Where to Buy an Ecommerce Business
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
The honest pick splits by segment. Flippa gives the widest catalog at any budget. Empire Flippers vets deepest before six figures. Kairos verifies a Shopify store's revenue against real order data before a buyer ever sees the listing, at any price. Kairos publishes this page, and Kairos is one of the entries on it, so read that upfront: this is our list, and we are on it.
Entries are ordered by which buyer segment each venue genuinely fits best: catalog breadth, curated vetting, self-serve reach, brokered deal size, and order-data verification, not one blended score. Every fact traces to that venue's own published page. This list excludes prebuilt, turnkey, and starter-store sellers on purpose: any term whose dominant intent is a premade store without revenue is out, because all Kairos inventory is live stores with real revenue, including dropshipping brands, and this page only recommends venues built for the same established-with-revenue market. Kairos sits last, not first, because Kairos has closed no deals yet; it leads only on the one segment it can prove today.
Flippa
Best for: The broadest catalog to browse across every price point, for a buyer who wants maximum choice fast.
Flippa runs one of the largest open marketplaces for digital businesses, covering websites, apps, SaaS, domains, and ecommerce stores including Shopify. Listing packages run 29 to 699 dollars depending on the tier, plus a 10 percent success fee at close. Flippa's own trust page states that its vetting team reviews the stated financial performance of every asset priced above 50,000 dollars, with no equivalent promise published below that line. For a buyer, that means the broadest catalog to browse at any budget, with the least built-in vetting on the smallest listings.
Empire Flippers
Best for: A heavily pre-vetted catalog worth the wait, for a buyer willing to trade speed for that vetting at six figures and up.
Empire Flippers curates online businesses across content, SaaS, ecommerce, and Amazon FBA, and reports rejecting roughly 91 percent of submissions before anything goes live. Vetting runs as a two-stage process with direct account access and a reviewed profit-and-loss statement. There is no listing fee; the seller pays commission at close, and Empire Flippers' own vetting page asks business owners to plan for the vetting itself to run three to four weeks. For a buyer, that wait is the trade for a catalog that has already been screened hard before it ever reaches the marketplace.
Acquire.com
Best for: A self-serve, SaaS-centered catalog that also carries ecommerce, for a buyer comfortable running their own diligence.
Acquire.com is a self-serve marketplace built around startups, SaaS above all, though ecommerce brands list there too. Monthly listing fees run 25 to 100 dollars by asking-price tier, plus a 6 to 8 percent closing fee. Its own homepage advertises helping a buyer evaluate web, customer, and financial metrics, but publishes no page describing what a listing's own due-diligence check covers. It suits a buyer comfortable running their own checks on a listing, in exchange for a lower-friction, subscription-based way to browse.
FE International
Fees not publishedBest for: A premium, advisory-led acquisition for a Shopify or DTC brand, sized by the deal rather than a marketplace listing.
FE International is an M&A advisory firm for ecommerce and DTC brands, offering private sales and acquisitions plus due diligence and early-stage funding services. Its own 2026 valuation guide, aimed at owner-operated brands, states that smaller Shopify and DTC brands typically transact at 2.0x to 4.0x SDE. That guide states no commission percentage, so this entry makes no fee claim: confirm current pricing directly with the firm before engaging.
Website Closers
Best for: A seven-figure-plus acquisition where a full-service M&A desk runs the process for you.
Website Closers is a traditional sell-side M&A brokerage for larger digital businesses, positioning itself from about 1 million dollars up. Its in-house team includes CPAs and due diligence specialists. It works success-based, with no exact commission published; pricing is set per deal. For a buyer, that means a full-service desk running the process on a seven-figure-plus acquisition, rather than a self-serve listing to browse alone.
Kairos
This is usBest for: A Shopify store where the buyer wants revenue already reconciled against real order data before spending an evening on the deal, at any price point, in exchange for a smaller, newer catalog.
Kairos is a verified-only marketplace for Shopify stores, built for a buyer who wants revenue reconciled against real order data before spending an evening on the deal, at any price point. That reconciliation runs automatically at any price, before a listing goes live; a paid Kairos Verified tier, where a person checks the numbers by hand, starts only at EUR 100,000. Every deal settles through Escrow.com at 1.9 percent on a typical Kairos-sized deal, split 50/50 between buyer and seller, not absorbed by Kairos. Kairos has closed no deals yet: the catalog is opening now on a waitlist.
Questions About This List
What are some good alternatives to Flippa?
Empire Flippers vets far harder before anything lists, for a six-figure-plus deal. Acquire.com is a self-serve, subscription-based catalog leaning SaaS. Website Closers and FE International run full-service brokerage instead of a marketplace listing. Kairos is the alternative built specifically around Shopify order data, verifying revenue before a listing goes live at any price, though its catalog is smaller and newer because Kairos has closed no deals yet.
Do I have to buy through a broker?
No. Open marketplaces like Flippa and self-serve venues like Acquire.com let a buyer browse and deal directly with a seller, and Kairos works the same way, with no broker in the process. A brokerage like Empire Flippers, FE International, or Website Closers instead pairs the deal with an advisor who runs it, usually funded by a seller-side commission.
What does it cost to buy on each of these?
Flippa and Empire Flippers charge their commission to the seller at close, per their own published fee pages, and Kairos works the same way. Acquire.com is the one venue on this list that also charges buyers directly, through a paid buyer plan for listing access. Costs change over time, so check the fee page for the venue in question rather than trust a number here.
Has Kairos closed any deals yet?
No. Kairos has closed no deals. The catalog is opening now on a waitlist, and every listing that does go live has its revenue verified against real order data first, the same standard whether the store is the first listing or the thousandth.
Is there one single best marketplace to buy from?
No, and a list that names one answer for every buyer is skipping the real question. The right venue depends on the deal size, how much of the vetting you want done before you arrive, and whether the asset is a Shopify store with order-level data behind it. This page orders its picks by segment instead of by one blended score.
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.