I’ve heard from some manufactures that many dive shops are the "weakest link in the chain". All a manufacture wants is sell their products. And many manufactures feel they need the support of the dive shops to sell their gear. Dive shops are very competitive with one another and will refuse to sell a certain product if their neighboring dive shop already does. It’s going to be an interesting turn of events when manufactures start to sell their own gear online OR if more of them start to provide bulk discounts to companies that buy large quantities (ie: online gear companies).
Dive shops should align themselves with the major online gear companies and earn the commission from the referrals for the customers in their area that don’t buy from them due to price. If the dive shop is nice about it...I bet the customer would use the dive center as the referral so they get a cut (usually the commission sharing is between 5 and 10%). That way the customer remains happy and the dive center lives to sell another day with that client rather than lossing them forever with a bad attitude about online sales.
Dive shops can still sell air, sell training, sell repair service, sell group trips, sell coffee and sell some gear and accessories. Stop giving so much weight to gear sales and change your business plans to earn a living in other ways. The internet is here to stay, either jump on board or get run over.