Strategy
How to prepare your e-commerce business for sale
What a buyer will ask to see when you sell an online business, and how to get your numbers, operations and paperwork ready before the first conversation.
Most founders sell a business once. Buyers look at businesses all the time. That gap is easier to close than it sounds, because buyers tend to ask for the same things. If you have them ready, the conversation is shorter and you spend it talking about the future of the business.
Clean, consistent numbers
A buyer will want monthly revenue, gross margin and operating costs going back at least two or three years, and they will want the figures to agree with your bank statements and tax filings. Separate personal spending from business spending. If one month looks unusual, write down why before anyone asks.
Where your customers come from
Be ready to show how much revenue comes from each channel: your own site, marketplaces, paid advertising, email and organic search. A buyer will also look at how many customers come back. Repeat orders are one of the hardest things to create and one of the most valuable things to show.
What depends on you
List the things only you know how to do. Supplier relationships held in one inbox, pricing decisions made from memory and a login that only the founder has are all risks to a buyer. Written processes and shared access reduce them, and they make the business easier to run in the meantime.
Paperwork a buyer will check
Supplier agreements and the terms you buy on.
Ownership of the brand: trademarks, domain names and social accounts.
Rights to your product photos and descriptions.
Tax registrations in each country you sell into.
Customer data, and how it is collected and stored.
Be honest about the weak points
Every business has them. A slow site, thin product data, one large supplier or reliance on a single country will all come out during due diligence. Raising them yourself builds trust, and a good buyer may see them as the opportunity.
Know what you want
Decide before the first conversation whether you want to leave, stay for a handover or keep a role. Think about what should happen to your team and your brand. The price is one part of an offer. The rest is what happens to the thing you built.
Talking to us
Anima Group acquires e-commerce businesses where we see unrealised potential, such as returning customers, a product people value or a brand with a real reputation. Our acquisitions page explains what we look for and what happens afterwards. A first conversation commits you to nothing and stays confidential. You can start one from our contact page.