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Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
The price does not come from sales, it comes from earnings. So a business turning over 1 million euros is worth a multiple of its profit, and profit is the number the question leaves out. At a 10 percent margin that is 100,000 euros of earnings, and Kairos prices verified stores at 2.2x to 3.2x on top. Two businesses with identical sales can be worth 500,000 euros apart.
Start with seller's discretionary earnings, not revenue. A 1 million euro store keeping 8 percent has 80,000 euros of earnings and prices in the low to mid six figures at the verified band. The same store keeping 25 percent has 250,000 euros and prices past half a million. The multiple range barely moved; the margin did the work. So before anyone talks price, get the trailing twelve months of earnings and the margin they came from.
Because it is the biggest one. A listing headline of 1 million euros in sales sounds like a different business than 80,000 euros in earnings, and both describe the same store. Read past the top line every time: ask for the earnings figure, the margin it implies, and what was added back to get there.
Growth direction first, then traffic mix, then concentration and age. A million in sales trending up on organic traffic with a spread of products prices near the top of the band. The same million trending down, bought entirely with ads, resting on one hero product, prices at the bottom or gets no offer at all.
All of this arithmetic runs on one input, and it is the input sellers are most tempted to round up. Earnings claimed in a spreadsheet are worth nothing to a buyer; earnings reconciled against the store's own order data are the entire valuation. Check that first and the multiple conversation becomes short and pleasant.
Related questions
Where the band comes from: Empire Flippers publishes 30 to 50 times average monthly net profit for an ecommerce business, which is 2.5x to 4.2x a year, and FE International publishes 2.0x to 4.0x SDE for smaller owner-operated brands. The Kairos model prices in 2.2x to 3.2x, inside both, wide enough to span every niche it covers. It is not a record of Kairos sales - the marketplace has not opened yet.
Checked against
Sellers on the list go through verification first when we open. Reading up is step one. Having your revenue proven from your own orders is step two.