What Questions Should I Ask When Buying an Online Store?
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media. Last reviewed 4 September 2026.
When you are buying an online store, split your questions in two: what the store's own order data can prove, and what only the seller can tell you. Claimed revenue against the order ledger and the refund rate against its 2% benchmark have a data source. Ad spend and processor payouts have none, so either someone opens those accounts by hand or you are judging the seller's answer.
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What Can the Store's Own Data Prove?
Start with the questions a verification engine can answer without the seller's cooperation. Does the claimed revenue match the order ledger? On Kairos that gap warns past 10% and fails past 20%. Refunds above 4% fail on their own. A healthy store runs 2%. Chargebacks above 1% fail the same way, double the 0.5% a clean store sits at. Ask what the last quarter's trend shows, because order data reveals whether revenue is climbing or fading, whatever the listing says. Then ask where the revenue actually lives. One month holding more than 30% of the trailing year draws a warning. Anything past 40% fails. A store that spiked once is a different purchase than a store that earns evenly. Kairos runs 8 checks in total, and 3 of them read the store's own orders. The other 5 need a feed the market does not fetch automatically, or a second run to compare against.
What Has No Data Source Anywhere?
Two of the numbers you need have no automatic data source anywhere in the market, and that is a structural gap, not a Kairos limitation. No marketplace's software pulls ad-platform billing or processor payouts on its own. Unless a human opens those accounts by hand, ad spend next to revenue and payouts next to what was reported stay seller claims. The rest of this group is judgment. Ask why the store is for sale, and listen for an answer that survives a follow-up question. Ask whether supplier terms transfer, because pricing built on a personal relationship can end the day the relationship does. Then ask one more thing on its own: how many hours a week did the founder actually work? A store that needs its owner at the desk every morning is a job, and you should know you are buying one.
What Are You Actually Buying?
The last group of questions is about the asset list itself. Ask which items are on it: the store, the payments account, the ad accounts, the domain. Those 4 are the ones Kairos marks critical in its transfer template, and a critical item that has not moved blocks the funds release. An email list transfers with its consent records, and GDPR sets the limit on using it. A right-to-object window has to run before you mail EU contacts, and about 6 weeks is the safe pattern. The purchase agreement's data addendum sets the exact window for the deal, and anyone who objects is a contact you may not market to. Social accounts get their own question, because a personal account cannot be sold under the platform's own terms. The sale transfers exactly the list you agree on, and anything left off it stays with the seller.
Buying a Store Somewhere Else?
Kairos Due Diligence works on any deal - Flippa, a broker, a private sale. A person reads the store's raw numbers and writes you a report. If the deal is bad, the report says walk away. From EUR 1.5K, no account needed.
Answered. Now Get in Line for the First Store
When the doors open, verified stores go to the waitlist first. You have done the reading part. The list is the part with a queue.