Help trying to figure out a good Airsoft website name?

[Jamie056]

I'm starting a website selling Airsoft accessories to start then expanding to Airsoft guns, the difference is we sell fairly, I've thought of a bunch of names but I'm not sure yet, mainly needing something to do with it being cheap and not being ripped off? I thought of 24/7airsoftsale but what can you think of?

I've been to the wholesale sites and asked how much is this and that etc and to be perfectly honest every uk Airsoft who buys locally is getting seriously ripped off! I'm talking they will make £50 on a £70 scope talk, they seem to think £15 profit for a £25 item is minimum, which I think is insane and I think you should too! Well anyway I'm going to make a shop which is roughly making a profit of £2-£5 an item after expenses till it gets to about £150, also having a rule where after the third item you buy in one you get the fourth profit free, for example if I buy something for £20 and sell it for £25 and it was the 4th item you'd get it for 20 saving £5, then compare it to another website and you actually have saved £10 buying four of them at my website instead of one at theirs!!!

I want to make a difference too so I'd probably donate between 25-50p per item sold to a charity (military related). I want the website make the buyer not just feel good by getting it cheaper but by feeling they have made a small difference, and together a huge one. Thanks for reading if you have got this far, I tend to go on about this because I'm so into this and want to start now! Just need a decent name first!

 

[Longshot]

I can't decide if the name 'Fairsoft' is awesome or awful.

 

[Ian_Gere]

Well, if your site got any traction and you were able to run it at such profit levels that you were massively undercutting the main retailers in this country and costing them business, you can be 'kin certain that they will do whatever they can to shut you down. You may think that so long as you do nothing illegal, there is nothing anybody can do to stop you, eh? If so you'd be wrong. A common means large retailers use to prevent smaller operations from muscling in on what they consider as 'their' market is to make it clear to wholesalers that, although they wouldn't for a moment consider doing anything illegal, they have choices of suppliers and naturally they could choose to take their business away from those whom they may personally dislike. In a completely unrelated statement, they may also express the opinion that they really hate it when small companies come along and bla de bla...

Basically you will have an uphill battle at every turn - no UKARA membership, you may have problems with public liability insurance, in other sectors whispering campaigns have destroyed reputations, in ours there's the added complication of legalities which could become the subject of speculative gossip which in turn, and of course without any collaboration or cooperation of large retailers, could as gossip does escalate into slander and/or libel, which you will be in no position to defend yourself from since you will not be able to afford to sue...

It's going to take some weighty cojones, mate. With that in mind, my idea for the name is:

MY BALLS IN YOUR FACE​

 

[Jamie056]

Well, if your site got any traction and you were able to run it at such profit levels that you were massively undercutting the main retailers in this country and costing them business, you can be 'kin certain that they will do whatever they can to shut you down. You may think that so long as you do nothing illegal, there is nothing anybody can do to stop you, eh? If so you'd be wrong. A common means large retailers use to prevent smaller operations from muscling in on what they consider as 'their' market is to make it clear to wholesalers that, although they wouldn't for a moment consider doing anything illegal, they have choices of suppliers and naturally they could choose to take their business away from those whom they may personally dislike. In a completely unrelated statement, they may also express the opinion that they really hate it when small companies come along and bla de bla... Basically you will have an uphill battle at every turn - no UKARA membership, you may have problems with public liability insurance, in other sectors whispering campaigns have destroyed reputations, in ours there's the added complication of legalities which could become the subject of speculative gossip which in turn, and of course without any collaboration or cooperation of large retailers, could as gossip does escalate into slander and/or libel, which you will be in no position to defend yourself from since you will not be able to afford to sue... It's going to take some weighty cojones, mate. With that in mind, my idea for the name is:

MY BALLS IN YOUR FACE

Hi there I understand you at every point but why would I need to sue? thanks for topmost by the way

 

[Ian_Gere]

If you are being slandered (people talking shit about you) or libelled (people publishing shit about you) the only legal way you have to protect/restore your reputation is to sue, win, and get the fact that you did win as widely reported as possible, so everyone who may have been influenced by the lies knows that they have been proven in court to have been lies.

 

[Jamie056]

I get you now thanks for the post it's really opened my eyes!

 

[Russe11]

There are actually a lot of places that do sell stuff for very reasonable prices. Usually its through amazon marketplace or ebay which means that they can't sell guns. Often this is achieved by sourcing from asia and not storing stuff in this country. It may be that airsoft retailers are not ripping us off so much, its just that they have very high overheads to cover.

As an example:

1x32 ACOG style red dot sight

I bought one of these via amazon for less than £30 including P&P

Taiwangun.com based in Poland I believe can sell you something similar for just over £30 as they have low overheads (taxes, wages etc)

Most UK airsoft web sites cannot do something like this for much less than £100.

Its not because they can get away with charging that much, otherwise they would be competing on price with one another. Its the costs or warehousing, staff that expect to be paid enough to live in the UK, taxes, legal costs etc.

You may well be able to sell small volumes with the low profit margins you are planning by doing everything yourself and using your spare room for storage. I doubt you will be able to grow the business and keep the prices down.

 

[Russe11]

Just a thought, but rather than undercutting the competition, why not look into a co-op model. The idea being that after your wages are paid at the end of the year, the profits get shared among the customers. This prevents suppliers worrying that you devalue their product by selling it too cheaply, your customers become stakeholders in the business so any smear campaign would be more unpopular and people will spend more in order to increase their share at the end of the year.

Oh plus how cool could you make the web site look if you take the whole socialist theme and run with it, think red flags and AK47's. As for name. Peoples Republic of Airsoft?

 

[Ian_Gere]

^^Genius! I would do absolutely anything I am capable of without fucking myself up to help you do that.

 

[Jamie056]

Yeh I have an eBay business account and that sight you mentioned, we sell that too, we buy it for £19.42 and sell it for £31 making a profit of £5.88 after expenses and delivery, and we haven't bought from the manufacturers yet so when we need a bulk of 100 it'll be £2-4 cheaper! But yeh I get you with the co-op but I doubt anyone would do it, tried that before actually! It was called miairsoftstore.com it failed horribly Haha

The people's republic of Airsoft is a great idea! But for me I want a very spacious feel probably in white with ultra high detail on the pictures, making it look extremely fancy and luxurious but £££'s cheaper ill let you know how I get on

 

[Jamie056]

How much would this "co-op" be? Ill look into it but if you mean shares then I'm not sure the business will skyrocket?

 

[Tommy1979]

airsoftforsale.co.uk google friendly

 

[Nickona]

When it comes to the name, you don't want it to sound really cheap and low end so I would avoid typical things like 24/7, 4U, cheap etc in the business name.

But something google friendly would be good but you also need to make it stand out and be rememberable. If it can be abbreviated to an easy to remember acronym even better. As an eg UK Airsoft Store can be shortened to UKAS which is easy to remember.

Relatively quickly you'll gain a reputation for selling cheaply anyway.

I don't think its a good idea to keep stuff in another country as most of the time people want their stuff quickly and they often leave it too late to order

 

[Tariq]

Just a thought, but rather than undercutting the competition, why not look into a co-op model. The idea being that after your wages are paid at the end of the year, the profits get shared among the customers. This prevents suppliers worrying that you devalue their product by selling it too cheaply, your customers become stakeholders in the business so any smear campaign would be more unpopular and people will spend more in order to increase their share at the end of the year.

Oh plus how cool could you make the web site look if you take the whole socialist theme and run with it, think red flags and AK47's. As for name. Peoples Republic of Airsoft?

Co-op model isn't really a great idea, considering their banking side have gone bankrupt

 

[Jamie056]

No everythin

When it comes to the name, you don't want it to sound really cheap and low end so I would avoid typical things like 24/7, 4U, cheap etc in the business name.

But something google friendly would be good but you also need to make it stand out and be rememberable. If it can be abbreviated to an easy to remember acronym even better. As an eg UK Airsoft Store can be shortened to UKAS which is easy to remember.

Relatively quickly you'll gain a reputation for selling cheaply anyway.

I don't think its a good idea to keep stuff in another country as most of the time people want their stuff quickly and they often leave it too late to order

Your right with that and no we won't be keeping things in another country the other guy said that, it's going to be uk based and hopefully the shop will succeed and everyone will benefit from us

 

[Russe11]

The basic idea of a co-op is that the customers are effectively the shareholders, you would effectively be their employee. As such, rather than keeping all the profit you would have a predetermined wage (maybe a basic salary plus a % of profits). At the end of the business year you hold a meeting to which any of your customers (the shareholders) are invited and decide how much of the profits should be reinvested, whether you are doing a good job and need a raise and how much of the profits should be given back to the shareholders. The money given back would be in proportion to what they have spent.

Its a sound business model, just avoid creating a bank.

Theres no reason you can't use a mainly white background, you just need elements of red to play on the socialist side of being a co-op for a bit of fun. Think C&C Red Alert

 

[Ian_Gere]

 

[cableguy95]

Its definitely a good idea but to be honest I would keep doing what I have been previously doing which is buying from china as they almost always provide free shipping and are always cheap, for example I have been using DX.com or dealextreme.com. Albeit it takes 3 weeks for delivery, however its usually less more like 2, its at probably half the price of what it would cost here in the UK and they are pretty good quality items as well.

http://dx.com/c/hobbies-toys-899/airsoft-guns-supplies-837

So if you could keep up with these prices then go for it but in my honest opinion I would keep going to DX.com

Although on a side note they do give discounts for orders 10+ giving you a saving of just over £1 in the case of this red dot sight so you could use them as your supplier but then you would still have to pay for the postage making it more expensive when the customer goes to buy it from you.

http://dx.com/p/metal-tactical-4-reticle-sight-scope-with-gun-mount-1-x-cr2032-71439

 

[Ian_Gere]

^^Holey Cheese, that's cheap!

 

[Tommy1979]

the .co.uk shows that your a uk site

No everythin
Your right with that and no we won't be keeping things in another country the other guy said that, it's going to be uk based and hopefully the shop will succeed and everyone will benefit from us