--- title: "What is a due diligence checklist for buying an ecommerce store?" url: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/due-diligence-checklist-for-buying-an-ecommerce-store/ updated: 2026-10-12 publisher: FirstPass Memo (hello@firstpassmemo.com) --- Answers # What is a due diligence checklist for buying an ecommerce store? Short answer: Check 24 months of platform sales against payment-provider payouts and bank deposits, refunds and chargebacks, supplier invoices, ad spend viewed in the ad accounts, product and traffic concentration, supplier terms, inventory on the closing date, owner hours and which accounts actually transfer. Then close through escrow with a written handover period. Updated 12 October 2026 · Figures checked against their sources on 12 October 2026 ## Check a listing now, free FirstPass Memo offers a free red-flag checker for business-for-sale listings and, during the beta, a free first-pass memo on a specific listing you send. Paste any listing below for payback, the asking multiple and its red flags. Nothing you paste leaves your browser. Open the full checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/) to unlock every flag with its seller question. ## What should you check before you contact the seller? - Run the listing through the free red-flag checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/) for payback, the asking multiple and flags. - Check the store's age, product range and reviews from the outside. - Work out the price you would pay on verified profit, not the asking price: true payback calculator (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/payback-calculator/). ## Which financial records should you check first? - 24 months of sales from the store platform, by month. - Payouts from Shopify Payments, Stripe or PayPal, matched to bank deposits. - Refunds and chargebacks by month. - Supplier invoices backing cost of goods. - Ad accounts (Meta, Google, TikTok) for spend and return, viewed live. - App, theme, shipping and fulfilment costs that sit outside the P&L. ## What should you check about customers and traffic? - Share of revenue by product: one product above half of sales is concentration. - Returning-customer rate and email list size, engagement and consent. - Traffic by channel in Analytics: one channel above 60% is a flag. ## What should you check about operations and the transfer? - Supplier terms: will the supplier sell to you at the same price, and is there an agreement? - Inventory count and valuation on the closing date, paid separately from the multiple. - Owner hours per week, by task, and who does customer service. - Which accounts transfer (store, domain, email list, social accounts, ad accounts) and which you must open yourself. - Trademarks, product images and content: who owns them. - Escrow and a handover period written into the agreement. ## Which red flags should you expect? On ecommerce listings our checker most often raises one traffic channel over 60% (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/one-channel-over-60-percent-of-traffic/), a margin that looks too high (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/very-high-margin/), under 12 months of history (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/under-12-months-of-history/) and no connected data source (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/no-connected-data-source/). The ecommerce seller question checklist (https://firstpassmemo.com/get/seller-questions-ecommerce) turns this list into questions you can send as-is. ## Sources - Escrow.com, Fee calculator, US dollar transactions (https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator), read 7 October 2026 - Stripe Docs, User roles (https://docs.stripe.com/get-started/account/teams/roles), read 7 October 2026 - FirstPass Memo, seller question bank, October 2026 (general checklist) (https://firstpassmemo.com/get/seller-questions-general), our own questions - FirstPass Memo, red-flag checker rules (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/), our own rules, published as /rules.json ## Related - How to verify Shopify revenue (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-verify-shopify-store-revenue-before-buying/) - Is buying a Shopify store worth it? (https://firstpassmemo.com/buy/shopify-store/) - True payback calculator (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/payback-calculator/) - How escrow works (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-does-escrow-work-when-buying-a-website/) - Glossary of listing terms (https://firstpassmemo.com/glossary/) - More questions buyers ask (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/) Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice. ## Looking at a specific listing? Get a free first-pass memo. Paste the link, we reply within 24 hours of acceptance. Free during the beta, then pay what it was worth ($0 is fine). After the beta, your first memo is $79; human quick reviews cost $199–$390. --- FirstPass Memo is informational screening, not investment, legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and not an audit. Seller figures are not independently verified. HTML version: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/due-diligence-checklist-for-buying-an-ecommerce-store/