Buying a prebuilt e‑commerce shop can be a great way to venture into entrepreneurship. In this article, we will look at the pros and cons of buying a prebuilt online shop. And while the cons might look more beefy than the pros, we will look at tips that will ensure you don't encounter these pitfalls.
The numbers tell us there is no better time to get started than now. Statistics show that e-retail sales are expected to reach $7.4 trillion by the end of 2025.
But what if you want to start running an e‑commerce shop but don't want to go through the hassle of building one from scratch? Maybe you don't have the technical know-how or you just don't have the time. Well, there is the option of buying a prebuilt e‑commerce shop. Before we look at the pros and cons, let's look at what it means to buy a prebuilt online shop.
Prebuilt e‑commerce shops are online stores that have been built from scratch and fully set up for a new owner. The sellers of the shop take care of everything from building the website and choosing the initial set of products that will be sold in the store. Some marketplaces like the Shopify Exchange marketplace offer ready-made high-traffic online stores with less than $100 in sales. All the new owner has to do is purchase the store and start selling immediately.
Now that we know what a prebuilt e‑commerce shop is, let’s look at some of the pros you will get from purchasing one instead of building it from scratch.
Building an online business from scratch involves a lot of steps; from buying your domain, building the website (including designing the logo and theme), selecting and sourcing products, all the way to marketing and sales. But the initial steps of the process can be very time-consuming.
By contrast, purchasing a prebuilt e‑commerce shop will allow you to skip these initial steps. You can buy a prebuilt shop and start marketing and selling from the get-go.
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Another way buying a prebuilt shop helps save time is due to the fact that most prebuilt e‑commerce stores come with organised business systems such as inventory management, fulfillment, payment processes, customer service, etc. So you wouldn’t have to spend time setting them up.
The key thing is to purchase from a reputable seller, making the buying process easy, quick, and stress-free. And there are a couple of places you can buy a prebuilt e‑commerce shop from. You could buy from a dedicated e‑commerce store exchange marketplace like Shopify Exchange, which we mentioned above. You can also purchase a store from an online marketplace where individuals can buy and sell websites.
Since you don’t have to worry about the logistics of building the store from scratch, you can focus all your efforts on marketing and start making sales from day one. Here are some marketing strategies that will help you get started:
Before you invest in purchasing a prebuilt e‑commerce shop, it’s important that you understand everything it entails — both the good and the bad. So here are some cons of buying a prebuilt online shop:
Similar to buying website themes, there is a huge possibility that the e‑commerce store you purchase might not be ‘truly’ unique. There might be multiple stores that will look similar to yours. By contrast, building a custom website from scratch, allows you to have complete control of your shop’s website theme and the personality of your e‑commerce brand.
To avoid this issue, do proper research before purchasing a shop. Make sure that the seller is selling you a store with custom themes and not using the same template for multiple shops.
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But apart from looking at reviews from other customers to see if there are any complaints, it might be difficult to know for a fact that you are being offered a store built with a custom theme. So one other option you have is to get the seller to offer you a legal guarantee that they are selling you a site with a custom theme. This can be included in the terms and conditions of the sales agreement.
It’s also a good idea to look for a seller that uses templates and themes that allow some degree of customisation after you make the purchase.
If one is not careful, it can be easy to get scammed by unscrupulous sellers. It’s important that you do your research and only make purchases from reputable sellers.
There are multiple ways you can buy a prebuilt e‑commerce shop. You can either buy directly from a 'solopreneur' looking to sell their shop or you can purchase from an e‑commerce store marketplace.
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If you choose to buy from a marketplace, make sure you read reviews from customers that have bought from the seller in the past. Looking at reviews and testimonials will help you determine if you’ve made the right choice. If you buy from a solo seller, make sure you vet the shop they are offering thoroughly.
Be very careful when buying from marketplaces or solo sellers. For instance, if a solo seller is willing to sell their existing e‑commerce shop for a fairly low price, there might be something wrong with the shop. Same way, an e‑commerce store marketplace might use subpar technology — like an outdated e-commerce platform — to host the online stores that they offer.
Note that no matter how much research you do before you buy the shop, there will always be a risk of encountering hidden problems. For example, the inventory management system for the shop might not function as it should, or the customer service system in place might not be efficient. Once you’ve purchased the store, the issues that come with it are yours to bear. So take your time before making the purchase.
While buying a prebuilt e‑commerce shop will certainly be quicker than building your own online store website from scratch, there are other options that are also worth considering.
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E-commerce website builders like Shopify and its competitors enable you to create fully functional e‑commerce sites in next to no time, without having to worry about web hosting, web design, coding, setting up payment methods, etc.
And if even that sounds like too much work, there are online marketplaces, such as eBay and Etsy, where all you have to worry about is listing your products and fulfilling your orders. Meanwhile, they take care of the most important thing, which is getting your product in front of customers.
Both of these options have their own drawbacks, of course. E-commerce website builders still have a bit of a learning curve and there is still some initial work to be done before you can start selling (although the chances are any prebuilt shop will use one of these platforms, so you will have to learn them anyway!).
And with online marketplaces, your products can get lost amongst the competition, you’ll have very little control over your brand, and it’s much more difficult to grow your business.
However, if your priorities are saving time and money, then these are definitely the alternative options that you should consider when thinking about buying a prebuilt online store.
Buying a prebuilt e‑commerce shop is a quick and affordable way to start buying and selling online. However, there are certain important steps you need to take to ensure that your business venture is a success. So before you purchase the shop, make sure that you do adequate research to avoid getting scammed or spending more than expected.
Along with understanding the pros and cons of buying a prebuilt shop, the highlighted tips in this article will help you on your journey to becoming a successful e‑commerce entrepreneur.