Software Keeps Growing Retailer On The Forefront Of POS And Online Trends

The political and social climate over the last few years has raised questions within the firearms community about regulations, executive actions, Supreme Court rulings, and legislation that could limit the buying and selling of some firearms, ammunition, and accessories. This has attracted more customers to make more purchases from businesses within the firearms industry.

One such business is family-owned and operated SafeSide Tactical in Roanoke, VA. SafeSide Tactical opened the doors to an 800-square-foot storefront in 2012, and within six months, industry growth forced the retailer and manufacturer into a 6,000-square-foot building, and just 2 years later to their current 72,000-square-foot building, which includes warehousing space and shipping areas. Today, SafeSide Tactical employs 65 people across two locations (the second location is more than 50,000 square feet) in the Southwest/Central Virginia area. Both locations have an indoor shooting range, and one houses a manufacturing and gunsmithing center. An E-Commerce business operates out of the main location but is treated as its own entity.

Transitioning From POS To All-Encompassing RMS

SafeSide Tactical’s first retail system was QuickBooks Point of Sale, which Mitchell Tyler, co-owner and vice president of SafeSide Tactical, says could not keep up with the growing company. For example, in the firearms industry, every gun that comes into the store has to be logged into a filing system sanctioned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. When a gun is sold or mailed to another dealer, the item is removed from the filing system. SafeSide Tactical manually recorded every gun received, who it was from, and to whom it was sold. This information was entered into a web-based electronic system, which did not communicate with QuickBooks POS, so transactions had to be duplicated.