How to sell your ecommerce store: marketplaces, brokers and what it costs

• Self-serve marketplace. You write the listing, answer buyers and negotiate. Flippa's self-service packages are offered only in its lower asking-price bands (under $100,000), and Acquire.com charges a monthly listing fee plus a closing fee.
• Broker-led or managed sale. A broker or marketplace team vets the business, screens buyers and runs negotiation. For asking prices from $100,000 up, Flippa's pricing page shows only its "Brokered by Flippa" option, with a dedicated M&A broker and a six-month term. Empire Flippers describes itself as a done-for-you service that also handles the migration to the buyer.
• Direct sale. If you already have a buyer, no marketplace commission applies, but you take on the vetting, contracts and escrow yourself. Note that a Flippa listing at $25,000 or more locks you in: its terms bar selling through other platforms or brokers while the listing is live and for 30 to 45 days after you take it down.

Figures from each provider's own pricing or FAQ page. Flippa's success fee is charged on the final sale price. Flippa's business-brokers page separately says packages "start at $899 setup fee plus a 10% success fee", which does not match its pricing page's $399 entry, so confirm the quote for your band.

The table below uses published fees only. It leaves out legal, escrow, accounting and tax costs, which vary from deal to deal.

Flippa: 10% × $150,000 = $15,000, plus $399 upfront = $15,399. Empire Flippers: $150,000 falls in its 15% band, and 15% × $150,000 = $22,500, with no listing fee. Acquire.com: 8% × $150,000 = $12,000, plus $25 for each month the listing is live (six months would be $150). All fees checked 2026-10-10.

Flippa's ecommerce sale checklist suggests starting at least 90 days before you list. Its steps and Empire Flippers' seller FAQ cover:

• Calculate SDE: take net profit, then add back owner pay and one-off or personal costs.
• Reconcile 24 months of monthly P&L against bank statements, and keep personal spending separate.
• Trace every revenue figure to its payment source, such as Shopify, Stripe, PayPal or Amazon.
• Break revenue down by channel and flag any single channel above 50% of revenue.
• Document SOPs for fulfillment, customer service, supplier reorders and handovers.
• Organize customer data: lifetime value, average order value, repeat purchase rate and new-versus-returning cohorts.
• Count inventory and flag stock that may need to be written off.
• List key suppliers with their terms and lead times.
• Build a data room with consistent folders and file names.
• For Empire Flippers, be ready to share revenue and profit screenshots, verified monthly expenses and Google Analytics access.

Shopify Help lists these steps for transferring a store to someone outside your business. Only the store owner can start a transfer. Shopify Plus stores go through Plus Support instead.

1. In the Shopify admin, open Settings > General.
2. In the Transfer store section, click Manage.
3. Choose Transfer store to a new owner outside your business, then click Continue, re-authenticating if prompted.
4. Enter the new owner's email address and click Transfer. The new owner gets an email to accept, and you are notified when they accept or decline.
5. Before or after the transfer, export your billing history, move payout and tax details to the new owner, update billing on third-party apps, and transfer any custom domain. Shopify notes that stores using Shopify Capital or Shopify Credit cannot be transferred, and an active Shopify Balance must be emptied first.

• Exclusivity. On Flippa, listings at $25,000 or more are exclusive: up to $100,000 for 30 days after removal, and up to $15M for 45 days. Empire Flippers asks for at least two months of exclusivity. Acquire.com's pricing page says nothing on exclusivity.
• Minimums. Empire Flippers asks for at least $24,000 in annual net profit and 12 months of history. Flippa's brokered tier asks for 12 months of trading history and financials.
• Refundable listing fees. Flippa refunds a listing fee if you remove the listing within 7 days of going live, or if no qualified buyer contacts you within 30 days. After that, fees are non-refundable, and the success fee is non-negotiable. Flippa's brokerage section says it will refund fees if it cannot match the business with a buyer. Empire Flippers charges no listing fee.
• Escrow. Flippa's terms require payments to go through Escrow.com or FlippaPay on its platform, and Flippa says it is not an escrow service itself. Acquire.com says it covers the cost of escrow. Off-platform payments on Flippa breach its terms and can still trigger a success fee.
• Time on market. Flippa auctions generally run 30 days. Flippa says most deals under $50,000 close within 50 days, and its broker page cites an average three-to-six-month sale cycle. Empire Flippers reports an average of 130 days to sale.

First-party pages checked Oct 10, 2026. Prices and terms change; confirm with each vendor.