Selling your Shopify store

You can sell your Shopify store to another entrepreneur and earn money from the sale.

Preparations for selling your store

Before you sell your store, review the following preparations:

  • Ensure that your Shopify store is up-to-date, your store’s inventory is accurate, and all store functions and operations are working as intended.
  • Have a business valuation completed to calculate the fair market value of your business.
  • Identify which business data and information you need to retain for your records after the sale. For example, save your bills by exporting your billing history. If you're using Shopify Payments, then consider exporting your payout history and transactions.
  • Determine if any existing contracts or obligations will be impacted by the sale of your store to a new owner.
    • If you're using Shopify Capital or Shopify Credit, then you will be unable to transfer your store.
    • If you have an active Shopify Balance, then you must empty your Balance account and contact Shopify Support for further assistance with a store ownership transfer.
  • Outline any requirements that must be maintained with the new ownership, such as employment contracts for current staff, existing brand assets or marketing guidelines, or existing contracts or professional relationships with third parties (such as fulfillment services or payment processors).
  • If you haven't met your billing threshold when you transfer ownership of a store to a new owner, then the new owner is responsible for paying. You might want to factor this into your transition plan.
  • Create a plan to transition your business to new ownership, including the timeline. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, onboarding a new owner to your brand and store processes can take days to months.

Resources:

Where to sell your store

Shopify store owners must independently conduct all sales of their Shopify stores separately from the Shopify platform. If you don’t have a buyer willing to take over ownership of your store, then you can post your store for sale on third-party online business marketplaces that broker the sales of ecommerce businesses between sellers and customers.

Some examples of these marketplaces include:

Each third-party marketplace has different requirements and listing steps, and might include additional independent valuations of your business, legal resources, and brokers to help you find a buyer and complete the sale. Third-party marketplaces often charge additional fees for their services, which aren’t set, controlled, or collected by Shopify.

After identifying a buyer, contact a legal professional for assistance with documentation relating to the sale of your store, including drafting a contract of sale with any requirements or agreements for both parties outlined.

Transfer ownership of your Shopify store

After you've confirmed a buyer and all parties have accepted the terms of the sale, you can transfer ownership of your store to the new owner in the Shopify admin. If you have purchased a custom domain for your store, then you must transfer ownership of the domain to the new owner as well.

Steps:

  1. Update the business contact information for your store in the General settings page of your Shopify admin, including the store email, store phone, and business address.
  2. Update the store notification information to that of the new owner, such as the email address for new order notifications.
  3. Update the contact details for any custom domains you’ve purchased for your store. If you’ve purchased a custom domain from Shopify, then follow the steps to edit your contact information.
  4. Follow the steps to update your billing information to the new owner’s billing information. If you have any third-party apps that have your billing information outside of Shopify, then update your billing information to the new owner’s billing information as well.
  5. Update your store’s payout information to the bank account of the new owner. Do this for all active payment methods your store supports.
    • If you’re using Shopify Payments, then follow the steps to edit the bank account information on file. You also need to update your tax details.
    • If you’re using third-party payment providers (such as PayPal), then switch the account associated with the store to that of the new owner, or transfer ownership of the associated account to the new owner from within the payment provider platform.
  6. Follow the steps to officially transfer account ownership of the store to the new owner. This removes account owner permissions from your Shopify login, so some parts of the store’s Shopify admin (such as payment and billing information) will become restricted to you.
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