Most pawn shop owners, gun store operators, and consignment shop owners know their business could be doing more. More loans. More sales. More online revenue. More repeat customers. But between managing the counter, keeping up with compliance, and putting out daily fires, "growth strategy" gets pushed to next quarter. Then the next one.

This guide is different. It's built on real performance data from over 3,000 specialty retail locations running on Bravo Store Systems. These aren't theories — they're the specific, measurable strategies that are driving revenue growth in pawn shops, gun stores, and consignment businesses right now.

Every strategy links to a concrete action you can take this week, this month, or this quarter. Let's get into it.

Part 1: Increase the Value of Every Transaction

The fastest way to grow revenue isn't getting more customers through the door — it's making more on every customer you already have.

1. Stop Guessing on Pricing — Use Data

The single biggest profit leak in any pawn, buy/sell, or consignment business is inconsistent pricing. When one employee values a laptop at $80 and another values the same model at $120, that variance eats directly into your margin — on every single transaction, every single day.

The fix is a condition-based pricing tool that uses real transaction data — not scraped eBay listings, not blue book values from three years ago, but actual sell-through data from thousands of stores just like yours.

Bravo's Product Estimator is trained on the largest dataset of specialty retail transactions in the industry. Stores using it report that their swinging door profit margins increase because every employee — not just the most experienced one — makes educated pricing decisions. That consistency is worth thousands of dollars a month in recovered margin.

Action item: Track your average loan value and average purchase price this month. Compare it to next month after standardizing your pricing process. The gap is your profit leak.

2. Write Bigger Loans Without Taking on More Risk

Most pawnbrokers are leaving money on the table on every loan they write. The instinct is to lowball the loan value to protect against default — but if your redemption rate is healthy (and it should be), that conservative approach costs you pawn service charge revenue on every transaction.

The data shows that stores using AI-powered pricing tools write loans that average 15–20% higher than stores pricing by gut feel — and their redemption rates actually improve because the loan amount is more useful to the customer, which increases their motivation to redeem.

Action item: Review your average loan-to-value ratio compared to your redemption rate. If your redemption rate is above 75%, you have room to write larger loans and capture more service charge revenue.

3. Upsell at the Point of Sale

Your POS system should prompt employees with upsell opportunities during every transaction. Product protection plans, accessories, extended layaway terms — these add-ons increase average ticket size without requiring any additional foot traffic.

The key is automation. If your employees have to remember to offer these add-ons, they won't do it consistently. If the system prompts them, it happens every time.

4. Optimize Your Layaway Program

Layaway is one of the most underutilized revenue tools in specialty retail. Customers who can't pay full price today still want your merchandise — and a well-structured layaway program captures that demand instead of losing it to the competitor down the street or an online marketplace.

The best layaway programs automate payment reminders via text message, allow customers to make payments through a mobile app, and give your team visibility into overdue balances so they can follow up before the layaway expires.

Action item: Check your layaway completion rate. If it's below 70%, your reminder and follow-up system needs work.

Part 2: Sell Your Inventory Online (and Stop Leaving Money on the Shelf)

If your inventory only exists in your physical store, you're competing for customers within an 8-mile radius. Put that same inventory online, and you're competing for customers across the entire country. The math is obvious. The execution is where most stores stall out.

5. List Everything Online — Automatically

The number one reason pawn shops and specialty retailers don't sell online is the perceived workload. Photographing every item, writing descriptions, managing listings across multiple platforms, reconciling sales — it sounds like a full-time job.

It doesn't have to be. With the right POS system, listing items online takes zero extra steps. Your team takes photos and enters item details during intake (which they should be doing anyway), and the system automatically pushes listings to your online channels — your own website, Buya.com, eBay, UsedGuns.com, Guns.com, and more.

When an item sells on any channel — online or in-store — it's automatically removed from all other channels. No double sales. No manual inventory updates.

Bravo stores that activate all their eCommerce channels report an average of 41% growth in total sales. That's not a typo. Forty-one percent.

Action item: Count how many items are on your showroom floor right now. Now count how many are listed online. The gap between those two numbers is your missed revenue.

6. Build Your Own Branded Website

Marketplace listings on eBay or Buya drive sales, but they also send customers to a platform you don't control. A company-branded website puts your inventory on a site you own — with your logo, your brand, your customer relationships.

Bravo builds a company-branded website for you that syncs directly with your POS inventory. Every item you price and photograph is automatically listed on your site. Customers can browse, buy, and even negotiate offers — all flowing back into your POS as native transactions.

Action item: Search Google for "[your city] pawn shop." If your store doesn't show up with an actual website featuring your inventory, you're invisible to the fastest-growing customer segment: people who search online before they walk into a store.

7. Use Multiple Marketplaces Simultaneously

Don't pick one online channel. Use all of them. The customer browsing eBay is different from the customer browsing Buya.com, which is different from the customer who finds you through Google Shopping. Each channel has a different audience, and integrated eCommerce lets you reach all of them without any duplicate work.

For gun stores, UsedGuns.com and Guns.com are critical channels that no general marketplace covers. Bravo's integration with these firearms-specific platforms means your firearms inventory reaches serious buyers nationwide — with compliance documentation handled automatically.

8. Price Your Online Inventory Competitively

Items listed online compete in a national market, not a local one. The laptop that's priced right for your neighborhood may be overpriced compared to identical listings on eBay. Your pricing tools should give you visibility into what items actually sell for across the broader market so you can price competitively and move inventory faster.

Action item: Pull a list of your oldest online inventory. If items have been listed for more than 60 days without selling, they're priced wrong. Adjust and relist.

Part 3: Turn Inventory Faster

Dead inventory is dead money. Every item sitting on your shelf is capital that could be out on the street generating pawn service charges, or reinvested in faster-moving merchandise. The stores making the most money aren't the ones with the most inventory — they're the ones turning inventory the fastest.

9. Track Inventory Age Religiously

If you don't know how old every item in your store is, you can't make smart discounting decisions. Your POS should show you exactly how long every item has been in inventory, broken down by category, so you can spot slow movers before they become dead weight.

Bravo stores that actively manage inventory aging report up to 3x improvement in inventory turnover — meaning their capital is working three times harder than before.

10. Automate Markdown Schedules

Waiting for a manager to manually discount aging inventory is how items end up sitting for six months. Set automated rules: 30 days, reduce by 10%. 60 days, reduce by 20%. 90 days, move to a clearance section or bundle with other items.

Bravo's auto-discounter lets you set these rules by age, category, or both. Once configured, it runs automatically — no manual intervention, no items falling through the cracks.

Action item: Set an inventory aging rule today. Start with one category. Measure the impact on turnover rate after 60 days.

11. Bulk Discount by Category

Some categories move slower than others. Instead of discounting item by item, apply bulk discounts to entire categories. Holiday electronics after January? Discount the category. Seasonal sporting goods? Same approach. Your POS should let you do this in a few clicks, not a full afternoon.

12. Use Your Estimator to Buy Smarter

Faster inventory turns start at the buy. If you're paying too much for items that don't sell quickly, no amount of discounting will save your margins. Use real transaction data to identify which categories and item types generate the highest margin and fastest turns — then tell your team to prioritize those items at the counter.

Part 4: Get Customers to Come Back (and Spend More)

Acquiring a new customer costs five to ten times more than retaining an existing one. The most profitable specialty retail stores aren't the ones spending the most on advertising — they're the ones that turn first-time customers into regulars.

13. Send Automated Text Messages

Email open rates for specialty retail hover around 15–20%. Text message open rates? Over 95%. Automated text messaging through Mobile Messenger is the single most effective retention tool available to pawn shops and specialty retailers.

Use it for loan payment reminders (drives redemption rates up — Bravo stores report 75% increases in redemptions), new inventory alerts, promotional offers, and layaway payment reminders.

Action item: If you're not sending automated text messages to your customer base, start this week. The ROI on this channel is immediate and measurable.

14. Let Customers Pay and Shop from Their Phone

Your customers live on their phones. If they can't check their loan balance, make a payment, browse your inventory, and communicate with your store from their phone, you're creating friction that costs you money.

MobilePawn puts all of this in your customer's pocket. Loan payments happen on time because they're easy. Customers browse new inventory and save items they want. They chat directly with your team about items they're interested in. All of this drives foot traffic, online sales, and on-time payments.

15. Boost Your Online Reviews — Automatically

Reviews drive foot traffic. A pawn shop with 4.5 stars and 200 reviews on Google will outperform a competitor with no reviews in every measurable way — more phone calls, more walk-ins, more online clicks.

Review Booster automatically sends review requests to customers after positive transactions. If a customer gives negative feedback, the system routes it to you directly so you can address it before it becomes a public review. The result is more reviews, higher ratings, and more new customers finding you online.

Action item: Check your Google Business Profile right now. Count your reviews. If you have fewer than 100, this is a top priority.

16. Use eReceipts to Stay Connected

Paper receipts go in the trash. Digital receipts go to your customer's email inbox, where they serve as a branded touchpoint that keeps your store name in front of the customer. Include links to your website, your mobile app, and your social profiles on every receipt.

Part 5: Gun Store–Specific Revenue Strategies

Gun stores have unique revenue opportunities that go well beyond the basic firearm sale. Here's where FFLs are finding untapped growth.

17. Add Consignment to Your FFL

If your gun store only buys and sells, you're missing the higher-margin opportunity of consignment. Consignment lets you add high-value firearms and accessories to your showroom without tying up cash. No downside risk if the item doesn't sell — the consignor takes it back. But when it does sell, your margin is often higher than a straight buy because you had zero capital at risk.

Bravo's platform handles consignment alongside retail and pawn transactions in the same system, so there's no additional software or workflow to manage.

18. Sell Firearms Online — Compliantly

Most gun store owners think selling firearms online is too complicated. The FFL transfer requirements, shipping logistics, and compliance documentation feel like barriers. With the right software, they're not.

Bravo's firearm eCommerce lists your firearms on UsedGuns.com, Guns.com, and your own branded website automatically from your POS. When a firearm sells online, the transfer workflow — FFL verification, shipping, disposition recording — is managed within the same system. The lowest final value fees in the industry (4% on UsedGuns.com) mean you keep more on every sale.

19. Monetize Your Range with Technology

If you operate a shooting range, your range management software should be driving revenue, not just managing lanes. Membership programs with recurring billing, class scheduling with automated waitlists, rental packages that upsell accessories and ammo — all of these are revenue streams that most ranges leave on the table because they're running range operations on a separate system that doesn't connect to their POS.

Bravo's range management is built into the same platform as your retail POS. Range customers are retail customers. Their purchase history, preferences, and communication preferences are all in one place — which means you can market to range members with the same tools you use to market to retail customers.

20. Eliminate Compliance Risk That Costs You Money

Every ATF violation is a potential business-ending event. In FY 2024, the ATF revoked 195 FFLs — a 122% increase from FY 2022. The most common violations? Incomplete 4473 forms, bound book errors, and missing inventory.

Bravo's FFL compliance suite prevents these errors by validating every field in real time, automatically logging acquisitions and dispositions to the bound book, and flagging discrepancies before they become violations. Hundreds of ATF audits across Bravo's customer base. Zero infractions.

Store your completed 4473s with E4473 Cloud Storage — encrypted, instantly retrievable, and compliant with ATF Ruling 2022-01. Every dollar you're not spending on paper storage, and every hour you're not spending searching through boxes during an inspection, is money back in your pocket.

Part 6: Consignment-Specific Revenue Strategies

Consignment stores have a built-in advantage over traditional retailers: they can grow inventory without growing capital expenditure. Here's how to maximize that advantage.

21. Make Consigning Easy for Your Best Consignors

Your top consignors are your most valuable partners. If consigning with your store is frustrating — unclear terms, delayed payouts, no visibility into item status — they'll take their items somewhere else.

Bravo's consignment module gives consignors visibility into their items and payouts through the mobile app. They can see what's listed, what's sold, and what they're owed — without calling your store. That transparency builds trust, which builds the long-term relationships that feed your inventory pipeline.

22. Sell Consigned Items Across Every Channel

Consignment items should be listed online with the same speed and ease as store-owned inventory. Every day a consigned item sits on the shelf is a day your consignor wonders if they made the right choice.

Bravo lists consigned items online alongside your regular inventory. More exposure means faster sales, which means happier consignors, which means more high-quality items flowing into your store.

23. Use Payout Terms as a Competitive Advantage

Your payout terms are a marketing tool. Faster payouts attract higher-quality consignors. Flexible terms (higher payout percentage for longer consignment periods, lower percentage for quick turns) give you leverage to negotiate terms that work for both parties.

Your POS should make it easy to configure and manage different payout terms by consignor, by category, or by individual item — not force you into a one-size-fits-all template.

Part 7: Scale Your Operation

These strategies apply whether you're running one location or twenty. But they become exponentially more valuable as you grow.

24. Centralize Everything in One Dashboard

If you're managing multiple locations and logging into different systems to see what's happening at each store, you're wasting hours every week that should be spent on strategy.

Bravo's enterprise management platform gives you real-time visibility into every store, every channel, and every employee from one central dashboard. Push pricing changes, configuration updates, and policy changes across all locations simultaneously. Compare store performance side-by-side. Identify your best performers and replicate what they're doing across the rest of your operation.

25. Build the Reports You Actually Need

Pre-built reports are a starting point, but every business is different. Your reporting tools should let you build custom reports that answer the specific questions driving your business decisions — not force you to export data to Excel and spend an hour manipulating it.

Ad hoc reporting, exception reporting, and automated report scheduling mean you get the information you need, when you need it, without the manual work.

26. Standardize Pricing Across Locations

If your stores in different cities are pricing the same items differently, your margins are inconsistent and your brand experience is inconsistent. Centralized pricing tools driven by your Product Estimator ensure that a gold ring gets the same fair value assessment whether it walks into your downtown store or your suburban location.

27. Make Switching Your POS the Growth Decision, Not the Scary One

If you've been running the same POS software for years and you recognize your business in any of the problems described above — inconsistent pricing, no eCommerce, manual compliance, poor inventory turnover, no customer retention tools — the software you're running is costing you more than the cost of switching.

Bravo has onboarded thousands of stores from every major platform in the industry. Dedicated Onboarding Managershandle data migration, hardware setup, employee training, and go-live support. Coming from PawnMaster? Bravo has a dedicated transition program built for exactly that switch.

The stores seeing 26% loan growth, 41% sales increases, 3x inventory turnover, and 75% redemption rate improvements didn't get there by staying on their old system.

The Compound Effect

No single strategy on this list will transform your business overnight. But stack three or four together — say, standardized pricing (#1) plus automated eCommerce (#5) plus text message marketing (#13) plus automated inventory aging (#10) — and the compound effect is dramatic.

That's the advantage of running everything in one integrated system. When your POS, eCommerce, marketing, compliance, and mobile tools all share the same data and the same workflows, improvements in one area amplify improvements in every other area. Better pricing leads to more online sales. More online sales drive more customer data. More customer data drives better marketing. Better marketing drives more foot traffic. More foot traffic drives more transactions. And the cycle continues.

That's what Bravo Store Systems was built to do. Not just process transactions — but connect every part of your business into a system that gets smarter and more profitable over time.

See it in action — Request a Demo →

FAQ: Growing Revenue in Pawn Shops, Gun Stores, and Consignment Businesses

How profitable is owning a pawn shop?

Pawn shop profitability depends on your location, loan volume, inventory turnover, and how effectively you're using technology to maximize margins. The most profitable pawn shops in 2026 use AI-powered pricing to increase loan values, integrated eCommerce to sell inventory nationally, and automated marketing tools to drive repeat visits. Bravo customers report 26% loan growth and 41% total sales growth after switching to the platform.

How do I increase pawn shop revenue?

The highest-impact strategies for increasing pawn shop revenue are: standardizing pricing with data-driven tools, listing all inventory online across multiple channels, automating text message marketing to existing customers, improving inventory turnover with automated markdowns, and optimizing your loan-to-value ratios. All of these are built into the Bravo Store Systems platform.

How do I sell pawn shop inventory online?

The fastest way to sell pawn shop inventory online is to use a POS system with integrated eCommerce that automatically lists items to multiple marketplaces from a single entry. Bravo pushes inventory to Buya.com, eBay, UsedGuns.com, Guns.com, and your own company-branded website with no extra steps for your team.

How can gun stores increase sales?

Gun stores can increase sales by adding online selling channels for firearms and accessories, offering consignment programs to expand inventory without capital outlay, monetizing range operations with membership and class management, and using text marketing to drive repeat purchases from existing customers.

How do I improve inventory turnover in my pawn shop?

Inventory turnover improves when you track item age in your POS, set automated markdown schedules, list items online across multiple channels immediately after pricing, and use data to buy smarter at the counter. Bravo stores that implement these strategies report up to 3x improvement in inventory turnover.

What is the best marketing strategy for a pawn shop?

Automated text messaging is the highest-ROI marketing channel for pawn shops, with open rates exceeding 95%. Mobile Messenger lets you send payment reminders, promotional offers, and new inventory alerts automatically. Combined with Review Booster for building Google reviews and a company-branded website for search visibility, these tools form a complete marketing system built directly into your POS.

How do gun stores stay ATF compliant?

ATF compliance requires accurate Form 4473 completion, a properly maintained A&D bound book, timely 3310 forms for multiple sales, and complete inventory records. The most reliable approach is using a POS system with built-in compliance tools that validate every field in real time and automatically log transactions to your bound book. Bravo's FFL compliance suite has been through hundreds of ATF audits with zero infractions.

How do I start selling consignment in my store?

Adding consignment to your pawn shop or retail store requires a POS system that tracks consigned items separately from store-owned inventory, manages individual consignor terms and payouts, and lets consignors check their item status. Bravo's consignment module handles all of this within the same system you use for retail, pawn, and firearms transactions.

Is it worth switching POS software?

If your current POS doesn't offer integrated eCommerce, AI-powered pricing, automated marketing, mobile customer apps, and built-in compliance tools, you are leaving measurable revenue on the table every month. Bravo's onboarding team handles the entire transition — data migration, training, and go-live support — so the switch is measured in days, not months. The revenue impact is typically visible within the first quarter.

‍