FFL shipment
A critical legal compliance element is that every firearm must be purchased or received at an FFL-registered dealer. Form 4473 tracks who is the new owner of the gun.
The immediate ramification is that the Shipping Address for orders containing firearms must be an FFL address. Not only that, but good user experience dictates that the customer should be able to select their preferred FFL address. The ATF regularly updates the list of approved FFLs. Your website must regularly synchronize this list of FFLs.
These requirements are significant to implement. Failure to comply can result in catastrophic legal consequences.
WooCommerce has a couple of plugins to facilitate, but they do not have extensive reviews and there is concern these are not enough to fully comply with the strict legal requirements.
Locking out product shipments to specific states
Many states have passed laws limiting the sale of certain firearms and associated components. You can find a list of these restrictions on the Palmetto State Armory website. For example, handguns can’t be shipped to California. Magazines over ten rounds can’t be sent to Maryland.
There are several options for this user experience, but one option to protect yourself is to ask about the customer’s state before letting them add the product to the cart. A visitor should be able to save this selection so it is shown across all products. This can be baked into the Age Verification box (as seen below) or displayed on the product form.
Inventory channels
Some firearm dealers leverage the vast network of distribution centers, like Zanders, to boost the number of available products. This reduces the need to keep as many products in stock and makes it easier to sell online.
Common inventory channels are:
Selling channels
Inventory channels facilitate a broader range of products, but several channels are unique to the firearm industry (Amazon is not interested in being such a channel).
This is not possible in WooCommerce without customization.
Many merchants in this space sell on these channels regardless of what is being sold. While these channels promote discovery, they take their share of revenue, reducing overall profits. Working to bring sales back to your primary domain where possible can increase both brand recognition and profit margin.
Security
SwiftOtter has worked with companies in several industries where higher-than-normal security standards are critical. The firearm industry is one such example.
Perhaps you remember the outrage surrounding leaks of concealed carry licensee information? Firearm ownership is often a private matter here in the United States. Lists in the wrong hands may increase the risk of burglary and other crimes. Thus, security is a matter of critical importance.
Your ecommerce platform must be bullet-proof to ensure customer purchase history stays private.
This can be more costly and difficult because WooCommerce is not designed for robust security. Every website is maintained individually which means security is often overlooked.
WooCommerce’s philosophy and public stance on firearms
WooCommerce disallows selling firearms:
WooCommerce is owned and developed by Automattic, which also builds WordPress.
Many people in the firearms industry consider their vendor’s opinions of firearms. If a vendor decides to make their own laws and stop selling for philosophical reasons, a company may go out of business.
Shopify is the poster child of this behavior. In late 2018, Shopify gave merchants weeks to move off the platform. We still often have conversations with merchants about this event.
WooCommerce is in a unique position in that this plugin is open source. If you use an independent host for your website, there is no way that they can kick you off the platform. However, they can legally hold you to abiding by their Terms of Service (above).
WooCommerce has clearly taken a stand against the 2nd amendment.
Shopify? NO!
Shopify is possibly the second-most-common ecommerce platform on the market, only being beaten by WooCommerce. Even though it has significant adoption, it has some significant shortcomings in this market.
Shopify banned all merchants from selling firearms through the Shop Pay payment method. While you can use a different gateway, like Authorize.net, to sell some firearms (along the musket lines), you must pay a surcharge.
Shopify is not a viable option for merchants selling firearms.
Adobe Commerce or Magento? Likely not.
Adobe purchased Magento in 2019. While there are many merchants on Magento 2, we are seeing a balancing of the ecommerce platform market. Magento used to be the only decent option for merchants from 2010 to 2019 or so. However, as other platforms have matured, Magento is moving upmarket and focusing on merchants that need extensive customization. Every inch of Magento can be changed.
The net result is that Adobe Commerce isn’t cheap (even the free, open-source Magento 2). Many merchants are ok with "sacrificing" some customization for savings in the total cost of ownership. Unless you need deep customization, there may be a better option.
BigCommerce? Yes!
As such, we have carefully examined the available options on the market and concluded that BigCommerce is the ideal solution for the challenges that WooCommerce faces.
BigCommerce has been in the industry since 2009 and is a safe haven for the firearms space. Their position is “as long as it’s legal, you can sell it.” This is good news as BigCommerce is a robust, infinitely scalable, secure offering with vast features—out of the box.
The result is a lower total cost of ownership and happier customers.
