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New technology routes manufacturers’ marketing spend into foot traffic and sales for the 4,200+ dealers who stock their products.
Omaha, Neb. (September 2026) – The firearms industry has a path-to-purchase problem no other retail category shares. Consumers research online, but a majority of sales finish in person at a licensed dealer, and until now, no complete bridge connected the two. Manufacturers spend millions driving shoppers to product pages, while most local dealers stocking those products never see the customers that marketing paid for.
That is starting to change. More than 20 manufacturers, including IWI, Taran Tactical, Atlas Gunworks, and Charter Arms, have connected their websites to live dealer inventory, with five more brands set to launch in the next six weeks. When a shopper views a product on a participating brand’s site, they now see exactly which local gun stores, big-box retailers, and online dealers have it in stock at that moment. The system lists local shops with the product on the shelf first, so customers can walk in and buy the same day instead of paying transfer fees and waiting on an FFL transfer.
For dealers, the change is already showing up at the counter. Shops carrying participating brands report higher sales on those lines and a rise in first-time, walk-in customers who found them through a manufacturer’s website.
“We’ve seen 25 percent more sales on the brands that support us, and a big chunk of that is customers who had never bought from us before,” said Bill M., owner of Nagel’s Gun Shop. “Manufacturers and dealers should be partners, not adversaries.”
The scale behind the system comes from Gun Made’s consumer platform. More than 1.5 million people a year use www.gunmade.com to find where firearms and outdoor products are available, searching nearly 1 million SKUs across more than 4,200 integrated stores, including Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Academy Sports, as well as independent dealers and major online retailers, like Brownells, Midway USA, Optics Planet, Euro Optic, and Natchez. That figure does not count the shoppers searching directly on the manufacturer websites that use Gun Made’s tools. The company’s Product Locator, which Gun Made calls the first complete solution built specifically for the firearms industry to show live inventory from local dealers, big-box retailers, and online sellers in one place, updates every 15 minutes, installs with a few lines of code, and enforces minimum advertised price (MAP) rules automatically.
“Almost every firearm sold in America goes through a local dealer, but the path from a manufacturer’s website to that dealer’s counter never existed. Manufacturers were spending millions on marketing products that customers couldn’t figure out how to buy or see in person. At the same time, local gun stores, the backbone of this industry, watched everything move online,” commented Brady Kirkpatrick, founder of Gun Made. “We built the bridge. Now that marketing spend supports the dealers stocking those products, and customers can see who has it nearby, walk in today, and get their hands on the product before they buy.”
Gun Made does not sell firearms, takes no listing fees, and sends every customer directly to the dealer. Dealers list for free, and the company positions itself as a partner to both sides of the counter rather than a competitor to anyone in the industry.
Kirkpatrick continued, “We’re not trying to compete with brands, dealers, or anyone else. We’re trying to make the entire path to purchase work better for the whole industry, and that only happens if dealers sell more and manufacturers sell more at the same time.”
Manufacturers can learn more at https://www.gunmade.com/solutions/manufacturers/. Dealers can list their inventory for free at https://www.gunmade.com/solutions/dealers/.
