Flippa: the marketplace that sells eCommerce
Miguel Nicolás
30/12/2021
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We have talked about all kinds of marketplaces, but we had not talked about Flippa yet: a marketplace to sell and buy online stores.
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It is exactly that: Flippa does not sell products per se, but businesses and digital assets that have the potential to generate an economic return.If you are thinking of turning your life around and retiring to live peacefully on an island in the Pacific or - more likely in the case of unredeemed entrepreneurs - you want to tackle a new project and want to liquidate another one you have underway... Flippa will be of great interest to you.
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What is Flippa?
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It is a platform that connects owners of online stores with other people interested in buying them as an investment. This business model makes sense from the moment you can start with an eCommerce that already has a certain traction, with a certain audience and a certain turnover.If you think about it, according to figures, it makes perfect sense; it is even clearer that there was an unfulfilled opportunity. Since their founding in 2009, they have sold more than 300,000 stores and digital assets.By the way: when we talk about digital resources, we mean to say different media beyond eCommerce. Flippa also offers websites, blogs, mobile applications, social profiles and domains.
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How does Flippa work?
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The truth is that when you first visit the website, you see that the experience is very similar to that of any other standard marketplace you can imagine.There are a number of categories and, prominently located, a search box for more specific queries using keywords.
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What we get is a list with different references, of each one of which we see a short summary with the following elements:
- Name
- Type
- Industry
- Monetization model
- Age
- Estimated net profit
- Price set by the seller
- Geographical location
In some cases, you will have access to the domain URL so you can research it by yourself. But in others, as a matter of vendor privacy, they prefer to keep it confidential until a firm proposal is made.By doing so, we prevent our competitors, partners and employees from having access to this information that reveals our intentions, which could be detrimental to the sale and the business itself.If we enter any of the listed items, we will access an even more complete product sheet, in which the information is developed with a detailed description and, provided we are registered, traffic and performance graphs.In addition to this, in the product sheet, we have the possibility to make a counteroffer to the owner or contact him directly to clarify any doubt that may have. -
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Navigating the platform is very easy. It is very intuitive, taking care of user experience. Something that may come as a bit of a surprise considering that we are talking about business operations with a certain complexity and many variables. But how is this managed? This is the other aspect that we are going to see in the next phase.
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Flippa's added value
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The first thing it brings is simplification in the market research process. It is not so easy to know who sells this type of resources and for how much. In addition, we have the advantage of being able to filter by segmenting our search based on specific interests. This increases the chances of success for both sides, buyer and seller, while reducing time.But this is not the end of the experience. As we mentioned, we are dealing with operations that have a certain economic weight that implies making decisions for which we have to count on the best guarantee.Keeping this in mind, Flippa offers its clients a series of additional services, such as legal advice, auditing, financing, privacy tools... and even a broker specialized in acquisitions that can guide you.For sellers, it has a tool that allows them to obtain a previous valuation through chat. They answer a series of questions about their type of business, its income, expenses in the last twelve months, users, channels they use…
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Based on this, it offers them an estimated amount by email and allows them to contact one of the agents to start the process. By the way, although it is an international platform, it is increasingly used by Spanish-speaking users, which has made it possible to find Spanish-speaking agents and brokers on its staff without any problem (this makes interaction much easier when dealing with such technical and delicate matters).
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How much does Flippa charge?
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It is free for buyers, the transactions come directly from the seller, who is the one who has to bear the costs.First of all, there is a fixed fee of between 10% and 15% of the transaction value. To this we should add the listing visibility plan, which starts at $29 and goes up to $499 depending on the time you want to have the listing available and the level of promotion.Additionally, there are all the parallel services above mentioned, which also have their own rates.It is true that if you add it up, it is a considerable investment, but do not forget the advantages it also comes with.
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If you were planning to sell your eCommerce, would you sell it on Flippa or would you look for another option? Let us know what you think of this unusual (but very useful) marketplace.
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Images | Unsplash, Flippa.