You want to sell your webshop? Then it is good to know what the takeover market in the field of web shops looks like. Every year, thousands of entrepreneurs start a webshop in the Netherlands. But a large number of newcomers decide to stop or sell their webshop within two years.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are currently about 94,000 official web stores in the Netherlands. And the attractiveness of starting a webshop is still growing.
There are many ways to value a business. A common method of expressing the value of a business is "a factor x gross annual profit." This factor is also called multiple and another designation for gross annual profit is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization).
In the e-commerce sector - the branch to which web shops belong - the Brookz Takeover Barometer currently applies an indicative EBITDA-multiple range of 4.6 to 5.7. The average EBITDA multiple across all SME sectors is 4.90.
The valuation of a business is often the starting point for negotiations between buyer and seller. The outcome of these negotiations is the final sales price. So valuation and price are two different quantities. Besides valuation, the price is also determined by possible scarcity in the market, bargaining power of the parties, the strategic value of the business for the buyer and possible synergy effects for the buyer (cost savings, purchasing advantages).
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Do you want to buy a business or sell a business in the e-commerce sector? With this Brookz Sector Monitor, we want to present buyers and sellers with facts, figures and an outlook that provide insight into the number of transactions, the value development of businesses and the latest trends and developments in e-commerce. Because in any buying or selling process, thorough preparation gives peace of mind, overview and structure.
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Reasons for selling a webshop
There is also a large group of starters who succeed in building a well-running webshop, but who decide to sell their webshop for various reasons. Reasons mentioned for selling the webshop:
For many entrepreneurs, several of the reasons mentioned above often play a role to sell their web shop.
In figures, the number of webshops in 2024 looked as follows(CBS):
With this online training from Brookz you are optimally prepared to largely sell your business yourself: 25 Powerpoint videos, a comprehensive valuation report, legal model contracts, handy templates, checklists and expert support. Plus 50% discount on listing your business on Brookz!
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There is a market for everything, but selling a webshop is not as easy as you think. The average buyer of a webshop knows what he is talking about, because he does sufficient research in advance of his purchase. Is your shop high in Google with a lot of organic traffic, not as a result of paid Google Ads? Do you have sparkling financial results and have done so for several years in a row? Then you have a good chance of a successful sale. What do you need to think about when making a sale? We list the points of interest for you:
If you want to sell your web shop or webshop, there are basically three types of buyers. Each buyer has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on what your own goals are regarding the sale of your web shop. The buyers of a webshop are:
In this case, your web store is sold to a private individual who, for example, has the ambition to start his own business. It is often a make or buy decision for this buyer: he can start a webshop himself or buy a webshop that already has revenue and customers, with which he can get started right away.
If you sell your web shop to another web shop, we speak of a strategic buyer. This buyer wants to improve his market position by adding your customers, revenue, url, newsletter members, etc. to his own webshop. This business can be a direct competitor, but also a supplier or a buyer. This buyer is often willing to pay the highest price for your webshop, because through cost savings and synergy benefits, he can earn back the acquisition quite quickly.
You can also sell your webshop to one of your own employees. The advantage is that this employee already knows you and the business well, making this form of transfer in principle faster than with the other two buyers.
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