"New" airsoft shop... What do you want to see?

[Russe11]

Have a section to showcase the stuff you can get hold of on request. You cannot possibly hold stock of every possible gun, but have some way for people to ask about a particular gun they want to get hold of and get back to them with a price and how long it will take asap.

[remus]

what id be interested to see(eventually as no new shop should try to do it straight away) is a mystery box/sale. if you look at black friday it will show you have us big retailers are able to use it to get rid of stock thats hard to shift. say after a year or two if you are able to look at your stock and think thats good but its not selling putting a decent sale on it whilst not making you money will release the capital back into your company to reinvest into products that will make money( no proint slashing profits on something you know will sell at a good price for you. if you look at some of the american ones youll see this. throw in the chance of getting something good and peeps go mad. after seeing a good sale i regret missing on a site last year has made me check up on it now and then to see if they do anything similar. looking at products increases the chances i will buy and improves your hits etc. also look at how face book pages do giveaways to boost their names...

 

but where id start is your rebranding. good name restyle, get patches made to give away to make your name, get onboard to make your name ...(sponsor a local site/make sure there is a local site) run some events well that make you stand out, sale stalls at such events etc( i know a couple of start out airsoft buisness guys selling out of their boot at sites they play at, fair play will come into this if you do it, you want a good rep on and off the feild)

[Ian_Gere]

TBH almost the only times i buy from UK retailers is when they're having a sale or I want the stuff yesterday. I don't mind paying UK retail prices when I want the thing in a hurry and, if I want it really badly, I will cheerfully put up with even Royal Mail shipping prices to be able to order Wednesday and have it Friday without fail, but what pisses me off is when I pay for next day delivery and it takes longer, especially if it doesn't turn up until after the weekend I wanted it for. But the thing that really gets up my hole and will definitely result in bad-mouthing is when retailers feel the need to gouge a few more pence out of me for P&P - charging VAT on top of P&P for eg, or even just adding 80+p to what RM charge. I know that packaging materials cost, and that people to pack need wages, but these are costs involved in any distance sale, so they should be covered by the ticket price so I can compare prices without having to go through the whole order process and only before I click 'buy' get the full story.

 

I spose the only exception to the above is Bullseye Country Sport - very competitive prices, even when compared to HK or Poland when you factor in shipping, fast and reliable shipping, prices inc. shipping up front, good range of stock, and quick to reply when you email. About the only thing more I would want is a wider variety of SHS parts. Otherwise if you can do what they do, sooner or later you'll get my business.

[NH Shooter]

Hi All, such a lot of info… I’ll try and get responses to everything…

 

I think what im mainly hearing is something that shouldn’t really need saying… Don’t take the pi… Mick… Real stock levels, genuine customer service, competitive prices, but people don’t mind spending a little more for a lot of extra support or confidence and do what’s expected…

 

The site is actually my first port of call, at the moment it’s quite… Childish, I think. You can see it already www.rydair.co.uk a company is already redoing this for us, and were set to have the finished beta in Feb… Ish… From there I can start to make some of the mode finite changes. The main changes already being done in the site coding. I will be changing a lot of it to be a lot more simplistic and user friendly… At the moment it’s a mess! I’ve already agreed to take 2 days a week from any related work to specifically update and maintain the website so that any bugs can quickly be addressed and any faults cut out. This also gives me time to do some gun walk around in video form. Not a review as such, but a FPS, weight, rate of fire, unique features, some stills… 2 minute videos for each item.

 

I’m also currently writing up some much more detailed descriptions, as I personally hate the bog standard list of numbers… That should be there, but that’s not everything… It’s just so soulless… I think that’s a lot of the issues with some sites, they just copy and paste, then move on. Where’s the fun in that? A lot of airsofters know what they want, but just as many don’t… And I think some special notes on any given gun would help.

 

The site itself is already running and has been for quite some time now… Its profitable, but only by a very small margin, so my job is to really make it better than it is… Hardly a simple feat, but still not impossible given a decent staging ground.

 

I like the idea of free shipping on various things, but that really needs to be looked at. We already offer free on anything over £100, but I’m looking to significantly decrease that. The stock issues… or more so, carrying stock, we have a slight advantage there… A new wholesaler has opened up and has sole distribution rights for G&G (I’m told) as well as stocking ASG stock as well and a few other things.

 

That wholesaler is 10 minutes away from the store, and I drive past it on my way to work, so all ASG (and by association, ASG ultimate internals and upgrades), as well as G&G stock can be held by them, but accessed by us at a moment’s notice. This isn’t the same as holding the stock, but we can update stock lists from the wholesaler in moments… I’m looking into the coding to do this automatically.

 

Granted… This isn’t the best possible, solution, but it fixes a lot of issues in terms of stock holding for us, and stock capability… I’m currently arranging daily check ins on my way to work, so that I can see all stock, talk about any of the days issues and orders and have a very good (and first hand) knowledge of the stock levels available. The idea is to have at least 3 of each gun in stock, and then note how many are available, via the supplier… so…

 

G&G raider

2 in stock

12 available

 

This should help mitigate a lot of the stock issues for those manufacturers. In terms of the others, we already have good experience with Ares, WE and Double eagle, as well as a few of the two tone companies… The company as a whole also owns UKBBGun so we have a lot of diversity. I’ll be offering the higher end stuff, as well as lower priced items available from the other company. I want someone to be able to come in and get themselves a £90 gun, or a £900 gun. And be confident that they have what they need and not what we want to sell them. I also want to step away from the elitist crowd… At least in terms of how I stock the store. There’s no earthly reason we shouldn’t stock combat machines next to polarstars. And if you want both hydro dipped, that’s just fine… Its not my place to judge how you spend your money.

 

I liked your idea about removal of zero stock items. I think this is something we can easily code. The site will always have a reasonable stock level so I think the bare issue will be less of a challenge. As it goes, I have budgeted £8000 to order in some of the bling as a showcase… Middle of the store, some display cabinets… Hydro dipped mini gun, some decked out pistols with custom paint and engraved slides, some AEG’s in carbon bodies… Just to show what can be done for bespoke orders. Even if no-one can afford it, seeing a fully dipped minigun has got to be a rarity and nice bit of shop decoration. As it stands we have about 30 various rifles in that are skirmishable and id like every customer to at least see 3 or 4 rifles in their price and style range. That means a wide selection of representative stock is held… So… “We might not have the exact G&G M4 you want… But we have a selection of M4’s and G&G stock, so we can show you how this particular model is build and you can pick a style” which is better than a lot of stores...

 

I do like the idea of the surplus store actually… we can certainly look into that. The shop as well can be seen on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Gtechservices if you scroll down a bit.

 

I hope this covers most of the points, and if I’ve missed anything, please let me know… And of course, keep it coming!

 

On a side note… Ian, how did you get on with the holders? Managed to skirmish with them yet?

[Lozart]

I think you should offer the option to filter zero stock items (like zero one and their tick box for "In stock only") rather than just not show an item if it has zero stock. Otherwise you could miss out on potential sales via stock update notifications.

[NH Shooter]

Yeah, I see your point... I'll ask the guys to add it to the serch box.

[Ian_Gere]

I added a skirmish report to your thread about those holders, mate. I'm in favour, but i had to mod them to work with my Russian webbing. For those who run molle rigs, I expect they'd be good to go as is. Used properly they could be a game changer, in terms of just how quick you can deploy a MK5.

[NH Shooter]

Another quick question for you all… We have some unused space… Or at least, we could do, with a bit of work. It’s a warehouse building… The whole shop is, partitioned by some retail walling… So thinking of ways to use it… How about this…

 

Couple of sofa’s, projector, XBox, PS4, etc… Free tea and coffee and Game nights for airsofters… Some Halo, call of duty, maybe some raffles… Just a fun and friendly night. The shop would be open to browse, etc… But mainly, it’s about mates getting together and meeting others for a friendly laugh. How does everyone feel about that?

[TheGrover]

Chill-out area sounds good, but a 25m + shooting range, with room for at least 3 shooters at once is number one. After that, how about a repair shop? Either pay for a professional to do the work or save by just renting the tools for an hour.

[NH Shooter]

The chill out area, im more thinking of as an event... Maybe once a week, or fortnight... The range is incredibly hard to pay for and organise. I was thinking tech lessons, kydex lessons, hydro dip lessons.

[Albiscuit]

 

I would be keeping the store open, light and airy, none intimidating and friendly, lots of white and calming colours, not dark and dingy. Lots of kids play airsoft, lots of parents come with kids to airsoft shops, and if it’s dark, musty and seedy they are going to be put off the whole concept.

 

 

 

God yeah.... I HATE wolf armouries for this very reason. Looks TERRIBLE in there, dark and stuff everywhere, even the staff cant find things??, Pro airsoft however is bright and clean and looks pleasing..

[Albiscuit]

Another quick question for you all… We have some unused space… Or at least, we could do, with a bit of work. It’s a warehouse building… The whole shop is, partitioned by some retail walling… So thinking of ways to use it… How about this…

 

Couple of sofa’s, projector, XBox, PS4, etc… Free tea and coffee and Game nights for airsofters… Some Halo, call of duty, maybe some raffles… Just a fun and friendly night. The shop would be open to browse, etc… But mainly, it’s about mates getting together and meeting others for a friendly laugh. How does everyone feel about that?

 

The thing is a lot of places would use this space as extra retail space. Floor space is vital is stores. If its not on display people might not ask for it.When I first started out in Retail (in a Plumbing/Builders Merchants) we had a counter with EVERYTHING hidden behind. After a few months we had a revamp and had almost all the stock on the shop floor and all of a sudden everything people didnt know we stocked was flying out the door.

 

HOWEVER..

 

I love your idea... When I used to DJ, I became friendly with the guys in my local niche record shops and got to the point where I would spend all day on a saturday in there talking to staff, playing about on their decks and mixing and just hanging out with the staff and other regulars. It became a ritual for a few of us, we even used to meet up midweek and go raving etc.

I would like to see that in a Airsoft store, IT would be a good place to start a team, meet like minded people etc. Especially as its quite a niche hobby and we might not have a massive group of mates who are into it as well.

 

 

On another note: Getting your store to supply a local skirmish site would be a good way to increase sales and marketing. Its not uncommon for skirmish sites to have a table or two set up from a local store showcasing some stuff.

[sp00n]

one thing that drives me nuts about some websites is postage .... if something fits in an envelope (and is carry-able by royal mail, say a hop rubber) i do not expect to pay the same as a shuttle launch!!

[cozi23]

Hello.. Nice to meet you , i'm donni, from jual airsoft gun Indonesia.

 

My airsoft is Jual Jericho

 

 

[remus]

i used to work in a nerd shop that shut down last year. they tried the whole casual coffee bar thing beside the shop and it could ave worked but not enough was invested in it and it helped to drag the rest of the business down. they tried to have consoles etc for a while but it not only cost money, it cost extra money( commercial retail tv licence) and helped to distract people away from their hobbys back to console gaming and not there fore spending monies on cards and models etc...

but if you do it tuck shop can do well for easy fast sell(so long as you have milk tea coffee coke and bars etc) tis amazing how much people will go through whilst they would think alot more about buying something useful...would be worth while to look up do any airsoft sites offer anything similar and how they make it work. have a clear advertised plan to pull people in on those nights. makes the difference believe me over we will see who comes and what they want to do. and a reason why they want to come to you and not do it from the comfort of their own home... if you ad people comming in to do demos of new stock/ their work(so local gun painters/ upgraders etc, new supplies) help to improve sales etc. if you can get the right to run a even have a warroom section to show your plans off get feed back etc. not that im a fan but bring your own drink lock in has proved quite effective a few times too combines with Halloween competitions etc

just cause in retail a couple of sofas and a console will seem a bit waste of space if its not done right...

[00K9]

Just some ideas.

 

How about saying if you offer a 2 tone service on the guns that you need a UKARA to purchase said gun so that people that don't have a UKARA can still get it.

 

if you do not want to offer a 2 tone service then say you can get said gun in 2 tone but there will be a wait as you have to order it in.

 

 

 

Have a I am looking for this gun but you don't have it on your site ask if you can get it in and how much it is going to be page.

 

 

do you price match if you do say you do on your site

 

if you do price match why not go one better and say that you will beet others by a pound and still let people use the facebook 10% Discount that you offer on top of that.

 

 

I see you do Bundles how about doing a build your own Bundle say letting people pick a gun of there choice and other Accessories then they can hit a button that sends there bundle to you and you can get back to them with a bundle offer.

 

 

this last one might be a bit harder to get up and going.

 

do you offer a trade in. if so maybe put a list of guns you're open to taking in. put up a email address so we can ask you for the address to send it to and what we are sending in for you to look at.

 

say on your site that we have to pay postage to you and back to us if the offer you make on it is not what what some one was hoping for.

 

or have the list with a up to x amount offered on it