Estimate what an online business is worth, and read its multiple

The valuation calculator gives you a free, instant estimate of what an online business might sell for, and every business listing shows its multiple. Both are estimates to help you think about a price. They are not advice, not an offer and not a promise of what anyone will pay.

Where to find it

The calculator and the multiple are being switched on step by step, so you may not see them everywhere yet.

• On storeflips.com: the page Sell your Shopify store has a calculator. Choose the kind of

business, type its average monthly profit, and optionally its age, whether it is growing, flat or declining, and how much of its revenue or traffic comes from its single largest source.

• In the app, for your own listing: open Marketplace, then Sell, open the listing and

find the card Estimated value. It uses the figures on your listing, and you can add the trend and the share from your largest source.

• On every business listing: the multiple is the asking price divided by a year of profit

(12 x the monthly profit). A multiple of 3.0x means the price is three years of profit.

How the estimate is worked out

1. A year of profit is 12 x the average monthly profit.
2. We pick the multiple band for that kind of business and that size of profit: a low, a

middle and a high multiple of a year's profit. Larger, steadier businesses usually sell for a higher multiple. Bands are compared in US dollars; your estimate stays in your own currency.

3. Four things move the multiple up or down: how old the business is, whether its profit is

growing, flat or declining, how concentrated it is on one source of revenue or traffic, and how much of it Zinn Digital® has verified by reading the figures ourselves.

4. The estimate is the year of profit times the low, middle and high multiples.

Each band and each adjustment shows its source and the date it took effect. The starting bands are our own starting figures, not yet measured on deals closed on our marketplace; we replace them with measured multiples as deals close.

Verified and unverified figures

Next to every figure the estimate says where it came from:

• Verified: we read it ourselves, from the seller's Stripe payouts or Google Analytics.
• From the seller's file: taken from a report the seller uploaded, such as an Amazon seller

report.

• Unverified: typed by the seller or by you. Profit is always typed by the seller, so treat a

profit-based figure as the seller's claim until you have checked it.

A listing with verified revenue and visitors gets a higher estimate than the same figures typed by hand, because a buyer can rely on them. See What the Verified badge on a marketplace listing means to verify yours.

What it cannot tell you

The estimate cannot see the quality of the content or products, the risks in the traffic sources, debts, contracts or what is included in the sale. Domains are not valued on profit, so there is no profit-based estimate for a domain. Before you buy or sell, read the listing, ask questions, use the data room, and take professional advice where the amount matters to you.