How To Find Buyers For A Small E-commerce Store In 2026
Improve Your Store Before You List It
Firs things first!
Making small changes to your e-commerce store can help you raise the sale price.
Buyers want stable profit and clean operations. If your store depends too much on you, they will reduce their offer.
Some key areas you can quickly improve include:
Email flows that drive repeat sales
Ad accounts that show a stable return
Product pages that convert well
Fulfillment processes that run without you
These simple updates show buyers that your store works with simple inputs, making it more appealing to them.
Sell Your E-Commerce Business Fast
At TrendHijacking, we help you connect with serious investors who are ready to buy e-commerce businesses like yours.
We check all the numbers and present your business in the best light. Our pre-vetted buyers skip the “is this real?” stage, so you can get a better price and close faster.
Submit your business details today and make selling simpler, faster, and more profitable.
Prepare Clean Data Before You Look for Buyers
Serious buyers care about clean and simple data. They want to understand how your e-commerce business makes money and how stable the cash flow is.
If your data looks messy or incomplete, buyers will leave fast.
To avoid this, we advise you to gather clear reports that show monthly revenue, net profit, traffic sources, customer acquisition cost, repeat customer rate, and email list size.
This report by Shopify shows that repeat customers drove close to 28% of e-commerce revenue on average across many categories.
This makes repeat data important to buyers.
Be sure to put your reports in a single folder so you can share them fast. 99.999% of buyers will always appreciate speed and clarity.
Here are action steps to take:
Export a 12-month profit and loss statement of your online store.
Download traffic data to your e-commerce store from Google Analytics.
Export store data from Shopify or your platform.
Make a simple summary sheet with revenue, profit, and growth of your e-commerce business.
With this level of prep, you’ll set yourself apart from many small sellers who tend to rush the process and end up struggling to sell their e-commerce businesses.
Related: Preparing Your E-commerce Store for Sale in 9 Simple Steps
List Your Store on Trusted Marketplaces
Once you have prepared your online business for sale, it’s now time to look for buyers.
And one avenue to start with is the e-commerce business marketplaces.
The marketplaces give you access to active buyers who search for e-commerce deals every day. These platforms also help you filter real buyers from curious browsers.
Here are the main ones that work for small e-commerce stores:
Flippa
Flippa attracts many first-time buyers, making it one of the best options for selling your e-commerce store.
If your store makes under 200k USD in yearly revenue, you will meet many buyers who like small deals.
Flippa reports that more than 400 thousand buyers visit the platform each month.
This is based on their 2023 public data and indicates that there are high chances of finding a buyer through them.
Acquire.com
Acquire.com is another viable option for listing a small or mid-sized e-commerce store.
The platform brings in buyers who want clear numbers and simple deals. You simply upload your data, unlock access for buyers, and start real conversations fast.
Most buyers there are serious and have cash ready, so your e-commerce business will not take long to sell (provided you prepped it correctly).
Empire Flippers
Empire Flippers is another good option to consider when looking for buyers for your e-commerce business.
This platform focuses on profitable online businesses and brings in higher-quality buyers than open marketplaces.
They screen every seller and every buyer. That screening cuts down on time wasters and helps you get cleaner offers.
Their audience likes stable stores with clear profit, so this works well if your numbers look solid.
Action steps for listing your e-commerce store:
Create clear listings with traffic charts and profit charts.
Add screenshots that support your claims.
Start with a price that reflects your true profit. A common range is 2 to 3 times yearly net profit for small stores.
Related: How Much Can You Sell Your E-commerce Business In 2025?
Reach Out To Small Acquisition Groups
Here’s an alternative to using marketplaces and brokers: you work with small acquisition groups.
There are many micro private equity groups that buy small e-commerce stores. These groups want profitable but simple businesses.
Look for:
Search fund operators
Solo buyers who run one-person acquisition firms
Small e-commerce holding groups on LinkedIn
Buyers who post “Looking to buy an e-commerce store” messages in public channels
You can message them with a short and direct note indicating what the store sells, the average monthly profit, traffic sources, and the asking price.
Use Your Existing Network
Many small owners forget that their own network includes potential buyers or people who know buyers.
And one major advantage of your network is that they already trust you, so they trust your data faster.
Some of the potential buyers in your network you can contact include:
Suppliers who may want to acquire your brand
Influencers who promote similar products
Freelancers who have worked on your store before
Your loyal customers
Suppliers like to buy stores that help them secure more end customers.
Influencers like stable product lines that match their audience. And loyal customers sometimes love the brand enough to ask for numbers.
Keep your message simple. You can say something like:
“I plan to sell my store. Here is the monthly profit and revenue. Let me know if you want more details.”
Sell Your E-Commerce Business Fast
At TrendHijacking, we help you connect with serious investors who are ready to buy e-commerce businesses like yours.
We check all the numbers and present your business in the best light. Our pre-vetted buyers skip the “is this real?” stage, so you can get a better price and close faster.
Submit your business details today and make selling simpler, faster, and more profitable.
Join E-Commerce Communities
Active e-commerce communities allow you to talk with people who understand digital businesses.
Many buyers sit in these groups to spot good deals before they reach the marketplaces.
Useful groups to consider include:
Reddit r/Entrepreneur, r/Ecommerce, and r/Shopify
E-commerce founder groups on Facebook
Private groups on Slack and Discord focused on acquisition
Indie acquisition groups like MicroAcquire Forums
Here, you’ll likely see buyers ask for deals with clear profit and clean operations. Share your numbers when you see a match, but remember to keep it short.
Build A Short Buyer Packet
Most buyers make decisions fast. They do not want to dig through long documents or chase missing details.
They just want a clear snapshot of what the business does, how it makes money, and why it works.
Therefore, preparing a short packet helps them see all of that in a few minutes.
Keep it simple:
Put together a one-page summary with the key numbers.
Add a chart that shows monthly revenue and profit.
Show where your traffic comes from and which products sell the most.
List your main expenses so buyers can understand your margins.
If you see obvious growth opportunities, add them at the end.
This packet does two things: It saves buyers time, and it makes you look organized.
When buyers see clean information right away, they trust you more and move faster.
Related: When Is the Right Time To Sell Your E-commerce Business?
Sell Through A Broker if You Want More Support
Some owners do not want to handle the back and forth with buyers.
They want someone to prepare the numbers, filter buyers, set the price, and run the calls.
That's where an e-commerce business broker comes in...
Some top brokers to consider include Quiet Light, Website Closers, and FE International.
They usually do the hard work for you. They also bring buyers who have bought multiple stores already.
In simpler words, they save you from long conversations with people who cannot afford your price.
However, keep in mind that you do have to pay some e-commerce broker fee (varies from broker to broker).
Still, many e-commerce store owners feel the broker pays for itself because the broker often gets a higher price and protects them from slow negotiations.
Overall, a broker makes sense if you want a smoother process or if you do not have time to manage buyers.
Try Trend Hijacking for a Different Kind of Exit
Trend Hijacking is an interesting option if you want something more hands-on than a typical marketplace.
It is not a giant open marketplace.
It works more like a partner that helps you prepare the business, review the numbers, and then match you with ready buyers.
They look at your store, run a validation process, and decide if your brand fits their acquisition program.
If it does, they present your store to their investor network and aim to build a deal that leads to growth, not just a quick flip.
Consider selling your e-commerce store with Trend Hijacking if you want to avoid the stress of open marketplaces and directly connect with serious, acquisition-ready buyers.
Close Smart by Screening Buyers Early
You will save yourself a lot of stress if you screen buyers before you spend hours talking with them.
Many people say they want to buy a store, but only a small number can actually follow through.
You want to spot the real ones early.
Start with a few simple questions:
Ask about their budget
Ask when they want to close
Ask why they want to buy an e-commerce store
Ask if they have run or bought a business before.
Real buyers answer these questions in a direct way. They do not dodge or give vague stories.
When a buyer seems serious, ask for proof of funds before you move into deep due diligence.
This step saves your time and keeps you from sharing sensitive data with someone who is not ready to buy.
Screening early might feel blunt, but it makes the whole process smoother.
You move faster, you protect your numbers, and you spend your energy only on buyers who can actually close.
Final Thoughts
You can find the right buyer for your small e-commerce store if you follow the steps we’ve just outlined above.
Marketplaces and buyer groups are a good starting point for getting a steady flow of leads. Your network can also open doors you do not expect.
A short and clear packet can help speed up buyer decisions. Making a few simple store improvements can help raise your sales price.
When you follow these steps, you create a strong position that attracts serious buyers and leads to a smoother, more profitable exit.
Sell Your E-commerce Store with TrendHijacking
Trend Hijacking makes your e-commerce business's sales process easier.
We do the prep work with you and present your store to buyers who are actually ready to buy.
You get support from people who understand e-commerce and know what makes a deal move fast.
If you want a clean path to a real exit, submit a few details about your business to get started.
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