If newegg sold guns it would be the best gun website in the world. Easy Reviews Multiple pictures and a fast website where when you see 1000 people are on the website at once it dont take forever to skim through things.
ooooh +1 for NewEgg - that would rock - I'm already thousands lighter because of them - sell guns and it would be worse...
Ammo lots and lots of ammo
∆ This right here. Newegg is a GREAT example of how an online business should be run. They back it all up with fantastic customer service.
What would I like in an online gun store?
A transporter.
Woody
A transporter.
Woody
good categories and easy to search. I hate the pages where you type something in search and it brings up tons of junk that's not even close to what you want. Not bashing the company, but an example of this is www.botachtactical.com and if you try using the search, it's horrible. I like the search on www.midwayusa.com much better. Some gun manufactures may not let you advertise their price, but I've seen some that allow you to "place in your cart for price" and that's pretty nice. I don't really care for "please call for pricing", but sometimes that can't be helped. Also, keep it up to date. One suggestion, I wouldn't worry too much about carry parts, ammo, and accessories unless you can get them to us cheaper than the competition. I'd focus just on the guns you can order in and go from there. There are tons of places online that you would have to compete against on parts, ammo, and accessories, but a lot of people would rather order a gun through somebody local.
I appreciate all the great feedback. Sorry it has been so long 
A few comments on your suggestions:
1) I plan on photographing everything myself, so the pics will be "mine". I'll also have as many as necessary for clarity, e.g. something like a gun would have more pics than say a bullet...
2) Inventory will be live. If it isn't it stock, you won't be able to put it into your cart. If you put something in your cart, then leave and come back the next day and it is gone, it will tell you so. I HATE non-live inventories...
3) It will have user reviews.
4) Buds gun shop isn't too bad. a little cluttered for my taste however. Someone mentioned tagging. Well, most of my site will be based on tagging internally so I can easily relate items together.
5) shipping. This is one area where I can't make up my mind. I worked for another (non-firearm related), big ecommerce site that offered free shipping for everything. Customers loved it, however they did not compete on price, nor did they claim to. They competed on excellent service, and I do mean excellent, and free shipping.
now, most firearm enthusiasts I know do a lot of comparison shopping, especially on things like ammo. So a slightly higher price and free shipping might escape the visitor, i'm not sure. I actually don't mind losing a little bit of money by shipping something for free or a low fixed price, but free shipping on say a single magazine would eat any potential profit. I would even be ok eating that if it was the exception rather than the rule. I guess some experimentation would tell.
I suppose I could do something like 0-X price is a fixed $5-$10, anything over X is free, or whatever. Thoughts?
in case anyone is wondering, this will be live soon. Initially it won't have firearms (FFL and all that), but eventually that is the goal. The other issue I have which I am wrestling with is whether to wait and have a decent inventory purchased ahead of time or just get some items, put it up and keep building upon that. The downside to the first is having a small selection and losing repeat visitors. the downside to the second is it taking forever to get the site up and I have inventory collecting dust.
I have also toyed with the idea of having investors to get capital for inventory. If I went that route it would be managed by a 3rd party. In this case they wouldn't get stock or anything like that, but their ROI would be revenue based as opposed to profit based and paid quarterly. I can explain that more in detail if anyone is interested.
A few comments on your suggestions:1) I plan on photographing everything myself, so the pics will be "mine". I'll also have as many as necessary for clarity, e.g. something like a gun would have more pics than say a bullet...
2) Inventory will be live. If it isn't it stock, you won't be able to put it into your cart. If you put something in your cart, then leave and come back the next day and it is gone, it will tell you so. I HATE non-live inventories...
3) It will have user reviews.
4) Buds gun shop isn't too bad. a little cluttered for my taste however. Someone mentioned tagging. Well, most of my site will be based on tagging internally so I can easily relate items together.
5) shipping. This is one area where I can't make up my mind. I worked for another (non-firearm related), big ecommerce site that offered free shipping for everything. Customers loved it, however they did not compete on price, nor did they claim to. They competed on excellent service, and I do mean excellent, and free shipping.
now, most firearm enthusiasts I know do a lot of comparison shopping, especially on things like ammo. So a slightly higher price and free shipping might escape the visitor, i'm not sure. I actually don't mind losing a little bit of money by shipping something for free or a low fixed price, but free shipping on say a single magazine would eat any potential profit. I would even be ok eating that if it was the exception rather than the rule. I guess some experimentation would tell.
I suppose I could do something like 0-X price is a fixed $5-$10, anything over X is free, or whatever. Thoughts?
in case anyone is wondering, this will be live soon. Initially it won't have firearms (FFL and all that), but eventually that is the goal. The other issue I have which I am wrestling with is whether to wait and have a decent inventory purchased ahead of time or just get some items, put it up and keep building upon that. The downside to the first is having a small selection and losing repeat visitors. the downside to the second is it taking forever to get the site up and I have inventory collecting dust.
I have also toyed with the idea of having investors to get capital for inventory. If I went that route it would be managed by a 3rd party. In this case they wouldn't get stock or anything like that, but their ROI would be revenue based as opposed to profit based and paid quarterly. I can explain that more in detail if anyone is interested.
