Sell your e-commerce business.
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Selling an e-commerce business comes down to cash flow a buyer can underwrite, the people who already do the work, and a file they can diligence. For the overview of selling a business, use the seller page. Start with a valuation and the notes on how the sale is financed.
What buyers typically underwrite
Customer Acquisition
CAC can be high and competitive.
Inventory Management
Inventory turnover and obsolescence risk.
Platform Dependency
Reliance on payment and shipping providers.
Competition
E-commerce competition is intense.
Traffic you paid for vs traffic you own
An owned-site store—Shopify, a custom cart, a wholesale portal—sells on contribution after ads, on repeat purchase you can show, and on whether the brand still works if paid social gets more expensive. Buyers underwrite channel mix: email and direct versus marketplaces you do not control, and versus Amazon if that is a second storefront. A pretty theme with one Facebook campaign doing the year is a media bet, not a retail company.
SKU count is not value. Dead inventory and a hero product that is 80 percent of sales are the usual split. We want the contribution by channel and by SKU, not a blended “online sales” line.
Inventory, 3PL, and brand rights
Who holds the goods, on what terms, and whether the 3PL or pick-pack room assigns. Private-label tooling, recipes, and trademarks have to be in the selling entity. A brand that is still the founder’s personal LLC and a factory relationship that is a WeChat thread will be restated. Wholesale and DTC are different customers; do not hide one inside the other.
Returns, chargebacks, and subscription-box or membership add-ons need their own history. Outstanding gift cards and store credit are liabilities.
Platform, suppliers, and the week after closing
Admin seats, domain, pixel, and payment processor underwriting all move. A supplier who never signed anything can rebid the day they hear a new name. Prepare a 12-month P&L by channel, an inventory file with age, and a one-page note on who can place a reorder. That is enough to have a serious conversation about whether the store is a brand or a campaign. Chargeback history, theme and app licenses, and any exclusive that expires on a calendar year should sit in the same folder. A buyer will not discover a dying exclusivity after they have already modeled next spring.
How ecommerce-store purchases get financed
Owned-site stores finance on contribution after ads and inventory a successor can reorder. SBA can look at a brand with a real P&L by channel, not a theme and one paid-social campaign. Shopify (or a custom cart) is platform risk: admin seats, apps, and the payment processor all have to move. Marketplace dollars belong on their own line. Gift cards and store credit are liabilities.
A supplier who never signed anything can rebid the day they hear a new name. Seller notes are common when inventory aging is real or paid traffic is most of the year. Thin stores that only work at last month’s ad cost are a harder credit. We split Amazon, wholesale, and DTC before anyone models a loan.
Who typically buys an ecommerce store
Brand operators adding a catalog, wholesale buyers who also want DTC, and operators who already live in a cart and a 3PL. A media buyer who only wants the pixel is a different conversation. We keep a brand sale off a campaign story.
Frequently asked questions
Ready to talk through a listing?
Request a confidential consult or call (352) 515-0226. We will tell you whether a sale is realistic before you go to market.