Trademark Guns: An Online Store a Gun Shop Owner Runs Himself

Trademark Guns is an owner-run gun shop and licensed firearms manufacturer in the Birmingham area. Owner David Daniel holds a federal Type 07 license, which means the shop doesn't just sell firearms; it builds them. Customers come in for FFL transfers, custom rifle builds, consignment, and the guns, ammunition, and gear on the rack.

The challenge

The shop's existing website was a website-builder template that had been set up and never filled in. It still showed placeholder text. Meanwhile, the questions customers actually ask (What do you have in stock? What does it cost? How long will the paperwork take?) all had to be answered by phone.

David needed three things:

1. A way for customers to browse real inventory with real prices before they call or drive over
2. A way to cut down the time customers spend on paperwork in the store
3. A site he could keep up to date himself, without calling a developer every time something sold

What we built

A store built around how people shop for firearms

The shop is organized into departments (firearms, ammunition, and accessories) with filters that change depending on what you're looking at. Shopping for firearms, you can narrow by type, action, caliber, capacity, and condition. Shopping for ammunition, the filters switch to things like bullet type and grain.

A few details make it feel built for this business rather than adapted from a generic store:

• Search understands how customers talk. Searching "9mm" finds 9mm pistols, 9mm ammunition, and the magazines that fit them.
• Every item page shows what goes with it. A firearm links to its ammunition and compatible accessories, and the reverse.
• Prices are on the tags. No "call for price."

Background-check paperwork, started from the couch

Federal law requires the Form 4473 and the NICS background check to happen in person, and that doesn't change. But a four-step online pre-registration lets customers pick the firearm or transfer, answer a quick eligibility check, and enter their basic details and ID type before they arrive. In the store, what's left is signing and the check itself, which the site estimates at about 15 minutes.

We were deliberate about privacy here. The eligibility answers stay in the customer's browser, and the form never asks for a Social Security number or date of birth.

A dashboard the owner actually uses

David runs the inventory himself from a private admin dashboard: adding items with photos, updating prices and quantities, marking items featured or hidden, and reading customer requests in one inbox. The system keeps backups and lets him restore earlier versions, so a mistake is never permanent. Sensitive details like serial numbers stay private: they're searchable in the dashboard but never shown on the public site.

The result

Trademark Guns now has a site that works like the shop does: real inventory, real prices, honest information about transfers and builds, and paperwork that starts before the customer walks in. Because David manages the inventory himself, the site stays current without a developer in the loop.

Cypress Solutions hosts and cares for the site. That means updates, backups, monitoring, and changes when the business needs them.

See the live site or tell us about your business.