What Questions Should I Ask When Buying an Online Store?
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
- Checks in every memo8
- Automatic on day one3 of 8
- Read by handad spend and processor payouts
- Tracked ecom salesEUR 200M+ZenoX ad-management figures, not Kairos deal volume - Kairos hasn't closed a deal yet.
When you are buying an online store, split your questions in two: what the store's own order data can prove, and what only the seller can tell you. Claimed revenue against the order ledger and the refund rate against its 2% benchmark have a data source. Ad spend and processor payouts have none, so either someone opens those accounts by hand or you are judging the seller's answer.
Looking to buy one? Join the buyer waitlist
What Can the Store's Own Data Prove?
Start with the questions a verification engine can answer without the seller's cooperation. Does the claimed revenue match the order ledger? On Kairos that gap warns past 10% and fails past 20%. Refunds above 4% fail on their own. A healthy store runs 2%. Ask what the last quarter's trend shows, because order data reveals whether revenue is climbing or fading, whatever the listing says. Then ask where the revenue actually lives. One month holding more than 30% of the trailing year draws a warning. Anything past 40% fails. A store that spiked once is a different purchase than a store that earns evenly. Kairos runs 8 checks in total, and 3 of them read the store's own orders. The other 5 break into three groups. Two (ad spend and processor payouts) have no automatic source anywhere in the market. Two more, chargeback disputes and the paid-versus-organic traffic split, have a real source Kairos has not wired in yet. One more just needs a second run to compare against.
What Has No Data Source Anywhere?
Two of the numbers you need have no automatic data source anywhere in the market, and that is a structural gap, not a Kairos limitation. Kairos does not pull ad-platform billing or processor payouts on its own - that is the Shopify-only connector decision, and there is no real processor connector yet - so a person opens those two accounts by hand in the paid tier. Chargebacks are a different case: the payment provider's disputes feed carries that number, above 1% failing, double the 0.5% a clean store sits at, but Kairos has not wired that feed in yet, so today it also gets read by hand. The rest of this group is judgment. Ask why the store is for sale, and listen for an answer that survives a follow-up question. Ask whether supplier terms transfer, because pricing built on a personal relationship can end the day the relationship does. Then ask one more thing on its own: how many hours a week did the founder actually work? A store that needs its owner at the desk every morning is a job, and you should know you are buying one.
What Are You Actually Buying?
The last group of questions is about the asset list itself. Ask which items are on it: the store, the payments account, the Google Ads account, the domain. Those 4 are the ones Kairos marks critical in its transfer template, and a critical item that has not moved blocks the funds release. An email list transfers with its consent records, and GDPR sets the limit on using it. A right-to-object window has to run before you mail EU contacts, and about 6 weeks is the safe pattern. The purchase agreement's data addendum sets the exact window for the deal, and anyone who objects is a contact you may not market to. Social accounts get their own question, because a personal account cannot be sold under the platform's own terms. The sale transfers exactly the list you agree on, and anything left off it stays with the seller.
Related questions
Terms Used
Buying a Store Somewhere Else?
Kairos Due Diligence works on any deal - Flippa, a broker, a private sale. A person reads the store's raw numbers and writes you a report. If the deal is bad, the report says walk away. From EUR 1.5K, no account needed.
Answered. Now Get in Line for the First Store
When the doors open, verified stores go to the waitlist first. You have done the reading part. The list is the part with a queue.