Starting an eCommerce business from scratch requires a lot of work. If you have a successful eCommerce business, you’ve likely spent a good amount of time building it into what it is now. And while you could continue to build your eCommerce business, now might actually be the best time to sell it.
There are plenty of buyers out there who don’t want to start an eCommerce business from scratch and would instead prefer to buy a growing one. If you decide that now is the time to sell, here are some things you can do to prepare and get as much as possible for your eCommerce business.
Research Your Type of eCommerce Business
For starters, you should spend some time learning about selling your specific type of eCommerce business. For example, there are differences between drop shipping businesses and Amazon stores. If you have an Amazon store, you’d want to explore how to sell an Amazon business for the best advice. You can likely learn some great tips and strategies for selling your specific type of eCommerce business, ensuring you get more for it during the sale.
Upgrade Key Components
Regardless of your type of eCommerce business, there are some things you can do between now and the sale that will help you sell it for more. One thing you should focus on is upgrading key components of your business. By making small investments in upgrades, your business will appear more attractive to buyers, as they won’t have to make these upgrades themselves.
Start by focusing on the content on your website. For example, all of your product listings should have accurate and well-written descriptions, along with tags to make searching for them easier. Another thing you can do is add valuable blog content to your website. An extensive blog on your website is another asset and can significantly boost the value of your business.
If your eCommerce business involves selling products directly from your website, take a long look at your shopping cart software as well. Having the best shopping cart software on your website helps to improve customer experience, which in turn drives more sales. Look for one that provides fast, easy checkout for your customers, tracks important metrics for the business owners, and allows for multiple payment options.
Finally, explore your product database. Your product database should be easy to navigate and manage. When someone buys your eCommerce business, they are not just buying the website, but everything that goes on behind the scenes. They’ll want a product database that is up to date and easy to use. If need be, upgrade to better product database software to give your eCommerce business more value.
Improve Website Traffic
A key metric buyers consider when purchasing a website is the amount of traffic it receives. Buyers want a website with steady traffic, along with signs that this traffic is growing or has room to improve. Therefore, you should focus on growing your website traffic from now until the sale. There are a few ways you can achieve this goal.
An easy way is to make better use of social media. Social media is free to use and you can potentially reach millions of people with it. Spend some time studying eCommerce social media strategies and implementing them into your existing marketing strategies. One simple idea is to hold a social media contest, asking followers to share your posts in exchange for an entry into a contest to win some prizes.
Another strategy to improve website traffic, which also helps to improve the value of your business, is building out your blog. As we said earlier, adding great blog content is another asset you can use to raise the value of your business. But great blog content also brings in more people to your website and can earn valuable backlinks from other websites. Spending time generating high-quality content for your blog is one of the best things you can do to prepare your eCommerce business for sale.
Lastly, if you want a quick influx of visitors to your website, consider running some ad campaigns. It’s easy to start running ads on social media sites or through platforms like Google. With these tools, you can target the specific audience or keyword you want your ads to appear for and decide exactly how much you want to spend on ads. You can even run some where you only get charged if someone clicks on them. With this strategy, you are essentially paying to get a new visitor to your website. You’ll have to decide if this investment is worth it compared to the expected rise in business value you’ll get from it.
Gather Data and Reports
Finally, to present your eCommerce business for sale, you’ll need some data to back your asking price up. Spend some time gathering all the data you’ll need and compiling it into reports. Some numbers you’ll want include monthly sales, yearly sales, website traffic, operating costs, and social media engagement.
Gather this information as early as you can. Doing so not only allows you to get a better idea of the value of your business but if you discover that some of your numbers are not as strong as you would like, you’ll have time to improve them. For example, you may find that despite spending more on marketing, your website traffic didn’t grow. You could then either adjust your marketing strategies or reduce the marketing budget, to give a better overall presentation when it comes time to sell.
Sell at the Right Time
Starting an eCommerce business is difficult but so is continuing to grow it. One of the best things an eCommerce business owner can do is know when the right time to sell is. If you feel that your business is starting to plateau and that you’re putting more effort into it than it is worth, it might be time to sell. Spend the next few weeks or months getting your business as good as it can be, then start looking for someone to buy it at its highest value.
