Who Does Due Diligence When You Buy a Shopify Store?
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
- Checks in every memo8
- Automatic on day one3 of 8
- Read by handad spend and processor payouts
- Tracked ecom salesEUR 200M+ZenoX ad-management figures, not Kairos deal volume - Kairos hasn't closed a deal yet.
No marketplace does full due diligence for you automatically, Kairos included. An automated layer verifies connected data first; ad spend and processor payouts still need a person to check by hand, on any venue. A paid specialist can go further for a fee. Reading the findings and deciding whether to buy stays the buyer's own job, always.
Looking to buy one? Join the buyer waitlist
What the Automated Layer Actually Checks
Every Kairos listing runs a free automated verification layer on the store's own Shopify order data: revenue matched against real orders, refunds, and weekly drift. That layer is honest about where it stops. Two of the underlying checks, ad spend and processor payouts, have no automatic data source at all; nothing pulls them unless a person opens the ad account or the bank statement by hand. A passed check means what was checked held up, not that everything was checked. The automated layer informs a buyer's own due diligence. It does not replace it, on Kairos or anywhere else that only reads connected data.
What a Paid Specialist Adds
A buyer can also pay for Kairos Due Diligence: a paid human check that works on any listing, on Kairos or on a completely different marketplace, a broker, or a private sale. Five checks a spreadsheet cannot run: the seller's identity and real ownership, the raw Shopify, ad, and bank data read by hand, concentration risk in one supplier or one ad account, a recorded call with the seller, and confirmation that every asset can actually transfer. It costs EUR 1,500 to EUR 5,000 for stores up to EUR 2M, quoted above that, and the report lands written, in 5 working days, with no call included.
What Stays the Buyer's Own Job
No check, automated or paid, decides whether to buy. Verification proves what the connected data can prove: a point-in-time read of past numbers, not a warranty of anything beyond what was checked, and never a promise about what happens next. It informs a buyer's own due diligence; it does not replace the judgment call. Weighing whether one supplier or one ad account makes the whole business fragile, reading what the seller actually says on a call, and deciding the price is fair for what was shown, those stay with the buyer no matter which venue or which paid report sits underneath them.
When the Paid Step Is Worth It
Deal size is the practical test. Below the line, the venue's automated checks plus a careful read of the memo are proportionate to what is actually at risk. Once a deal crosses EUR 500,000, the paid work moves internally from a contract accountant to a contract M&A analyst, because getting a concentration risk or a transferability problem wrong costs more at that size. The same line works as a buyer's own rule of thumb for paying for Kairos Due Diligence on somebody else's listing entirely. Below it, reading the automated memo yourself is often proportionate. Above it, paying a specialist to read the raw data by hand buys real protection for real money, on any store, on any marketplace.
Related questions
Terms Used
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.