If selling your eCommerce business has crossed your mind, this is probably the best post for you to read right now.
Are you familiar with the American TV Show Property Brothers?
If not, we’ll sum it up for you.
Let’s imagine you’re selling a house. And you think your house is worth 1M.
However, even after listing it in all available websites, it doesn’t sell for 1M.
That’s when you call The Property Brothers to help you sell your house for that 1M valuation you’ve put on it.
More times than not, houses don’t sell because they’re not prepared for the selling process.
They’re not as clean as they should, not as well painted as they could, and the garden is a mess.
Selling a business is a lot like selling a house.
You can sell it as it is and it has a certain worth.
Or you can “pimp” it.
Fix some things and even clean it to give that fresh feeling, it will be worth a lot more.
Of course, in business it’s not about actually cleaning it!
But keep reading and you’ll see the 5 steps you can take to sell your eCommerce for a higher valuation.
5 steps to sell your eCommerce for a higher valuation
The following steps are a result of our personal and professional experience, as well as research from the last year.
If you need help in applying any of them you can schedule a free call with one of our team advisors.
Step 1 – Optimize your brand
Yes, we’re aware you’re constantly doing that and we’re not pointing it in question.
But have you looked at the older blog posts on your eCommerce website? Are they at their best?
Are they updated? Is the SEO as optimized as it could be?
This goes for your product pages as well.
Optimizing a product page so it contains more details, more SEO optimized content, and different images or videos can increase your current conversion rate in over 20%.
Step 2 – New products
Did you know Steve Jobs founded a new company – NeXT – after being dismissed by Apple?
That new company was later purchased by Apple when Jobs returned to the company.
Why?
Because even with losses, the product was good. And Apple needed it.
You can boost the sale of your eCommerce for a higher valuation with a new product launch to make it even more appealing.
This brings a sense of freshness to the business and it can also help the new investors by handing them a clear plan of the future for this new product.
In fact, having a plan for your new product launch is a reinforcement of the business health and wealth, because it means you haven’t given up trying to grow your eCommerce just because you’re selling it.
And that’s also worth a lot.
Step 3 – Listen to your customers
Feedback is important from day 1 of the business!
Listening to your customer’s feedback on your eCommerce business and acting on it means you’ll have a more engaged audience – which will add to your valuation as well.
Moreover, listening to the buying experience will also ensure you keep your business up to date in terms of:
- Products that are on high demand;
- Shipping that works more smoothly;
- Better customer experience after the purchase;
- And so on…
Start the buzz on your eCommerce business and you’ll be guaranteed to sell for the fair value.
Step 4 – Get your numbers straight
Do you know how you sometimes drive in a sort of auto-pilot?
When running a business and managing the numbers, it’s not hard to go into auto-pilot mode as well and focus only on revenue, CPA, and the most frequently asked metrics.
However, to sell an eCommerce business you need to get your numbers straight: all of them!
If you already do a complete monthly overview with your accountant then great! You can skip to step 5.
If not, this is the time to start.
Investors like to talk numbers and having a better valuation will also depend on this.
Step 5 – Start Pitching
With all the details in hand, it’s time to draft some pitches.
Our personal recommendation is that you write at least 2 different pitches: a short one and a long one.
The shorter will be your (almost) literal elevator pitch. The one where you’ll have between 5-10 seconds to get someone’s attention.
The longer one will ensure you provide the right information to the prospective buyer so he’s eager to learn more.
A good pitch is a half sale, so make sure you nail it!
Bonus tip
When selling an online business, finding a suitable buyer is not that hard of a deal.
The hardest, most confusing parts come right afterwards, with the paperwork, valuation and making sure the business is good for you and for the buyer too.
Your time is money. For each hour you spend looking for the right information you’ll be losing money.
So we advise you to reach for help and work with an experienced team to help you.
AEPIC Partners can help you throughout the whole process. Click here to schedule a free call and learn exactly how and what we can help you with.
