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Internet Transfers — Worth It?
Survey Reveals Dramatic Increase In Retailer Acceptance Of Online Firearms Sales.
As recently as five years ago, barely half of all firearms retailers processed transfers of firearms that consumers bought online. Today, a major national survey for Shooting Industry magazine indicates nearly 95 percent of retailers perform these “Internet transfers,” earning millions in transfer fees and add-on sales, while performing an important customer service.
More than 330 firearms retailers responded to the survey conducted by the national research firm, Responsive Management. The survey was designed to measure retailer attitudes and policies regarding transfers resulting from online firearm sales, and the scope of add-on sales that might accompany the transfers.
The study showed a dramatic increase in retailer willingness to perform transfers for online sales in recent years. Some 45 percent of the responding retailers indicate they have begun performing Internet transfers within the past five years — nearly half of those have only begun within the past two years.
“I think doing Internet transfers is just plain good business sense. I have gotten many new customers and helped many existing customers by doing them. And yes, I do make money for doing them — that is the reason for being in business, is it not?” said Maggie Brazel of Greenville Gun & Supply Co. in Greenville, Pa.
While retailer acceptance of Internet transfers has increased, the number of transfers is still relatively small. Nearly half of dealers (45.8 percent) indicate they do less than five transfers per month, 29.2 percent do between six and 10, and 18.3 percent do 11 to 25 transfers per month. Fewer than 7 percent of respondents reported doing more than 25 transfers in a month.
Despite the growing acceptance of Internet transfers, there remains a grudging attitude that a firearms sale on the Internet is a sale stolen from a local brick-and-mortar dealer.
“It costs me approximately $150,000 a year to open the doors on my business. Why would I allow someone to use my FFL to buy firearms elsewhere? I believe Internet gun sales drive the smaller retailers out of business, and hurt the firearms industry as a whole,” said Rusty Morris of The AR Bunker in Newnan, Ga.
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