TechsSocial | The Internet has changed our life in several ways. It has become a bridge to connect us with the whole world remotely. It enables you to shop online, make friends, and many more. The trend of online shopping accelerated upward during Covid-19.
Online shopping is a convenient way to purchase something. You don’t have to go to different shops, compare prices, and struggle to find the best match for yourself. Hence, it has become a profitable business.
So, if you have a product to sell online, you can buy your new online store for it. In this article, we will discuss important factors to consider before purchasing an online store.
Table of Contents
Where To Find an Online Store for Sale?
You can find different e-commerce websites on sale in the market. Boobies specific you can buy an online business in four ways:
- Marketplace: different online marketplaces display different online e-commerce websites on sale. They usually organize them by market niches and related statistics. For instance, revenue, profit, traffic, audience, etc.
- Auction site: you can get a profitable business at a good price on an auction site. It is similar to an online marketplace but here you will have to bid to win the auction.
Here the cellar would decide the price they want to sell their website. And then the different potential buyers will make a bid to purchase it. You can find a different profitable e-commerce business here.
- Broker: website brokers are the middleman between the buyer and seller of e-commerce business. You can use the experience of buying a good website and complete the transaction without much effort.
- Directly from the Buyer: Lastly, you can purchase an e-commerce business directly from the owner. You can do a little research on the website and then contact the website owner by using the Who is online tool.
Factors To Consider Before Opening an Online Store
An online business is a profitable business only if you own the right one. You can find different E-Commerce businesses in the market but not everyone is equal. Some may appear like a lucrative options but can be a scam.
Don’t worry, we have prepared a list of factors you can consider as a checklist to purchase a profitable online business.
Past Performance of Business
Before you purchase any online business check out how profitable that business was in the past two to three years. You can check its growth in recent years, customer base, and financial documents. A good business would show an upward trend in its annual revenue.
Traffic Insights
Online business is all about traffic. So, before you come up with any decision check out the past traffic growth of the website along with the existing one. You can check the store’s analytics to get a clear picture of it.
Divide the whole story into two different periods such as a year, a quarter, a month, a week, and even a day. This way you can have a detailed overview of the traffic. If the traffic of the website is going up in the period it is a profitable business and you should invest in it.
Traffic Trend
You also have to consider one more thing that is the traffic trend. While the upward trend in traffic is a good one, you have to ensure that the right kind of traffic is coming to the website. You can refer to Google Analytics for these details.
Check out the answers to the following questions:
- What kind of traffic comes to the website?
- How long do they stay on the website?
- What is the convertible rate?
- What is the source of the traffic to the website?
- Does the store have direct type-in traffic?
- How many customers come back?
SEO Ranking
SEO ranking is an important factor to check the credibility of a website. If a website does not have a high SEO ranking it may be due to poor visibility, outdated coding, or functionality. And the low-quality website does not attract much traffic.
You should also check for any steady backlinks for Black hat SEO practices. You can use online tools such as ahrefs’ free backlink checker to evaluate the backlinks of a website.
Verify Business Model
Online businesses have various ways of revenue generation. So, before you purchase an online store make a show to find out how it sells. It can sell via dropshipping, wholesaling, or manufacturing.
An ideal business should not stick to one way to generate income but should have multiple streams of income.
Supplier And Dealers
An online business is all about suppliers and dealers. Hence it becomes very important for you to check the relationship of the previous owner with the existing suppliers. You can check into the agreements they have entered.
Financial Audits
Now you cannot go anywhere without reviewing the financial background of a business. You will have to consider the revenue trends of it over a while.
So, begin by drawing a contrast between the traffic and revenue trend. You have to look at the correlation between them. For example, strong traffic should go hand in hand with great sales. It would give you an idea about the primary selling season of the business.
You also have to look into the diversity of the customers. For example, if the sales are restricted to a handful of customers, your business is at risk.
You also have to make a list of products that contribute to the revenue. Similar to the customer, it should not be restricted to a handful of products.
Business Reputation
Last thing on earth I want to purchase a business with a bad reputation. So, before you purchase an online store make sure to dig into its background. You can look into the reviews about the website online.
Final Words
Now that you are ready to buy a profitable online business, don’t forget to try our tips. Also, to share which of the above factors, you found helpful.
Hemant is Digital Marketer and he has 6 + years of experience in SEO, Content marketing, Infographic etc.