Eshop for sale – what to watch out for when buying or selling?

Are you looking at a certain e-shop for sale and thinking about buying it? Or, on the contrary, are you considering selling the e-shop? Read our tips.

Shopping e-shops on the Internet is sometimes an advantageous but also a relatively risky strategy that can cost you dearly.

In the following lines, we will look at whether it is worth buying an e-shop at all, what are the pros and cons of shopping in an e-shop, as well as what to look out for when buying such a shop.

Is it worth buying an e-shop?

Buying an already established e-shop can bring you interesting benefits such as time saved, a stable profit flow (in the optimal case) as well as contacts and customers that you would have to acquire just by establishing a new e -shop.

1. Time saved

If you have at least some experience with managing and creating e-shops, you will definitely appreciate the fact that you won’t have to start “from scratch”, so to speak.

Established e-shops usually have all aspects set up and optimized a long time ago – from created pages, through marketing and SEO , set sales methods, etc.

In addition, when buying an online store, you can also get some tips and advice from the previous owner, who can explain to you how his online store works in practice, what to watch out for, what the relations with customers are like, or even where it would be worthwhile to go with the online store. move.

2. Contacts to suppliers

One of the main benefits of buying an existing e-shop is that it also gives you contacts to suppliers and thus also to the goods themselves.

If the previous owner had good relations with the suppliers, you will save yourself “a lot of nerves” and energy, which you would otherwise have to invest in searching for companies that will help you with the delivery of goods.

3. Existing customers

Perhaps the biggest plus when buying an e-shop is in the form of stable customers – if the given e-shop is at least somewhat successful, you will have some profit in the form of regular orders right from the start.

Acquiring new customers is a stumbling block for any starting project.

Thanks to this, an e-shop that is for sale can seem like a very interesting way to start a new business.

Of course, shopping in an e-shop brings with it certain risks. Every purchase from an online store that you don’t know well can cost you a lot of energy and time in the best case (until you find out that it’s simply not worth it), in the worst case you’ll lose your initial investment if you make a bad purchase.

In this regard, it is definitely worth comparing e-shops for sale with “box” e-shops for rent.

Eshop for sale vs. eshop for rent

E-shops that are for sale can be a very advantageous purchase, but also a very financial risk – you should definitely pay attention to these things:

• Low (or non-existent) profit – in e-shops that the owners are trying to sell, you may come across people who are brandishing exaggerated profit figures that simply aren’t true.
• Negative reviews – if you gave the given e-shop a bad name, or a bad brand, it would be very difficult for you to “kick” it again so that people trust it again.
• High costs – although it would seem that everything is fine with the e-shop – it has good profits, a name and everything runs as it should – you can hit hard on the fact that its maintenance costs a lot of money. In such cases, it would certainly be more worthwhile for you to create your own e-shop and have everything under control, than, on the contrary, to try to reduce the costs of an overpriced e-shop.
• Bad technical support – in some cases you may encounter that the e-shop was created “on the knee”. At first, it may not seem like a problem (if the e-shop works well), but eventually you will start to encounter technical problems that you or an experienced programmer do not have to deal with.

If you do not feel any of the potential problems mentioned above, an alternative – renting an e-shop – can be an advantage for you.

Webnode

Webnode is another popular provider of e-shops for rent that originates from the Czech Republic.

Thanks to its unique features and interface, it has been operating in the market for more than 11 years. Registering and creating an e-shop in Webnode is very simple – you fill in some personal data, pay a monthly fee and you can start creating your own online store.

💡 Tip: If you are interested in Webnode’s e-commerce solution, you can read my article: Review: Is it worth using Webnode to create a website?

Fast-webstore

Fast-webstore is a well-known tool for creating e-shops that has been operating in several EU countries since 2007.

This provider can offer you a very clear interface for creating and managing your store, as well as the possibility of adding various functions, responsive šablón or setting orders.

Thanks to its favorable price list, it can attract even people who would not want to invest too much in an online store from the beginning.

💡 Tip: If you would like to learn more about the features and price of this platform, you can read my article: Create a professional e-shop through Fast-webstore (Review) .

Eshop-quick

Eshop-rychlo focuses primarily on beginners who do not (yet) have much experience in creating online stores.

In addition to a simple interface, this provider also offers excellent customer support, regular updates, an (almost) unlimited number of products that you can add to your website – in short, everything you need to start an e-shop.

💡 Tip: You can read about how quickly you can set up an e-shop on this platform and what functions it can provide in the reviews: Quick start-up of a business with Eshop-rychlo .

Shoptet

Shoptet is considered by some online marketers as a market leader – thanks to its simple interface, wide range of šablón and “understandable” interface, it is especially worthwhile for beginners or people who do not yet have much experience in creating an e-shop.

This internet platform offers an e-shop for rent in 4 paid packages – Basic, Business, Profi and Enterprise – with an increasing monthly fee for each package, thus covering small and large online stores that would like to operate on this platform.

💡 Tip: If you would like to learn more about the Shoptet platform, be sure to read my review: Shoptet – is it really the market leader? You will also find a useful ebook here.

MioWeb

MioWeb is another well-known online tool for creating websites, which was created in the Czech Republic.

When setting up an e-shop on this platform, you start with the selection of šablóny and basic settings – the process of creating a functional website literally takes only a few minutes (of course, you will need much more time to edit it).

In addition to the 14-day trial version, MioWeb also offers interesting price packages (Start and Business) which contain everything you need to create and manage websites.

💡 Tip: You can read instructions on how to use MioWeb along with all its functions in the article: MioWeb: review and my experience with this tool

If you still can’t decide which e-shop provider with a free (or paid) version would be the right one for you, be sure to look and read my list of e-shops for rent .

What should you pay attention to when buying an e-shop?

1. Look at the reviews

First of all, look at how your chosen e-shop is perceived by customers and people on the Internet in general.

If you see negative reviews and comments on platforms like heureka.sk right from the start, you will have the first negative signal that something is wrong with the store.

Also, make the effort to look at the social media of the given store, comments and contributions of users, or ask people about their experiences with the given e-shop.

2. Check your earnings

You should definitely not forget whether the given e-shop earns real money.

If you are interested in buying, you can ask the owner of the e-shop about the sales for the last years, as well as the profits after paying all the costs of running the website.

You should also look at the data from the commercial register and finstat.sk, where you can find out how the company behind the given e-shop is doing.

3. Tests the e-shop

This is a very simple step – simply order something from the e-shop and pay attention to all the steps during shopping.

Whether it’s browsing products, filling in data, the actual purchase, delivery of goods, or even help from support in the event of a problem – all of this will help you get a better picture of how the given online store (and its customers) is doing.

4. View analytical data

If it is a serious seller, providing data about the site should not be a problem for him.

Without data on website traffic, the number of orders or even the number of complaints throughout the entire period of operation of the e-shop, you simply will not be able to deduce whether the store is doing well or, on the contrary, whether it is going down the drain.

In this case, historical data from Google Analytics , Google Search Console or other platforms will be your friend , which will immediately tell you whether the e-shop has any potential or not.

5. Check suppliers and goods

As long as everything seems to be fine with the e-shop and looks promising, you can proceed to the next step – contacting suppliers and checking the goods.

Even if the owner of the e-shop has stable suppliers, you will eventually have to contact them anyway and agree on the regular delivery of goods in the future.

Within this point, it is extremely important to find out what experience the suppliers have with the given e-shop and what they can offer you if you take over the store.

You should also not forget to check the goods and their quantity – it may happen to you that the store owner is trying to sell the e-shop only because he has too many things in stock that he is simply unable to sell.

6. Talk to the owner (in person)

In the end, you will definitely have to talk to the owner one way or another – it is important that the given communication does not take place remotely but in person in the same room.

A conversation with the web operator will tell you a lot about the person in question as well as the reasons why the e-shop sells.

In addition, you can also ask him for various practical advice or tips that you would simply not find out from a distance.

Was this article helpful for you? Support me by sharing, please. 👍