needs, such as:
And, of course, you still have general eCommerce needs, such as:
At SwiftOtter, we’ve helped all industries – including firearms retailers – set up and maintain secure, stable, and profitable eCommerce platforms. We took that 10+ years of experience and created this list of 8 of the best firearm-friendly eCommerce platforms.
We've split our firearm-friendly platforms into two pools for an easier selection process:
At this point, you are ready to put down some serious chips. You already have an established eCommerce experience and are prepared to double your odds for success. You are bumping into the limits, and your frustration level is increasing. It’s time to lay your cards on the table and talk shop. We, as your eCommerce partners, ensure you are betting on the right platform the first time.
You fit into this category if you wish for your eCommerce experience to be fairly automatic. There is nothing wrong with going all in at this level.
If eCommerce is an auxiliary to local/walk-in traffic, you likely fit into this category. This represents the majority of local gun dealers. You are, by no means, limited to this, but running a successful eCommerce business takes significant effort. The market is crowded, and standing apart is challenging. You would have to dedicate substantial and ongoing resources.
In many cases, this dedication is impossible while maximizing local outreach. Thus, a well-integrated platform allows you to supplement your store’s stock, net some extra sales, and provide a quality brand representation.
When reviewing platforms, we factored in both general eCommerce concerns and also concerns specific to firearm retailers, including:
What’s the difference between open-source and software-as-a-service (Saas)?
Open-source means the code is accessible to a developer: they can edit, add or remove. The upside is infinite customization. The downside is upgrades and maintenance tend to be tied to the number of extensions and additional code in the system. These platforms tend to be ideal for companies that require significant modifications to business processes. Additionally, with open-source software, you host your code. While it feels safer to have the code hosted on your servers, the reality is that this introduces more maintenance and outage risk.
Software-as-a-Service means the code is a black box. Developers have no visibility into the inner workings. As such, you must trust that the eCommerce platform is secure and reliable. The good news is these companies likely invest millions of dollars into security, scalability, and maintenance. You get to enjoy the benefits of their efforts. What seems to be the most significant disadvantage is the inability to customize system operations. With the API connections, there is little that is off-limits.
We have developed an at-a-glance view of the most popular platforms in this space. Thanks to our expertise and extensive research, we have rated these platforms against 63 unique and pertinent criteria.
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The recommendations in this space are powerful and customizable to almost any business need.
BigCommerce powers many firearm-related websites, such as Smith & Wesson, Desantis Holster, HK Parts, Impact Guns, and Cheaper than Dirt. The names on BigCommerce should speak for themselves. It is powerful and capable.
SwiftOtter is a BigCommerce Partner. If you’re interested in this route, we can guide the process to ensure a successful implementation. Click here to learn more.
BigCommerce is SwiftOtter’s default recommendation for eCommerce. We are consistently impressed with its reasonable price, expanding but solid feature set and platform support.
We see no evidence that BigCommerce is “against” the firearm industry. Their presence at trade shows like SHOT Show could demonstrate that they are doubling down on this market segment. It would be unwise to double down and then leave it.
BigCommerce is Software as a Service. In our experience, there is less cost than open source to build and maintain. However, it remains flexible for most changes.
BigCommerce owns/maintains security and scalability: this is no longer the merchant’s responsibility. It is technically infinitely scalable. We have never heard of an outage or security breach on a BigCommerce store. This means that no matter how big or popular your eCommerce store gets, you can count on BigCommerce to keep things up and running smoothly.
BigCommerce has apps in its marketplace for common firearm-related functionality, such as FFL locators. The majority of these features are set and ready to go, so you don’t need to go looking for extra extensions or finding a developer to help you add on extra features.
BigCommerce can make it easier to leverage distributors like Davidsons, Lipseys, or many others. This can increase the size of your catalog, and your customers don’t have to leave your store to find the kind of firearms they’re looking for.
Plus, BigCommerce can be a source of catalog data for platforms like Guns.com, GunBroker, or Everest.
The selling points of Magento 2 are these two items:
Magento 2 powers several firearms-related websites, like Silencer Shop, MagPul and Sig Sauer. The biggest downside to Adobe Commerce is the ongoing cost of maintenance. Many Magento 2 websites were built by less-than-qualified developers and this drives up the subsequent costs even more.
SwiftOtter’s legacy has been built on Adobe Commerce: we are an Adobe Partner with the Commerce specialization. We are one of the most capable agencies in this space.
Merchants with complex or highly customized order workflows. Examples could be if you need custom order statuses or need approval before shipping an order. Or, perhaps you have more than 600 variations of a production. While these are overcomeable on BigCommerce, they represent additional work. SwiftOtter can help you establish a total cost of ownership model to determine the best long-term fit.
Adobe has taken a neutral stance. We cannot reference the company supporting or protesting the Second Amendment.
Unfortunately, this is the Achilles heel of the Adobe Commerce platform. It is perfect if you believe you need infinite extensibility. Few merchants need this. But many are paying for the massive maintenance costs.
Adobe Commerce has had some security-related history. Typically, though, they are quick to release patches for critical security incidents. Your website’s security is directly correlated to the quality of modules installed and the speed at which patches are applied. Good agencies, like SwiftOtter, pride themselves on how quickly these patches are deployed.
If you are hosted on Adobe Commerce Cloud, Adobe is responsible for scaling your website. However, if you are responsible for your own hosting, you are also responsible for keeping the lights on. We have a preferred partner and can help you ensure your website is stable into the long term.
Pre-built modules are available to handle all major features required to power a firearms-related website.
No marketplace or distributor integrations exist out of the box with Adobe Commerce. However, using a tool like Feedonomics can quickly bridge the gap.
Shopify has earned the top place in the eCommerce world thanks to their massive marketing investments. But Shopify has kicked many firearm sellers off the platform with minimal notice. This makes it a niche pick for our customers.
Shopify can work as your entire eCommerce solution, or just part of it, if you’re using your website to list California-compliant guns and related parts.
Outdoor sporting goods apparel manufacturers. That said, we highly recommend doing an in-depth comparison with BigCommerce as the latter is a strong competitor.
Shopify has excluded selling the most popular firearms from their website.
Shopify is software-as-a-service, meaning you are not responsible for security and maintenance. App fatigue is real as many Shopify websites have significant numbers of paid apps installed.
Shopify manages website security. We are not aware of any security incidents.
However, Shopify has had some extreme circumstances that took a website offline. These have been rare and far between.
We have no comment on this because Shopify is not a good fit for merchants selling firearms.
Because of Shopify’s proliferation, plenty of integrations will aggregate this data up to marketplace platforms.
The recommendations in this space are tuned to be highly efficient with minimal manpower to keep the lights on.
This entry differs from BigCommerce Enterprise as the price point is significantly lower. This doesn’t negate BigCommerce’s capabilities and the value it brings.
Firearms and parts manufacturers that are looking to expand into eCommerce. BigCommerce grows with you, so as sales increase, you can increase your BigCommerce level.
We see no evidence that BigCommerce is “against” the firearm industry. Their presence at tradeshows like SHOT Show could demonstrate that they are doubling down on this market segment. It would be unwise to double down and then leave it.
You can host your website on BigCommerce for as little as $29/mo. There are monthly limits on each tier, so the cost ends up around 0.06% of revenue.
BigCommerce owns/maintains security and scalability: this is no longer the merchant’s responsibility. It is technically infinitely scalable. We have never heard of an outage or security breach on a BigCommerce store.
(repeated from above)
BigCommerce has apps in its marketplace for common firearm-related functionality, such as FFL locators. The majority of these features are set and ready to go.
(repeated from above)
Many firearm retailers leverage distributors like Davidsons, Lipseys, or many others. These catalogs can be integrated into BigCommerce to explode the number of items available on a website.
On the other hand, BigCommerce can be a source of catalog data for platforms like Guns.com, GunBroker, or Everest. If you don’t sell firearm-related products, you could even push out to Amazon or eBay.
AmmoReady is a retail firearm point-of-sale and inventory management system that adds an eCommerce component. This is a perfect solution for most gun shops in under $1MM category. For an extra monthly cost, you can list products from the AmmoReady distributor network on your website.
While AmmoReady does have an eCommerce solution, it lacks the depth of features that most other platforms offer. You cannot select which payment processor you would like to use, leading to higher credit card processing costs. Unfortunately, they do not provide an API, preventing a connection to a best-in-class eCommerce system, like BigCommerce. There is significant vendor lock-in with AmmoReady.
Retail gun shops that are already using the GearFire platform and would like to open an eCommerce channel.
AmmoReady is exclusively built for the retail firearm industry—thus there is no concern about alignment.
Pricing starts at $750 to build and then $29 a month (for 100 orders). You can’t beat this price—period.
We have no comment on either of these points.
This platform has everything you need to sell firearms online.
AmmoReady allows you to list on popular firearm marketplaces like GunBroker and Guns.com. They also have a distribution network that is readily available for an additional fee.
GearFire is a competitor to AmmoReady and provides a separate platform. Their pricing points are slightly more expensive. Their onboarding process is more hands-off.
Retail gun shops that are already using the GearFire platform and would like to open an eCommerce channel.
GearFire is an exhibitor at SHOT Show and are present within the firearms space—there are no concerns here.
For all-in-one-solutions, GearFire is more expensive than AmmoReady.
We have no comment on either of these points.
This platform has everything you need to sell firearms online.
GearFire allows you to list on popular firearm marketplaces like GunBroker and Guns.com. They also have a distribution network readily available for an additional fee.
Wix is a popular website-building platform. They have added eCommerce capabilities within the past few years and are trying to make a splash with their Shopify competitor. It’s inexpensive and incredibly easy to start with.
Entrepreneurs who sell sporting goods that are not firearms or firearm parts. Examples would be apparel, targets and hunting supplies.
Wix explicitly prohibits selling weapons, ammunition, military arms, explosive devices and firearm parts.
Wix is incredibly cheap to run. However, this comes at the cost of a lack of flexibility. This is an excellent platform for getting started.
This is a software-as-a-service platform and, thus, all responsibility for security and scalability falls on Wix.
There is none.
No integrations are available.
WooCommerce is heavily used in the firearms industry. Why? It’s free and it’s open-source. Open-source has a wide appeal because “you can’t turn it off”. There is a degree of well-warranted paranoia in this industry because of the significant efforts to cancel the firearms industry.
We strongly recommend against WooCommerce for reasons that you will see below.
Proof of concepts for firearm websites. However, due to the terms of service, this is a risky move.
WooCommerce’s terms of service explicitly ban firearms. There is not only a philosophical misalignment but also a legal ban. It would theoretically be possible that they could legally chase firearms-related merchants.
The free cost is highly attractive. However, in our experience, WooCommerce done right is anything but free.
WooCommerce is a set of modules for WordPress. Unfortunately, while the WordPress core is secure, many of the associated modules are not secure. WordPress is notorious for getting hacked.
WooCommerce is difficult to scale. Sending an email blast to your list could be enough to topple your website—immediately eliminating your campaign’s sales benefits.
There are modules available in the WordPress plugin directory that provide these features. However, they are not vetted for quality and it may take significant development time to get these ready for production.
There are no pre-built plugins to provide these integrations.
In this post, we looked at eight different eCommerce platforms for selling firearms and firearm accessories, such as hunting apparel and targets. While the best platform will depend on your specific catalog, your ideal customer, and how much revenue you plan to generate presently (and want to generate in the future), we do believe, based on past clients, that BigCommerce offers the most flexibility and features to help you maintain your eCommerce store while growing it.
With BigCommerce, you will get:
Now, here's the deal – there's no one-size-fits-all playbook in the e-commerce game. Choosing the right platform is like handicapping a horse race, and a wrong decision can cost you more than a bad bet. It's a real headache, and the losses can pile up faster than a bad losing streak.
That's where SwiftOtter steps in as your e-commerce coach. We've got the playbook for each platform, and we'll help you pick the one that's a sure bet for your brand. And the best part? Our expert advice won't break the bank – it's a cost you'll gladly wager on.