The online business space should be considered

searcher profile

July 01, 2020

by a searcher from Queen's University - Queen's School of Business in Hong Kong

Hi,

I just sold my e-commerce business. Honestly I think more Searchers should look into it. Bellow article I wrote might shine some light into this industry

“Cashing Out! Sold My First Business (Amazon FBA)— A bitter sweet moment” by Rick Wong https://link.medium.com/Fnjj8xjdE7

5
20
232
Replies
20
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in San Juan, Puerto Rico
I am very interested in the space. I believe it falls slightly outside the traditional searcher-type business as these online businesses are generally non-recurring, high growth, high risk businesses. It is more akin to mini-VC at times. Agree with Michael that non-competes are pretty much worthless in the space until you get to very large numbers.

FBA businesses; though, scare the crap out of me. Props to you for making it work, but I wouldn't buy a wholesaler whose only client was Walmart, and that is essentially what FBA is. Amazon can squeeze you a hundred different ways: changing their payment terms, changing their search algorithm, launching a private label product, taking you down for some terms violation or complaint, etc.

Curious to know if anybody has been succesful in obtaining financing for pure content or lead generation businesses? Most of the debt funded deals I have seen in the real world are e-commerce with inventory as collateral.
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
in Seattle, WA, USA
Have evaluated a number of these and in each case there was nothing to prevent the seller from simply starting a new one and competing head-to-head, with the twin advantages of greater experience as well as our money to fund it!

Non-competes are impossible to enforce across borders. The only way we would consider acquisition of a pure online business would be if there was some key component which could not be easily replicated by the seller, or if the sale was prompted by one of "the big D's" such that the seller was no longer in the picture anyway.
commentor profile
+18 more replies.
Join the discussion