Online commerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. So if you're thinking about starting your own e-commerce business, there's no better time than now.
Should you want to jump on the trend, you have two options for doing so: 1. Creating your own Shopify store. This is very easy to do with Shopify and doesn't require any programming skills. Still, it requires a lot of work, of course, especially to build your own customer base. 2. you can buy a ready-made online store.
In this post, we want to take a closer look at both options to help you decide whether you should rather create your own online store or buy an already existing one.
Table of contents
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Buy Shopify store: Takeover of an existing online store
Taking over an existing company always brings advantages and disadvantages. For you to have any chance of success at all, technical ability and a certain level of expertise are the most important skills you should have. If the world of online stores is still new territory for you, it is best to inform yourself sufficiently about the subject in advance.
If you decide to buy a ready-made online store after ample consideration and extensive research, you can do so via various marketplaces. The best known are Shopanbieter.de and Projektify.de. There you can also use other services: for example, if you want to optimize search engine rankings before selling, you can use these platforms to get in touch with relevant experts.
Basically, portals on which online stores are offered for sale provide information on the following points:
Sales
Profit
Number of store visitors
Value of inventory
Number of sales
Apps & Integrations
Supplier contacts
Domains
Email Lists
The most important thing is to look carefully at all the information, because the biggest risk for you is to make a purchase and then find out that the deal is not as successful as you had hoped. However, keep in mind that even if you do a thorough inspection, you should always expect a residual risk. After all, only after a few months will it become clear whether the purchase was the right decision.
If this risk is too high for you, you can always create your own Shopify store. We will tell you how to proceed step-by-step in the following chapter.
Reading tip: Every online merchant should know and implement these 6 helpful Shopify hacks for their webshop.
Create your own Shopify store: Here's how to do it in 9 steps
To be able to build your own Shopify store, you should go through the following steps:
Start a free trial with Shopify. The trial period should give you enough time to create your Shopify store.
Add your products. Consider writing product titles and descriptions, uploading photos or other media, setting your prices, scheduling inventory, shipping, and variants, viewing product status and availability, adding search engine preview, and categorizing products.
Create the most important pages for your online store. Here, a contact page, the about us page, a FAQ page and the policy pages cannot be missing.
Choose a theme and customize your store according to your wishes. Design your homepage, customize your navigation menu, set colors, fonts and other theme settings, individualize your checkout and ask for feedback on the previous store if necessary.
Set up your shipping. In addition to shipping zones and costs, you should also remember to set shipping rates calculated in real time.
Select your tax regions.
Decide on your payment gateways and payouts. If you choose Shopify Payments, you can activate this with just one click and accept all major payment types.
Complete the final steps before launch. For this, add a custom domain, install relevant sales channels, customize email or SMS notifications, and set up marketing tools.
Go live with your Shopify store. Under Online Store > Configurations, you can remove your password page and tell the world that you are open from now on.
Reading tip: A detailed description of how you can open an online store can be found here.
Buying a Shopify store vs. building a Shopify shop - the respective advantages
We now know how to buy a Shopify store or create a Shopify store yourself. In the following, we would like to compare the respective advantages of these two variants in concrete terms.
| Buy Shopify Store | Build Shopify store |
|---|---|
| You can get started immediately and generate your first sales. The store is already indexed by search engines and (at best) has a good ranking. Your existing customers will generally remain with you after the takeover. Since your store already has a proven product range and you can rely on a supplier network, you will be able to sell without any problems. You already have valuable data on customers' buying behavior. | You can build your own brand from scratch and design and manage it according to your ideas. You have the possibility to come up with your own complete assortment. You can also choose your own logistics partners. You have much more control over the store design as well as the user experience and the look and feel of your store. |
Reading tip: Want inspiration for your own store? In this post, we take a look at 20 great Shopify Plus stores.
Conclusion
The table above illustrates clearly: Buying an online store brings with it a number of advantages. You acquire an established company with products in demand and an existing customer base. Ideally, your new store has excellent ratings and is easy to find on Google & Co.
Nevertheless, taking over an existing online store can come with some risks. So don't be blinded by the appearance of some stores offered for sale. Also, check beforehand whether the store's concept, products and IT infrastructure are fit for the future. It is equally important that you can identify yourself as an online store operator and with your products and with the web store. If you are clear about all this and have fun doing it, nothing will stop you from starting your own online business!
You need help with your shopify store? Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you. Contact us
Frequently asked questions about buying a Shopify store FAQ
Where can I buy ready-made Shopify stores?
If you want to buy a ready-made Shopify store, you can do so on various online marketplaces. Examples of such portals are Projektify, Mabya and shoplieferant.de.
How can I buy a Shopify domain?
You can buy a domain directly from Shopify. If you choose to do this, configuration and setup are completely automated. You can also use email forwarding, manage subdomains and add international domains.
How much does a Shopify store cost?
How much an online shop costs depends on various factors, such as the size of the shop and the number of products. In principle, however, you can expect costs of around €4,000 for a rather small and simple store. A larger web shop with individually adapted functions can quickly cost more than €20,000.
