Ecommerce Acquisitions

searcher profile

August 08, 2025

by a searcher from Indiana University at Bloomington in Tampa, FL, USA

Has anyone on here purchased and been successful at scaling an existing ecommerce brand? FBA or non-FBA? If so, I'd love some advice on what key points to look for and what to stay away from. I've looked at so many listings and quickly rejected them due to a variety of reasons like declining numbers or no defensibility and moat. I've dipped my toes into my own brand, but really haven't put too much effort into it because I'd rather acquire and scale.
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commentor profile
Reply by an intermediary
from University of Western Australia in London, UK
Our firm (Hahnbeck is an investment bank specifically in consumer) has been involved in many of these deals and we've seen them go both ways. The deals that succeed post-acquisition tend to have the following characteristics: good management who stay on post-exit, good metrics (sustainable trends in gross margin, CM2, CM3 and the components of these), product category tailwinds, multichannel operations, reasonable acquisition price. Having a strong brand (or even better, a strong following/"tribe") is helpful. For durables, a solid new product development pipeline is important. You have to be selective and disciplined but there are good opportunities out there.
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Reply by a lender
from California State University, Sacramento in Seattle, WA, USA
Work with service providers that have had success in this area. To be blunt give the changes in consumer tastes over time and with changes in search engine privacy policies, many of our DTC borrower haven’t performed well. Caution.
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