Starting an ecommerce business is a complex and lengthy process. You have to prepare a lot of things to ensure that your ecommerce business can survive and thrive.
However, several things seem to change the process. Now, you can start your e-commerce business faster by buying ecommerce business for sale.
You can find websites or marketplaces that sell various kinds of e-commerce businesses that are ready to be purchased. There are various types of ecommerce business for sale that you can find on the internet. There are ecommerce businesses that are just starting up to businesses that are quite stable with high income.
However, although it sounds like it makes the process of starting a business easier, buying an ecommerce business for sale involves another process, namely choosing the right ecommerce business to buy.
Let's see what things you should know about buying an ecommerce business for sale, so you don't buy the wrong business.
How Much to Buy an eCommerce Business Website?
One thing that might cross your mind before you start looking for an ecommerce business for sale is: “how much money should you spend?”
The answer: it depends.
Like businesses in general, the price of a website or e-commerce business depends on the performance of the website or business in question.
You can buy an ecommerce business for $100 to $450. In this price range, generally the website or e-commerce business in question has relatively very low profits and traffic.
You can also find an ecommerce business for sale at prices from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, with a high price, you will get a business or website that already has a profit and a good sales mechanism.
Bottom line: there is no definitive answer about the price to buy an ecommerce business website. The price depends on the performance of the website or business you want to buy.
How to Buy an eCommerce Business?
Since nothing is certain when buying an ecommerce business, you have to understand and know a lot of things to make sure you are buying the right business.
Now let us take a look on what you need to understand and know to buy the right business e-commerce business:
1. Know What You Need
Similar to buying just anything, you have to know what kind of e-commerce business you want and how much you can afford to buy your dream e-commerce business.
In detail, the following are things you must answer before buying an e-commerce business:
• How Much Profit Do You Want?
Each e-commerce business certainly has a different profit. It also determines the price difference.
Therefore, you must have criteria for how much profit an e-commerce business has that you will buy. Through this one criterion alone, you can eliminate a lot of ecommerce business for sale from your shopping list.
• How Much Money are You Ready to Spend?
After you have several targets, then you can reduce your shopping list smaller by determining how much money you are ready to spend.
The amount of money you are ready to spend will generally correlate with the quality of an ecommerce business that you will buy later, for example a large amount of profit, a widely known brand, a good marketing system, and so on. So, if you have a lot of money to spend, don't hesitate to spend big.
• How Much Time are You Ready to Spend?
While buying an ecommerce business is a quick way to start a business, you should still spend some time learning and preparing your new business.
For example, you have to learn the process for stocking goods or how to deliver customer service on the website you buy.
If the e-commerce business that you buy also comes with a social media account, you also have to decide whether you will manage the account alone or you will hire a freelancer to take care of the social media account.
2. Find an Ecommerce Business For Sale
In this internet era, you have many options when it comes to finding an e-commerce business to sell. Here are the methods that you can use to find your dream ecommerce business:
• Using Marketplace to Buy Ecommerce Business
In today's digital era, buying and selling ecommerce businesses has become easier. One proof is with the birth of a marketplace where you can find many websites that you can buy anytime and anywhere.
These marketplaces are also getting more sophisticated, with some such as Shopify Exchange offering valuations for websites that are sold on their premises.
That way, you will not be so overwhelmed to find an ecommerce business for sale that is right for your needs and abilities.
• Using Auction Websites to Buy Ecommerce Business
An auction website is a marketplace in general. You can find many websites and many categories to filter the criteria you want from an ecommerce business.
The difference is, to buy an ecommerce business from an auction website, you have to compete with other people for prices. A website is also sold for a limited period of time, and whoever offers the highest price to the end will get the business website.
Buying an ecommerce business through an auction website is also an art and a skill. In particular, you must be able to know when someone from the website owner deliberately bids high to increase the price of the ecommerce business for sale website they sell.
• Using a Broker to Buy Online Business
A broker is someone who facilitates the buying and selling process between two parties. Brokers are usually used by website sellers who don't want to spend their time dealing with website buyers.
From the seller's point of view, using a broker can be profitable. In addition to not having to make time, the seller will also feel safe to entrust the process of selling his website because of course the broker has an interest in the process of selling the website, such as commissions and building trust for subsequent sales.
From the buyer's side, buying from a broker certainly has some disadvantages. For example, the price of the website you want to buy will be higher because the broker certainly needs a commission from the sales.
• Buying Online Business Directly from the Owner
This method is quite straightforward. Every website has a contact or inquiry form to send questions to the website owner.
You can contact the website owner directly to make transactions. It is relatively safer and cheaper than other methods. Because, you will get more complete information and the seller doesn't have to increase the price to pay broker commissions.
3. Make Transactions and Transfer Ownership
After you find the right e-commerce business, either through a marketplace, broker, or contacting the owner directly, the next step is to make transactions and transfer ownership.
Regarding transactions, generally marketplaces or brokers have their own payment mechanisms, for example by using a system provided by the marketplace or the company where the broker works.
If you are dealing with the original owner, you should make sure to use a secure payment method. You must ensure that the money will only be received by the owner if you and the owner both agree to complete the transaction.
For example, you can use Escrow, a service that handles the process of buying and selling e-commerce businesses.
In addition to completing the transaction, you also have to make sure the transfer of ownership process occurs smoothly. For example, you have changed the password for a website that you have purchased and made sure all the features described by the owner can work properly.
Create Your Own Ecommerce Website
Image taken from Strikingly website
While buying an ecommerce business is an effective way if you want to start a business quickly, creating your own ecommerce website is always an option.
Why is that?
Because by building your own website, you can be sure that you will get what you paid for. You can design the website according to what you want and add the features you want.
But, you think, isn't creating a website difficult and time-consuming?
Fortunately, now you and anyone can create a website easily and quickly. The presence of a website builder, such as Strikingly, can help anyone to create the website of their dreams.
Strikingly is the right website if you want to build an e-commerce website or online store that has an extraordinary appearance and complete features quickly and at an affordable price.
With Strikingly, you can create a website using ready-made templates that have amazing designs. You can also easily edit the template you have chosen.
Image taken from Strikingly website
Apart from design, you will also get the features you need to create a successful online store.
First, you will get an order management system (OMS) feature that is integrated with your website on Strikingly. With this feature, you can manage your inventory and make deliveries and returns directly from your website.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Then, you will get various payment features. Your online shop at Strikingly can accept various types of payments, for example via Paypal, Alipay, and others.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Not only that, your online store can also accept various types of currencies. Your online shop on Strikingly can accept over 100 currencies. This feature will greatly benefit you if you want to target multiple markets in different parts of the world.
Lastly, will all of this cost a fortune? With the features above, will creating a website on Strikingly be more expensive than buying an ecommerce website?
Of course not!
Image taken from Strikingly website
With Strikingly, you can get these features for as little as $96 per year. Of course, you can pay more to get other features such as sending newsletters of up to 2,000 per month.
Those are the things you must know and understand to buy ecommerce business for sale.
Buying an ecommerce business is an effective step if you want to start a business right away without having to build from scratch. You can find various types of online stores with varying prices, depending on the performance of each store, on the internet that are ready to be purchased.
However, buying an ecommerce business for sale yourself can be a very inconvenient thing, especially if you are just entering the business world for the first time.
You have to make sure that your place of business is with trusted people. You also have to learn how to rate a website, which is something that can't be learned easily.
Therefore, making a website is always an option other than buying e-commerce business for sale.
By creating your own website, you can make sure you get the design, features, and other details you want. What's more, you can create a website easily and cheaper than buying an ecommerce business for sale.
So, are you ready to start your ecommerce business? Create a website today using Strikingly!
