s most people already know, the majority of all new businesses fail within their first few years of operations. If you're looking at starting a e-commerce, it may be worth looking into buying an established dropshipping business that has already gotten the ball rolling.
Buying a pre-existing dropshipping business comes with a few main benefits. The business will likely come with an established business model, a marketing strategy, and some assets like a website, email list, and social media accounts. Some will also come with inventory, brand material (logos, etc.), and established supplier relationships. Having this head start can help you cut through the ambiguity of starting an online business, and skip right to the point of finding things to optimize and improve.
But, you have to be careful. There are a lot of poorly designed businesses out there. That's why you should make sure to buy your business from a credible source.
In this article, we will be going over 5 websites where you can buy an established dropshipping business today.
Just make sure to do your own research and due diligence before purchasing an existing business. Even though we will cover where to buy an online business, that does not mean we necessarily endorse any of these sites or their individual listings.
We also have a guide on how to sell a dropshipping business if that's what you're looking for. We went a lot more in-depth on what to look for, and it can certainly provide some insight for buyers as well.
Note: After we wrote this article, we discovered that most of these sites have affiliate programs. We recommending them honestly, but if they're willing to pay us we'll take it. The links below may be affiliate links.
#5 - Buy an Established Dropshipping Business on Acquire
Acquire is a popular business marketplace that provides both buyers and sellers peace of mind through verified transactions. The site is well-developed and has several different categories you can use to filter the options. As opposed to several of the other sites on this list, all of the listings on Acquire seem to keep the business's identity private — so you won't know the exact brand name until later on in the process.
You will, however, get a pretty good description of what the business does, what the revenues and profits are, and how long it has been in operation. Acquire also has a partnership with Clearco (formerly ClearBanc), which can allow you to finance the business with a loan that you can repay later on. While this option won't be available to everybody (namely those with low income or credit scores) this is an excellent feature that allows people to get started without a lot of barriers.
When we were browsing the site on October 5th, 2021, there were over 330 startups for sale. The median asking price was $70,000 USD, although there were also options as affordable as a few thousand dollars. The platform covers many types of online business such as SaaS (Software as a Service), DTC (consumer goods), e-Commerce, agencies (marketing/web development), mobile applications, and even crypto.
#4 - Buy a Developed e-Commerce Business on InvestorsClub
InvestorClub is a marketplace where you can buy and sell online businesses. While it gets less traffic than most of the other options on this list, InvestorClub offers some interesting buyer-friendly features that are worth looking at.
To start, you need to apply to be a buyer. This should hypothetically filter out some of the time wasters. There are no fees for buyers, enhanced listing metrics (like profiles on the website's SEO & profitability), and the platform helps take care of the transfer documents and escrow.
The final thing to note is that InvestorClub listings are required to be 100% exclusive, meaning you will not (or should not) find them listed with any other brokerages. At the time of writing this, the home page was advertising that there are 50 active listings, and that they are priced at 32x monthly revenue on average.
#3 - Buy Someone's Online Side Hustle on SideProjectors
A lot of people start side hustles such as dropshipping stores and decide that they no longer put in the time or energy that the business requires. If you're looking to take over someone's side project, then look no further than SideProjectors.
SideProjectors is an online business marketplace that not only has dropshipping stores for sale, but also SaaS businesses, Chrome extensions, blogs, applications, and more. When filtering specifically for dropshipping and e-commerce stores, we found that there were 343 projects in total. There are also some projects that are looking for co-founders, and a 'Sold' section where you can see projects that were recently acquired.
The median price (when we checked) for these 343 stores was about $500, making it one of the most affordable places to buy an established dropshipping business on this list. Now, you can't expect much in terms of revenue for that price, but it's still a great starting-off point. Also, most listings disclose the website's name, which is always a plus for prospective buyers.
#2 - Buy a Well-Established Dropshipping Business on EmpireFlippers
EmpireFlippers is a large, hands-on marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. While the other options on this list basically just allow you to find a listing and purchase it, EmpireFlippers is more of a personalized service, and has dedicated account managers to help you with both sides of the process. This site is ideal for situations where you want to buy a well-established, profitable business. Very few of these businesses are dropshipping stores. The others are FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) stores, affiliate marketing sites, and blogs, among other things.
Since the businesses on this site undergo more scrutiny, and are confirmed to be profitable, they sell at a much higher price point. The lowest priced listing on EmpireFlippers when we accessed the site had an asking price of $76,000, and the most expensive was asking over $5 million. Unfortunately, these price points are out of reach for most people. But, for those who have some money to spend, EmpireFlippers is likely the way to go.
#1 - Buy an Established Online Business on Flippa
When it comes to volume, I don't think there are any online business marketplaces with more listings than Flippa. Spread out among categories like Content, E-Commerce, Apps, and SaaS, Flippa has over 5,000 active listings. Luckily, there are some well-designed filters to help you find exactly what you're looking for.
At the time of writing this, there were just over 2,500 e-commerce businesses for sale, 1,575 of which were listed in the Dropshipping category. The prices vary drastically, starting as low as $1 and ranging as high as $5.49 Million. Similar to eBay, Flippa allows sellers to choose between a fixed price and an auction format. If a business is listed as an auction, the final bid must be greater than the reserve price in order for the sale to be made.
Most dropshipping stores on Flippa are built on Shopify, but you can find the odd store built on Shopify alternatives if you look hard enough.
Flippa has some awesome features that you just won't see on the other sites in this article. For starters, Flippa has partnered with SEO platform SemRush to allow you to view traffic analytics for the site. This will allow you to see how many visitors the site gets, how the site gets its traffic (e.g. referrals, paid ads, or organic search), and how long users tend to spend on the site. Flippa also has a Google Ads integration that shows you how much money the site is making off Google Ads, if anything.
Many of the sites listed on Flippa are very transparent about their identity. Some of them are listed with hidden names, but many proudly display their URL and title in the listing description. This makes Flippa an excellent place to conduct market research, since you can see what a store is selling, what the revenue and profit is, where they are advertising, and how much the business is worth. For small-scale entrepreneurs looking to make their first acquisition, it really can't be beaten.
Conclusion:
Overall, there are many website where you can buy an established dropshipping business. Just make sure that you know what you're looking for, and that you don't overpay for it.
Generally speaking, dropshipping businesses should be valued at ~35x their monthly profit, assuming the business is stable, requires minimal upkeep, and has built an audience. If the store is struggling — don't overpay. It's better to look at 100 deals before buying one, than to buy the first one you see.
The main benefit of buying a dropshipping business is that you can get ahead of the labour of setting up a store yourself. So, make sure you fully understand what is involved in the deal in front of you, and that you value it accordingly.
Good luck, and if you want more guides on dropshipping then make sure to check out our other articles!
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Zennen Leggett has been working with DropCommerce for years, and has generated over millions of impressions through his articles. When he isn’t writing about dropshipping, he is likely building Facebook ad campaigns for DTC brands while sipping an ice latte. You can learn more about him on ZennenLeggett.com.
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