Thousand Oaks-based Ammunition1 is expanding its sales to a new e-commerce site. Due to the nature of the product, business marketing services on platforms like Yelp Inc. and Google often don’t allow ammunition or gun retailers to promote their company or services. Ammunition1 chief executive Kevin Krieser said that, as the company looked to expand its services, opening an online business front was the obvious strategy.
Ammunition1’s flagship store is called The Copper Jacket, which opened in mid-March. The company cannot ship ammunition to several states, including California, because of laws that stipulate that a customer must pass an in-person eligibility check. Krieser said that the online store can still serve local residents if they decide to purchase on its website then pick up products in its store.
“A lot of times that market is a little opaque and people will spend a lot of time sort of calling around to different stores that sell ammunition to find out prices and (availability) here locally in California,” he said. (With the) buy-online, pick-up-in-store option, people who are local to the area have that ability to make sure that we have what they’re looking for, and it just makes the process very easy on them.”
Although Ammunition1 cannot ship its products to customers in California, Krieser said it’s seeing substantial orders from other states. Online business is about 50-50 between in-store pickups and out-of-state orders, with most out-of-state orders coming from Missouri, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
State laws vary on residents’ ability to purchase ammunition online. For example, in Texas, there are no restrictions on having ammunition shipped directly to one’s home, and a background check is not required. In Missouri, the ammunition must be shipped to a licensed ammunition seller first, who then verifies the customer.
Ammunition1 and the Copper Jacket don’t sell firearms, only ammunition. Krieser said it sells about 400 different ammunition products, and that the top-selling caliber is a 9 mm bullet. About 60% of ammunition sales are for practice round bullets, which Krieser said are sold mostly for the purpose of self-defense, rather than for hunting or competition. The company’s most popular practice round brands are Ammo Inc., Fiocchi Munizioni, Norma and CCI Blazer.
The store’s name differs from the company’s because, as Krieser looked for a lease, many landlords were unwilling to allow it to put the word “ammunition” on its main signage. He said the store hasn’t had any problems with support from neighbors, though.
“All of our neighbors are proponents of ours, and I think it’s just because of the way that our store looks and the vibe that we give off,” Krieser said. “It doesn’t have a traditional gun-store vibe. It feels very, very different … not just like a men’s gun store. It’s just more conducive to women and generally has a more mellow feel. A lot of marketing goes through word of mouth here, so we have a lot of returning customers, and it’s been really, surprisingly quick to be supported by the community.”
Krieser said the company’s customer base is about 10% women. It doesn’t sell directly to any law enforcement agency, though it has individual police and military customers.
He said that since advertising online is difficult for gun and ammunition companies, most marketing is done through grassroots efforts. The company was involved in a local event at the CliffDiver, a restaurant and bar in Thousand Oaks, and held a raffle at the Wild Oaks Country Music Festival in early June.
Krieser said that as the online website’s business propagates through search engines, he expects it will have comparable sales to its brick-and-motor store within the next six months. While he declined to share revenue or sales information, Krieser said that its product selection and pricing is what attracts non-local customers.
“That is the art of retail,” Krieser said. “(Our) easy-to-shop website, right price and time.”