Airsoft shop opportunity

I really like the whole loadout set idea. I'm looking for some molle stuff online and its been a nighmare! I have to go to so many sites to find pouches as each site only has one or two kinds of pouches

(you could also stock forum patches :) )

 
I'm loving the dog tags and the loadout section, as it would make getting a specific load out a lot easier.

I think the two toning idea, while good, is a bit tough - I had a long conversation with actionhobbies about this when I asked them to two tone a gun - because of health and safety, you cannot legally get an employee to paint the gun unless you have an airtight painting booth or whatever it's called. So unless you stocked the parts in 2 tone (which wouldn't be too economic), rather than deciding to paint them, you couldn't do this.

The custom paint job idea would work as long as the job was contracted out to someone who didn't work for the company (so is legally not the companies responsibility) - and I imagine I'd be one of your first customers (unless you open before I get UKARA - "hi, I'd like a vomit green tiger stripe pattern" )

Anyway good luck and I look forward to visiting some day!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think adding to the community aspect of the shop would be good as it's something nobody has really done before. So not only do you come in and buy something, you also sit down have a chat and do some work on your gun. Services such as sparay painting camo would be handy as well and the loadout idea would be good for new players who may not know as much about kit ect...

Going back to the community side of things if you've got the room get yourself some tables and stuff and also a decent cofee machine :P You could also do gun packages. For example buy a G&P M4 and get a red dot at half the price or something. Or you could even do a starter set packade. For example you get a choice between two or three beginner guns some camo, BB's, Chest rig ect..

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I now work at my local store and all I can say is this:

Boots.

Boots.

Boots.

Footwear.

Socks.

Boots.

Genuily good boots.

I'm not going to lie, all of the above are great ideas and any airsofter or shop owner would love to see them imlemented, but the only thing that really sells mid-week is boots, then you have only saturday when you can sell guns.

A good website is crucial aswell, today we had 5? people in shop - 3 bought boots, 2 bought rifles and we sent out roughly 15 packages, mostly Krylon (we're the cheapest place in the UK to buy it) and boots.

Where possible aswell, hire people with an interest in airsoft. if you want that £400 masada to go, who is going to sell it better, the person who owns one of each colour and has modified them to F*** and uses them every weekend or the guy with a degree in retail, wears trendy clothes and spends his weekends trying to get his 'alternative trance Jazz project' off the floor and get a gig?

Everyone that works at Patrol Base has at some point been a customer, and all of us got the job by knowing what we are talking about and being good to talk to and friendly.

also, Boots.

 
well id di say in a previous post about the merc package idea. buy one gun then chose 3 upgrades to fit to the gun with the addition of 5 spare mags

 
I'm in my local airsoft shop more or less every saturday because my mum has a shop next door and I help out at the airsoft shop for most of the day (mainly talking to customers as I'm 14 so I can advise but not sell). Boots are very important but I'm also going to state the obvious...

BB's

The ammount of times the shop runs out of BB's in uncountable at times. You need to find yourself a good supplier which is hard for a small shop starting up because of a lack of buying power. I don't know how much money you guys have to play around with but as you probably know most of the suppliers have a minimum order.

At my local shop we take the shop down to a site every two weeks to sell there which is another thing you may consider. Airsofters buy thew most when their airsofting so try to cash in with your local site if you can.

 
Nickona said:
I genuinely think this could be an awesome shop!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No you got it wrong, this WILL be an awesome shop not could!

I'd don't know if it has already been said but say if someone comes into the shop and hasn't got UKARA then you could do a 2 tone service, I don't know how long it takes to do the paint job but I'm guessing it takes longer than just spraying paint on the gun, so, why not charge for the 2 tone service and then post them their gun in combination with the merc. rewards system, what ever it was, but you should pay the postage instead, I don't know if this has made any sense but as long as it is cost effective, obviously, then it may work, Hope this helped?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Postage tends to be pretty expensive until you get big enough to invest in franking machines etc.

But yeah, I think if it's a good, friendly airsoft shop, then there's plenty of room for a good business (just don't go down the wolf armouries route, about a million rules on the door, and you have to be buzzed in and out... you'd think it was a real armoury?)

 
yea makes sense to me, you could do an order and pick up service as this might appeal to people as they wouldn't have to pay for postage and can pick it up finished :)

 
Airsofter123 said:
I think the two toning idea, while good, is a bit tough - I had a long conversation with actionhobbies about this when I asked them to two tone a gun - because of health and safety, you cannot legally get an employee to paint the gun unless you have an airtight painting booth or whatever it's called. So unless you stocked the parts in 2 tone (which wouldn't be too economic), rather than deciding to paint them, you couldn't do this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It depends on how well the shop does, how many customers, as to whether stocking the two tone parts works. The ones owned would be recycled, as newbies start, then get their ukara then give them back. And i cant imagine the parts would be hard to come by on old broken boneyard guns? But yes you have a point financially if the shop isnt popular enough (or too popular!)

 
Rock-climby-Dave said:
and we sent out roughly 15 packages, mostly Krylon (we're the cheapest place in the UK to buy it)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There is that many people doing paint jobs? Sounds like something else to me.

Many great ideas here anyway, would be nice to see some of them implemented even if it does mean a slight loss in how well the place does.

 
the idea i came up with regarding two toneing would be to buy certain parts in bulk such as forgrips/shrouds, pistol grips and stocks. as in combonation would make up the rigt amount needed to be brightly colored. so if some one was to come in to the shop i could quickly swap out the parts and hand it over right then and there then offer to once the customer has got their license they can then return with either the orignal recept or with proff of ID/address and i can then replace the original parts onto the gun free of charge.(proof of id/address works on the basis of a spread sheet document to keep a record of two tone service to insure that returning customers can get this service with out any hasstle)

 
two toning the parts and swapping them is fine in prinipal, but please, name 1 gun that people would change the bits over.

Also, two toning a gun adds 1 day for the order, Base coat, Green luminous (but it stays tacky) so we do a very light dusting of krylon, also takes the shine off so is more skirmishable.

 
I think maybe something simular to airsoft world with there "Target Points" scheme would be great... were you get like 1 point for every pound spent, and you could charge like £3 to set them up a point redemption account...

 
I think an AF-UK Membership card that you get for free when registering from here or is £2 when registering from the shop and that allows you to hold the points Mitchell was going on about

 
ELITEairsofter100 said:
I think an AF-UK Membership card that you get for free when registering from here or is £2 when registering from the shop and that allows you to hold the points Mitchell was going on about
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This man gets the biscuit. Increase forum use + links to shop and possible discounts = more customers for the shop = more dollar.

Also, points do equal repeat business.

A thought, stolen from a certain game store. When you trade things in, you either get store credit, or cash. Store credit is substantially higher, so people are more likely to take it and get more stuff.

Depends on the demand for pre-owned guns, but with new people wanting reliable, cheap alternatives, it could work.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mack
Macks airsoft dreamers of the week thread
458 459 460
Replies
9K
Views
1M
Austeyr
Austeyr
Back
Top