Shopify Exchange: How to buy and sell an online Store?

technologhy
Oct 19, 2022
8m
Anna Pham
shopify-exchange

Starting an internet business might be a simple way to test the waters of entrepreneurship. However, purchasing an established internet business is an even easier method to begin your online empire.

You may buy and sell Shopify stores through a secure site with verified metrics and guaranteed payment with Shopify Exchange. Let's look at what it takes to purchase and sell Shopify stores.

What is Shopify Exchange?

Shopify Exchange is a marketplace for buying and selling online stores built on the Shopify platform. On Shopify Exchange, there are presently over 10,000 stores for sale.

These stores might range from a brand-new “starting kit” to a full-fledged business with a dedicated customer base. Some stores are simple and provide fewer things. Still, others are more elaborate, with whole collections, supporting content, and more. Similarly, prices vary considerably—Shopify stores sell on Exchange for as little as $50 and as much as $1 million.

The following stores are listed on Exchange:

  • Business Story: The seller provides a brief overview of the store, its history, a rationale for selling, and an explanation of what it takes to manage the store.
  • Performance: Recurring costs for items like the Shopify plan, domain name, and so on.
  • Expenses: Recurring costs for items like the Shopify plan, domain name, and so on.
  • Sale Includes Physical inventory, logo and branding assets, post-sale support, domain, product images, social media, suppliers, email subscribers, and other items all listed.
  • Seller’s Advice: Random comments and advice from the seller—things to think about before you buy

To accompany the store listing, Shopify also pulls in data, including the number of sessions, revenue, and sales. This comes directly from the Shopify UI and is not editable by the merchant. This benefits the buyer because you know it's correct.

Why buy or sell a Shopify store?

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Why buy online stores

Purchasing an online business for sale fundamentally means reducing the time, monetary, and expertise investment required to develop a business from the ground up while still reaping the benefits of owning an online business.

Entrepreneurs who buy a business can bypass the early phases of developing a startup. Long hours, system setup, traffic, restricted cash flow, inventory sourcing, customer creation, and so on are no longer issues, and you can focus on the more profitable components of running a business.

Why sell online stores

On the other hand, if you already have a running company site but don't have the time or resources to maintain it, selling it is a straightforward method to recoup some of your costs.

Another scenario is when you have a profitable business, but the cost of taking it to the next level is simply out of your price range. Selling it and hunting for a new potential owner is a viable option. The new owner might give your company a new vision; you can celebrate your hard work as an accomplishment and move on to your next endeavor.

The decision to sell or acquire a Shopify store is totally a cost-benefit analysis, so jot down all of the details, and you'll be able to figure it out. For the time being, let's move on to the next section, where we'll look at the most well-known Shopify retailer marketplace—Exchange.

How can I purchase a Shopify Exchange online store?

Once you've decided to buy a store from Shopify Exchange, all you need to do is sign up for an account—you can log in with your existing Google or Facebook account.

Then go to the list. In case you are looking to buy a store for under $5,000, just contact the seller immediately. However, if the listing exceeds $5,000, you will be required to validate your account before contacting the seller.

But first, let's look at what you should think about before investing in an online store.

  • What is your financial situation? Be honest about your existing circumstances and determine whether purchasing a Shopify store from Exchange is appropriate for your current budget. After you've finalized the acquisition, consider whether you'll have enough money for crucial tasks like marketing or product sourcing.
  • Is the store priced appropriately? Whether you're new to Exchange, this can be difficult to evaluate, so search through similar postings and see if the price matches up. One thing to keep in mind is that the price published on Exchange is only the first asking price; you can always message them and try to come to an agreement that works for both parties.
  • What's the point of selling? Consider their reason: Has their market gotten over-saturated? Did they grow tired of running their company? Many merchants on Exchange will post reasons for selling their stores, so use this information, along with other research, to help you make your decision.
  • Why Would You Want to Purchase a Shopify Store? This is perhaps the most significant consideration: Are you interested in starting your own business? Do you want to be successful by replicating what others have done? Remember that when you acquire a business on Exchange, you are obtaining not only the website, but also the branding assets, mailing lists, website content, social network profiles, and actual goods.

Purchase Procedures

As previously said, the listing is worth more than $5,000. Before you can contact the vendor, you must first authenticate your account. All you have to do is fill out some information about yourself and the kind of businesses you want to buy. This is to assist Exchange in displaying online stores for sale that you are likely to be interested in.

If you want to buy a Shopify business that is listed for more than $20,000 on Exchange, you must link your LinkedIn profile to your account.

Remember that the prices posted on Exchange are just a starting point, therefore there is always room for negotiation with the seller. After you've agreed on a price with the seller, you'll need to settle for the store via exchange.

Shopify Exchange has a collaboration with Escrow, a secure payment platform that has already processed over $3.5 billion in payments. You'll use this platform anytime you buy a Shopify store.

The procedure normally takes 3-5 days, and if you run into any issues when purchasing a Shopify store, you can always contact Exchange's help.

To make the transfer easier on both you and the seller, create a checklist of everything that needs to be transferred and include it in the transaction.

Before completing the transfer of ownership on Escrow, you should also check the following items:

  • Examine the timeliness and quality of the suppliers to your new store.
  • Carefully read and analyze the store's data, such as comparing revenue per month to profit per month.
  • Change the passwords for all of the accounts you were given.
  • Take advantage of any assistance available from the seller to learn how to replicate their accomplishments and progress.

How to sell an online store on Shopify Exchange?

If you're ready to sell your online store, you may put it up for sale on the Shopify Exchange marketplace.

Determine your eligibility

Before you may list, you must first ensure that you match the Shopify Exchange eligibility standards. Review the Exchange Marketplace standards, as well as Shopify's Terms of Service and Partner Program agreement.

The following are the eligibility conditions for Shopify Exchange:

  • Outside the trial time, you must have a Shopify store running on a paid plan (except Shopify Plus).
  • If you use it, your Shopify Payments account must be in good standing.
  • You must not have any active Shopify Capital funding.
  • You have no outstanding complaints with the Shopify Risk team, Shopify Recovery team, or Shopify Legal team.

Install the Exchange app

What now that you're eligible? You must first install the Exchange Marketplace software. This can only be done by the site's owner.

Make your listing, submit it, and publish it.

Shopify will automatically gather basic metrics into your listing, but it's up to you to fill in the blanks and make it sound like a good investment to a potential buyer. You should write an honest yet persuasive Business Story, as well as fill out the Performance, Expenses, Sale Includes, and Seller's Advice sections.

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Highlight features that offer value to the buyer, such as a huge email list, a social media following, membership in a customer loyalty program, and so on. However, it is critical to ensure that this information is correct—anything deceptive could lead to problems in the road.

When your listing is finished, submit it for approval. You can publish once Shopify has approved it.

Respond to buyer inquires and proposals

Before making an offer, interested buyers will send you messages about your store for sale, often to request additional information and negotiate on what's included in the price.

Respond as soon as possible. Buyers will appreciate responsiveness, especially if you provide post-sale support.

When a buyer makes an offer, you have the option of accepting or rejecting it. If you do not agree with the original offer, you may make a counteroffer.

Accept a proposal

When you receive an attractive offer, you can accept it and then initiate the escrow transaction from within the Exchange app.

Escrow/Shopify will contact the buyer to request that they accept the terms and conditions and pay the escrow department.

Transfer ownership of assets to the buyer

When the escrow department receives the buyer's funds, you'll be notified that it's time to transfer assets. Create a staff account for the buyer to conduct their inspection period, which can extend anywhere from 3 to 30 days.

After the buyer has completed the inspection time and approved everything, the assets in escrow will be marked as "accepted."

Take your money

The money will be released by the escrow department, and you should see it in your bank account within five business days. Shopify handles the rest:

  • Within three business days, Shopify makes the buyer the new store owner.
  • Your billing and payment information is deleted by Shopify.

When the transfer is complete, you will receive an email confirmation.

Selling Procedures

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Enter your store address on the homepage of Exchange's Sell Business page, and you will be prompted to install the Exchange Marketplace app in your store.

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When you click the Install app button, you'll be sent to the Shopify admin page shown below.

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Begin by clicking the start now option, as seen above, and you'll be sent to a page where you may list your store on the Exchange Marketplace.

Then you must write a description of your store and provide general feedback on it. You can include all of your social network information, screenshots of your store's performance, and a brief description of yourself. This will aid in the development of buyer trust.

Once you've added all of your store's information to the listing page, return to the top and click the Get valuation button to see how similar establishments are priced.

When you're through editing your listing, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and preview. Examine your possible listing, and if everything appears good, click the Publish button.

That's it; your store is now live on Exchange. All you have to do now is sit back and wait for interested purchasers to contact you about your store.

Copy reviews from product to product when buying and selling products on Shopify Exchange by Ryviu app

This tutorial will teach you how to copy reviews from one product to another.

Without utilizing CSV, you may replicate reviews from one product to another in a matter of seconds.

This functionality is only available on Ryviu's premium plans.

STEP 1: Log in to your Ryviu account and navigate to the Products area.

STEP 2: Selecting the copy product reviews icon adjacent to the product from which you want to copy reviews.

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STEP 3: After you've found the product you want to copy reviews for, click the "Copy reviews" button.

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If you wish to copy reviews for a product that does not yet exist in Ryviu Products, then choose "To new product" and then enable product name or product handle.

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Conclusion

Shopify stores for sale are an excellent idea. It broadens the scope of eCommerce, speeds up the process, and enables both sellers and buyers to make the most of their enterprises. It is a win-win situation when two parties reach an agreement and move their decisions forward.

If you're looking to buy or sell your Shopify store on Shopify Exchange, I hope this article can assist you. Keep in mind that the potential of online eCommerce is yours to explore and profit from, so keep surviving!

Please give your thoughts in the section below. Best wishes, as usual!