Frequently asked questions

TrustProfit is a marketplace for selling ecommerce stores. Founders list their Shopify or WooCommerce store, attract verified buyers, and exit through escrow — revenue verified by MerchantFlow, identity private until an NDA is signed. Stores appear on a public revenue leaderboard so buyers can discover the best brands.

Verified stores connect their Shopify or WooCommerce account to MerchantFlow through an OAuth handshake. Metrics — revenue, orders, average order value, and month-over-month change — are then imported directly from the platform and refreshed by a twice-daily scheduled sync. Until a store connects, its numbers are self-reported.

Live metrics (revenue, orders, AOV, and month-over-month change) come straight from Shopify or WooCommerce via MerchantFlow and carry the verified badge. Profit and margin are self-reported: they depend on the seller having connected all of their COGS, shipping, advertising, and fee data, so confirm them during due diligence.

The multiple is the asking price expressed as a ratio of the store's annual profit. A 3x multiple means the asking price is about three times trailing twelve-month profit — the quickest way to compare how aggressively two stores are priced.

TrustProfit applies a profit-multiple band — currently about 2.4x to 3.8x of trailing annual profit — to produce the low-to-high estimated fair range shown on each listed store. It is an automated estimate to frame negotiations, not a formal appraisal.

Stores are ranked by monthly revenue by default. You can re-sort the leaderboard by profit, margin, biggest movers, lowest multiple, or newest listings, and ranks recompute automatically as verified metrics update.

Sellers can list anonymously to protect their brand while testing the market. The real name and domain are masked behind a verified- handle until a buyer submits an offer and both parties sign an NDA. Identity, domain, and full profit-and-loss detail unlock only after the NDA executes.

Open any store that is For Sale or Open to Offers and click Make an offer. Offers are non-binding and start a private thread with the seller. For anonymous listings, submitting an offer also requests the NDA that reveals the seller's identity.

On your listing, use Verify with MerchantFlow. You federate from MerchantFlow, which proves you own the store and flips your listing from self-reported to verified, pulling in live metrics automatically.

For Sale means the store is listed with an asking price; Open to Offers means the seller will entertain bids without a fixed price; Under Offer means a deal is in progress; Sold means it has transacted; and Not for Sale means the store is ranked but not currently available.

TrustProfit tracks Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Both verify through MerchantFlow.

Verified metrics refresh from the connected platform on a twice-daily scheduled MerchantFlow sync, and leaderboard ranks recompute hourly.

Yes. For anonymous listings your identity stays private until an NDA is executed, and acquisitions move through Escrow.com before any assets or funds change hands.

Listing is free. You create a listing, optionally verify it through MerchantFlow, and it appears on the public revenue leaderboard at no upfront cost — fees only come into play when a deal closes through escrow.

Acquisitions settle through Escrow.com, which charges its own per-transaction escrow fee that buyer and seller agree to up front. Review the current escrow fee schedule before closing and confirm who pays it as part of the deal terms.

Value an ecommerce business by multiplying its trailing annual profit by a market multiple. Most established stores sell for about 2.4x to 3.8x annual profit (or SDE), so a store earning $120,000 a year in profit is typically worth roughly $288,000 to $456,000. Verified revenue, steady growth, and clean books push toward the high end.

A Shopify store is generally worth about 2.4x to 3.8x its trailing annual profit. A store profiting $5,000 a month — $60,000 a year — is therefore typically worth about $144,000 to $228,000. Recurring revenue, low owner involvement, diversified traffic, and verified growth raise the multiple.

Most small-to-mid ecommerce stores sell for a profit multiple of about 2.4x to 3.8x trailing annual profit (equivalently, an SDE multiple). Larger businesses, roughly $5M and up, are valued on EBITDA multiples instead. TrustProfit shows each listed store's actual asking multiple so you can compare.

Profit, not revenue, drives most ecommerce valuations. Two stores with identical revenue can be worth very different amounts if their margins differ, so buyers price on trailing annual profit or SDE. Pure revenue multiples are mainly used for high-growth, pre-profit brands.

A good multiple for an established ecommerce store is roughly 2.4x to 3.8x trailing annual profit. Below about 2.4x a store may be underpriced or carry risk; above 3.8x usually requires verified growth, recurring revenue, or a defensible brand to justify.

Divide the asking price by trailing annual profit. A $300,000 asking price on a store earning $100,000 a year in profit is a 3.0x multiple. Use annual profit — or SDE — consistently so multiples are comparable across stores.

SDE is a business's net profit with the owner's salary, one-time costs, and personal expenses added back. It reflects the total financial benefit to a single owner-operator and is the standard earnings base for valuing ecommerce businesses under about $5M.

Start with net profit, then add back the owner's salary or draw, any one-time or non-recurring expenses, and personal expenses run through the business. The total is SDE. Multiply SDE by about 2.4x to 3.8x to estimate the business's value.

SDE adds the owner's salary back to earnings and is used for small, owner-operated businesses; EBITDA does not add back an owner's salary and is used for larger businesses run by a management team. Most ecommerce stores under about $5M are valued on SDE.

Add-backs are expenses added back to net profit when calculating SDE, because a new owner won't inherit them — typically the owner's salary, one-time costs, and personal expenses. Well-documented add-backs raise SDE and therefore the valuation.

Net profit margin = (revenue − COGS − operating expenses) ÷ revenue × 100. For example, $100,000 in revenue with $55,000 of COGS and $20,000 of expenses leaves $25,000 profit — a 25% net margin. Gross margin uses only COGS.

Healthy ecommerce net margins typically run about 10% to 20%, on gross margins of 40% to 60%. Margins vary widely by category — high-AOV and own-brand stores run higher, while reselling and dropshipping usually run thinner.

Gross margin is revenue minus the cost of goods sold, divided by revenue; net margin also subtracts operating expenses like marketing, fulfillment, and fees. Net margin is what's left as profit, so it is the figure used for valuation.

Average order value (AOV) = total revenue ÷ number of orders. A store that made $50,000 across 1,000 orders has an AOV of $50. Measure it over a fixed window so it's comparable period to period.

There's no universal good AOV — it depends on category and price point — but a rising AOV is almost always positive, because it lifts revenue and profit per order without needing more traffic. Bundles, upsells, and free-shipping thresholds are common ways to raise it.

AOV sets how much revenue each order generates, which determines how much you can profitably spend to acquire a customer. A higher AOV raises lifetime value and makes paid acquisition more sustainable.

Break-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which an order's gross profit exactly covers its ad cost. It equals 1 ÷ contribution margin: at a 40% margin you break even at 2.5x ROAS, so anything above 2.5x is profitable.

Divide 1 by your contribution-margin fraction. If your margin after COGS and variable costs is 50% (0.5), break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.5 = 2.0x. To hit a target profit, set your goal ROAS above break-even.

ACoS (advertising cost of sales) is the inverse of ROAS — ad spend ÷ revenue. Break-even ACoS equals your contribution margin, so a 40% margin means a 40% break-even ACoS, the same point as a 2.5x break-even ROAS.

CAC = total sales and marketing spend ÷ new customers acquired in the same period. Spend $10,000 to win 200 customers and your CAC is $50. Include ad spend plus any acquisition overhead for an honest figure.

CAC is only good relative to lifetime value — aim for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. A $50 CAC is healthy if each customer is worth $150 or more in lifetime profit, and unsustainable if they're worth $60.

Include all sales and marketing costs tied to winning new customers: paid ads, agency or freelancer fees, marketing software, and acquisition promotions. Exclude the cost of retaining existing customers, which belongs to retention rather than acquisition.

A common LTV formula is average order value × purchases per year × customer lifespan in years × contribution margin. A $60 AOV, 3 orders a year, a 2-year lifespan, and a 50% margin give an LTV of $180. Using margin keeps LTV a profit figure.

A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is about 3:1 — each customer returns roughly three times what they cost to acquire. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer; far above 3:1 can signal you're under-investing in growth.

Use profit — contribution margin — not revenue. A revenue-based LTV overstates how much you can spend to acquire a customer because it ignores COGS and variable costs. Multiplying by your margin turns LTV into the spendable figure.

The LTV:CAC ratio compares the lifetime profit of a customer to the cost of acquiring them. About 3:1 is healthy; below 1:1 means you lose money on each customer, while a very high ratio may mean you're spending too little to grow.

Raise LTV — higher AOV, more repeat purchases, lower churn, better margins — or lower CAC through cheaper, better-targeted acquisition. Improving retention usually moves the ratio fastest, because it lifts both order frequency and customer lifespan at once.

Escrow.com's fee follows a tiered schedule: about 3.25% on the first $5,000, 0.26% on the portion from $5,000 to $25,000, and 0.22% above $25,000, with a $10 minimum. A $100,000 transaction costs roughly $380, which buyer and seller can split.

The escrow fee is negotiable — it can be paid by the buyer, by the seller, or split 50/50 — and is agreed up front as part of the deal terms. TrustProfit's escrow-fee calculator shows each party's share for any split.

Escrow holds the buyer's funds with a neutral third party until the seller transfers the store, domain, and agreed assets and the buyer confirms during an inspection period. Only then are funds released, protecting both sides from non-delivery and non-payment.

Net proceeds = sale price − the seller's share of the escrow fee − any broker commission. On a $200,000 sale with a split escrow fee and no broker, a seller nets close to the full price, since escrow fees on six-figure deals are only a few hundred dollars.

The main deductions are the escrow fee — often split with the buyer — and, if you use one, a broker commission, typically 10% to 15% on smaller deals. Listing on TrustProfit is free, so there's no upfront listing fee to deduct.

Ecommerce store revenue varies enormously by category, platform, and maturity. TrustProfit publishes live benchmark figures — median monthly revenue, margin, and asking multiple — drawn from verified Shopify and WooCommerce stores; see the benchmarks pages for current numbers and sample sizes.

TrustProfit's benchmarks pages aggregate verified metrics from real listed stores into medians by category and platform, each shown with its sample size and an as-of date. They draw only on MerchantFlow-verified revenue, with self-reported figures labelled separately.

Benchmarks are medians — plus average growth — computed from verified, non-archived listings, segmented by category and platform. Segments with fewer than five stores are suppressed to avoid misleading or identifying figures, and money figures use a single currency so the medians stay meaningful.