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FFL dealers & Shift4Shop: a high-risk payment gateway spotlight –

Accept credit cards on your Shift4Shop FFL site

We have been in the business of helping America’s  FFL dealers with 2A friendly payment gateway solutions since 2002. FFL’s perform the essential task of running federal background checks. When an FFL sells online, they do it the right way by only shipping to another FFL for customer pickup.

Even though licensed federal firearms dealers do it right, some e-commerce platforms are being very careful about the topic of FFLs and accepting payments for firearms right now. Shift4Shop is not one of them. Not only do they have themes for you to choose from that are intended for FFLs and tactical sites – they make creating your inventory simple and accepting credit cards easy.

Shift4Shop was built with a focus on customer conversion, giving you options to include customer reviews and waiting lists. Sometimes a product is so popular or hard to find that it is entirely worthwhile for the customers to put themselves on a waiting list, and customer reviews allow new customers to feel confident that they are making a good purchase – so long as the product has good reviews.

It is also possible to dropship FFL products from national distributors through Shift4Shop. Instead of handling a vast inventory of the almost endless list of firearms and parts, just list them on your website and use a national distributor to fulfill your order.

You can even upcharge scarce items to make more money per unit. You can also use this dynamic pricing to offer discounted or even free shipping to your customers.

Shift4Shop compatible payment gateways for FFLs

Shift4Shop is compatible with three of our favorite payment gateways, NMI, Authorize.Net, and eProcessing Network. We have recently written an entire article breaking down our preferred choices for high-risk Shift4Shop payment gateways and the benefits of each, you can read more here.

Authorize.Net does work well for FFL’s – if you know how to set it up

While Authorize.Net is a compatible gateway and works well for FFL dealers, it does need to be set up correctly to avoid getting your account frozen or closed temporarily, which would cause a severe delay in business.

We offer our assistance to set up your payment gateway properly, and will even hand-hold you through the process to make sure it’s done correctly. While many payment processors have turned away from the FFL industry, our recommended payment gateways and merchant account providers continue to embrace FFL to FFL online gun sales and FFL transfers.

Getting started with FFL’s on Shift4Shop

It should go without saying that knowledge of your legal responsibilities is paramount in this industry. Talk to a qualified attorney and do the proper research to know all local, state, and federal laws before selling firearms to anyone. Also feel free to check out our helpful and informative FFL payment gateway requirements page to learn more about the FFL merchant account process.

As we mentioned above, Shift4Shop fully embraces the FFL community. There are many choices you can make depending on your local restrictions or what you’re interested in selling. Shift4Shop compatible processors will allow you to sell firearms and serialized lowers if you provide FFL documentation, alternatively, if you are only interested in selling gun parts, you can do that with a signed confirmation you won’t be selling any serialized parts.

You also need to decide whether or not you want to drop ship products from a national distributor or simply hold your inventory. You can do both, but you will want to make sure the processor we recommend knows exactly how you plan on operating.

Merchant accounts for FFL sales and transfers

As important as a payment gateway is to keep your business finances flowing, the merchant account that connects it to your business checking account is just as, if not more, important. In order to run your business, you will need a merchant account.

For you to sell and transfer firearms, you will need a specifically underwritten merchant account for that purpose. Merchant accounts must be set up correctly; otherwise, you risk your account being frozen or closed for improper use, i.e., selling something that’s not supposed to be sold on that account. For example, setting up an FFL merchant account won’t allow you to sell cigars or vape pens. Though all are considered high-risk industries, they all require specific underwriting.

Fortunately we can match you with a merchant account provider who will set up an account specifically for you and your needs. We can offer this service at no cost to you because we receive an incentive from the service providers for bringing them qualified website owners as clients.

Ready to get started? Let us help