Buying An eCommerce Website Vs. Starting A New One

As the internet continues to open up the world market, more businesses have also found their way into this enormous market place. In the recent past, eCommerce has given the brick-and-mortar businesses, something to scratch their heads over.

Recent studies show that by 2020, eCommerce will have grown its revenue around $6.8 trillion. In the US alone, the number of online shoppers in 2019 is estimated to hit 224.1 millionth mark. This makes the internet the biggest marketplace for almost everything you need.

But how do you get a piece of this massive market? Well, in essence, there are two main ways you can follow to own an eCommerce website. These include starting a completely new website and buying an existing one.

Buying An Existing eCommerce Business

For those who don’t want to undergo the hustle of starting a business from scratch, buying an already established one seems like the best option. So, what makes this a great choice?

Advantages Of Buying An Established eCommerce Business

Prior Profitability Assessment – The best thing about this option is that you can assess the profitability of such a business before putting in your money. Since the company is already up and running, you can easily access its financial history and see how profitable the business is. This way, you don’t just risk your money without certainty.

Fewer Startup Challenges – Secondly, as the site is already in operations, in most cases, the business has already gone past the most challenging part of starting an eCommerce website. This saves you the stress of dealing with keyword research, site development, advertising, SEO services, identifying suppliers, and more.

Already Laid Foundation – With an already existing eCommerce site, most of the vital functions are already in place. For example, supplier relationships are formed, traffic and software codes are organized, and the customer base is already established.

Strategic Edge – Additionally, an operational site gives you a better opportunity for you to improve on areas where the previous owner may have overlooked. Since most of the work is done, you have a strategic edge and can now perfect the site and make it even more profitable.

Disadvantages Of Purchasing An Existing eCommerce Website

What can go wrong with an existing eCommerce website? Well, even with all the advantages, several downsides with this method also exist, such as:

High Initial Capital – The first and most visible downside of this method of acquiring an eCommerce business is the high initial capital. Since the company is already operational, you will need considerable upfront cash to purchase the website. The better performing the site is, the more money you will have to part with.

However, if you don’t have enough savings to make a purchase, or you can’t access the personal loan, SBA loans can help sort you out. An SBA small business loan is typically a small business loan that is partly government guaranteed. The SBA is known to work closely with various financial institutions to provide loans to small businesses. With this loan, you can easily acquire an eCommerce business with the least hustle.

Difficult to Find the Ideal Business – Apart from the price, you may have a tough time identifying the best eCommerce business in your desired niche. Since there are numerous eCommerce businesses for sale, getting the most profitable one and with the least flaws is an uphill task. It will take you a significant amount of time to ensure you put your money in the most suitable deal.

Inherited Negative Business Traits – Also, with an existing eCommerce business, you will likely inherit some negative characteristics and errors from the former owner. These may include damaged supplier relationships, low-quality content, poor backlinks, as well as dissatisfied customers. All these will give you a hard time to mend.

Tedious Work of Reviewing Old Content – An already established website may have old content and previously established articles. This means you have to review all the old content to find out if its in the interest of the product. You must review current underperforming articles, traffic, inbound links, keywords, and check what you can improve on. That can be quite tedious and time-consuming.

Starting A New eCommerce Website

Apart from buying an existing eCommerce business, you can also opt to start a new one from scratch. However, starting an eCommerce business and making it successful are two different things. To ensure that your business doesn’t fail before it can stand on its feet, you must research thoroughly and have an actual plan.

Just like in any other business, planning is vital for the success of a business. A business plan will include details such as a description of your business, market research, marketing strategies, competitive analysis, financial data, among others.

When formulating a business plan, you can make use of a business plan template to make things easier. Or you can hire a business plan consultant that can help you get your stuff in order.

In essence, the template will show you the general layout of how a business plan should be. This can help to ensure that you don’t leave anything out or put something in the wrong place.

So, what are the pros and cons of starting your new eCommerce business?

Advantages Of Buying An Established eCommerce Business

Low Startup Cost – The first benefit of starting a new eCommerce business is mainly the low initial cost, in comparison to buying an existing one. It is possible nowadays to buy a domain and acquire hosting for as little as $100 per year.

Also, with around $300, you can comfortably outsource services such as website development, content creation, web design, as well as SEO services, and more.

Better Control of Your Business – Better still, by starting your own eCommerce business, it means that you have the knowledge and control of everything and all the activities in the market.

Therefore, you can understand early enough the areas to improve on or adjust. For example, you can decide which direction you want your business to go as soon as possible.

Disadvantages Of Purchasing An Existing eCommerce Website

Making your Brand Visible – The most challenging part of starting and managing a new eCommerce website is getting your product known and attracting enough traffic. Without traffic to your site, it will be very hard to sell and make profits.

Therefore, it’s upon you to come up with concrete strategies that will guarantee traffic for your site. One of the most effective ways to do this is to leverage search engine strategies, as well as social media marketing.

Growing Your Business – Another devastating thing about starting from scratch is that sometimes, it becomes hard to make your brand grow. You may take a lot of time trying to do everything right, only to find that your site is not becoming profitable.

Stiff competition – Also, you must create a unique brand that stands out in an extremely competitive market. Making sure that clients choose your site, and not the others can be quite exhausting.

Our Guest Blogger

Dave Schneider is the marketing manager of albacross.com, the free B2B lead generation platform. In 2012 he quit his job to travel the world and has visited over 65 countries. In his spare time, he writes about SaaS and business at DaveSchneider.me