Shopify stores change hands every day on the marketplaces, and the good ones sell quickly. A store is more than a website — you are buying its customer list, supplier relationships, ad accounts, and brand reputation, and each of those needs its own check before you pay. A store doing $10,000 a month in sales can be a great buy or a money pit depending on what sits underneath the revenue line.

Start with traffic and sales sources. Ask for read-only access to Shopify analytics and the ad accounts, then look at how orders actually arrive. A store that depends on one Facebook ad set for 80% of sales is fragile — kill the ad and the business stops. A store with email, organic search, and repeat customers has a real moat. Check the conversion rate and average order value over six months, and look for spikes that do not match any campaign, which can signal bot traffic or a one-off viral moment that will not repeat.

Then check the product and the supply chain. Ask who the suppliers are, what the payment terms are, and whether the relationships transfer to you. Dropshipping stores carry extra risk: a supplier who raises prices or stops shipping can kill the store overnight. For inventory businesses, verify the stock physically or through a third party, and check for dead inventory that inflates the asset value. Also confirm the store does not depend on a single hero product — if one SKU drives 70% of revenue, you are buying a product, not a business.

Look closely at the costs the seller does not advertise. Shopify apps can add hundreds of dollars a month in subscriptions, and some stores run twenty or more. Ad spend is the biggest hidden cost of all: a store with $10,000 in monthly sales and $6,000 in ad spend is a $4,000 gross revenue business, not a $10,000 one. Check the app list, the ad account history, and the refund and chargeback rates. High refund rates often point to misleading product pages or slow shipping.

Finally, plan the transfer before you pay. The seller should transfer the Shopify store, the domain, the social accounts, the email list, and the ad accounts, and introduce you to suppliers in writing. Use escrow and hold back a portion of the price until the transfer completes and the first week of sales matches the claimed numbers. A Shopify store bought with clean checks is a fast way into e-commerce — a store bought on screenshots alone is a fast way to lose money.

Shopify stores trade on annual profit like other small online businesses, but the multiple is lower than SaaS and the adjustments are different. E-commerce stores typically sell for 1.5x to 2.5x annual net profit, against 2.5x to 4x for micro-SaaS, because the margins are thinner and the business is harder to run hands-off. Inventory is valued separately — usually at cost, not retail — and dead stock is worth nothing, so insist on an inventory count before closing. The brand itself can add value if it has a trademark, a loyal customer base, and a social following that transfers with the store. And remember that the multiple applies to profit after a fair owner salary: a store that earns $100,000 a year but needs its owner full-time is worth less than a store earning $80,000 that runs on a contractor and a few hours a week. Apply the multiple to the real, transferable profit, and the price takes care of itself.