At E-Business Institute, we’re always on the look-out for good quality websites for sale. We don’t often look at e-commerce sites, but this week Holly O’Connor from Flippa showed us a really interesting one that could be tempting!
Liz Raad: Welcome to our website showcase! This week we have Holly O’Connor from Flippa.com. We’re looking at something a little bit different, so what do we have to show this week?
Profitable eCommerce Website For Sale
Holly: Yes, we’re looking at something a little bit different this week. We’ve actually got an eCommerce business. It’s a private labelled business that sells products in the baby proofing and baby safety industry.
This is a three-year-old company, called Wittle. They sell a range of different products that include finger-pinch guards, sliding cabinet locks, safety straps, and a bunch of other baby proofing products. So, quite a niched eCommerce business, but privately labelled. Also, this is in a very profitable, engaged, and active sector.
Liz: Great, so what was it about this business that you thought was a bit unique, or something that you thought stood out to you?
Website Has Unique Opportunities For Growth…
Holly: First of all, because it’s obviously privately labelled, and they’ve got a great website. They sell on Amazon US and UK, and are also in Walmart, eBay, Jet, and Sears, and they have their own website.
But one of the reasons that I was drawn towards this, is there’s quite a big opportunity for this business to expand into Amazon in Europe. So, the seller has actually translated and set up listings for Amazon France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He hasn’t yet turned these on, so if a prospective buyer was to come in, they could easily roll it out into the European Amazon market.
Easy To Run, Semi Passive Website
It’s also quite passive, so the current owner spends about 10 to 17 hours a week on it, and this is generally customer inquiries, responding to emails, and other feedback etc.
Liz: Okay, fantastic. So, we’ll have a quick look at the listing on Flippa, just to see a bit more detail. What’s the numbers on this one?
Website Nets $96,000, Being Sold For $195,000
Holly: The asking price is $195,000, and it’s currently generating annual net profits of almost $96,000, which means that it’s got a profit multiple of 2.0. So this is a profitable business.
Liz: Very nice. And what would you say in terms of seller? Do you know much about the seller and why he’s selling the business?
About The Website Seller…
Holly: Yes, I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago for one of our email marketing campaigns, and he’s set up another business which he wants to focus his time on. This is generally quite typical of a lot of sellers that decide to sell. So, that’s his reason for selling it at the moment.
Liz: Okay, so raising capital for another project. This is really common in this space. We have that all the time, where someone’s wanting to step up to another level or do something different, and so they’re going to sell this business to raise some funds.
Fantastic, so lots of opportunity going forward there. Obviously, this isn’t one that’s under our strategy, but we can certainly see there’s some really great potential for growth there, and a great opportunity at only a 2 x multiple as well.
Holly: Exactly. And given that it’s an eCommerce business that’s got its own private label, it just makes it even more valuable. It’s not a drop shipping model, which is something that I think is desirable in a lot of cases. So, great little brand, awesome website, and they’ve just really pulled this whole thing together quite well.
Liz: Great, so if someone wants to find out more, what should they do?
Holly: So, if you go onto Flippa and you search via eCommerce stores you’ll be able to find Wittle. Once you’re on here, you just click to contact the buyer. Or if you click inquiry, you can follow through the process to make an offer.
If there’s anything that you’re unsure about, or if you can’t get hold of the seller for any reason, you can just reach out directly to support at Flippa.com.
Thanks so much Holly for sharing this with us today. What a great niche to be in, and a very interesting business model!
For our readers – we’d love to hear more from around your successful online business purchases. Tell us – do you have an ecommerce business, or have you tried a private label business model? Have you ever considered broadening your reach across multiple platforms? Do you like the idea of purchasing a ready-made business model, rather than starting from scratch? Comment below to tell us more!
