I watched a seller leave a huge chunk of change on the table last year. Not because his store was struggling. Not because the buyer was unreasonable. Because he made one mistake in his valuation that took ten minutes to fix—and nobody told him about it until it was too late.
He’s not alone. I’ve seen the same five mistakes show up again and again, across stores of every size and niche. The frustrating part? They’re all preventable.
Here they are, in the order they usually happen.
Mistake #1: Missing Your Add-Backs
That seller I mentioned at the start? He had $62,000 in net profit on paper. That’s what his P&L said. When I asked him to walk me through his expenses, we found his car lease, his phone, a software subscription he’d been paying since before the business existed, and a “business trip” to Miami that was mostly beach. All running through the company.
Total add-backs: $28,000. His real SDE wasn’t $62,000. It was $90,000. At a 2.5x multiple, that single oversight cost him $70,000. Not from growing revenue. Not from finding a better buyer. From properly categorizing expenses he was already paying.
Go through your P&L. Every line. Ask one question: “Will the buyer need to spend this?” If the answer is no, add it back. Your car. Your health insurance. One-time legal fees. Travel that wasn’t purely business. Subscriptions you use personally. These aren’t tricks—they’re standard practice in every Shopify acquisition. If you’re not sure what counts, we have a full breakdown of every add-back category in our guide to how much your Shopify store is actually worth.
And one more thing: inventory is priced separately at cost and added on top. The formula is (SDE × Multiple) + Inventory. Anyone who tells you inventory is “included in the multiple” is either new at this or hoping you are.
Mistake #2: Pricing With Your Heart
You built this thing. You remember the first sale. The late nights. The supplier who almost ruined Christmas.
Buyers don’t care about any of that. They care about one thing: return on investment. What they’ll put in versus what they’ll get out.
I’ve watched sellers reject fair offers because “I put too much into this to let it go for that.” Then the store sits. And sits. Six months later, revenue dips, the offer drops, and they end up selling for less than the original number.
Your effort matters to you. It built the business. But it doesn’t appear anywhere on a buyer’s spreadsheet. Price the numbers, not the memories.
Mistake #3: Ignoring Your Traffic Problem
If 80% of your sales come from Facebook ads, a buyer knows two things: the revenue stops the moment ad spend stops, and whoever manages those campaigns probably needs to stay on after the sale. Neither is good for your price.
I saw a deal almost collapse over this. Seller had great numbers—$28K a month in revenue, healthy margins. But every sale came through the same Facebook campaign. The buyer asked: “What happens when iOS changes the tracking rules again?” The seller didn’t have an answer. Neither did the buyer. They closed anyway, but at a full point below what the SDE suggested.
Start diversifying now. Organic search. Email. Affiliates. Direct traffic. Even six months of data showing multiple channels working will push your multiple higher. Wait until you’re listing to fix this, and you’ve already lost the leverage.
Mistake #4: Betting on Your Best Month
December was incredible. January was great too. So you price your store like every month will look like that.
Buyers don’t buy peak months. They buy trends. They’re going to pull your trailing 12-month revenue and average it out. If three of those months were weak and you’re asking for a price based on the best one, they’ll walk.
The worst version of this I’ve seen: a seller ran an aggressive ad campaign for two months before listing, pumped revenue to $45K a month, and priced the store like that was the new normal. The buyer asked for the previous year’s data. Real average? $22K a month. Deal died on the spot.
Run your valuation based on your last 12 months, not your last 90 days. If there’s a spike, explain it. Better yet, wait until it averages into a longer track record before you list.
Mistake #5: Negotiating Blind
You’re fighting an information asymmetry. The buyer knows what stores in your niche are trading at. They know the multiples. They know what a beauty store in this revenue range sold for last month.
Do you?
If you don’t, you’re negotiating blind. And blind negotiators leave money behind.
A broker or valuation expert doesn’t just hand you a number. They know the market. They know that beauty stores are trading at 2.8x while POD stores with similar revenue are at 1.9x. That knowledge changes what you ask for and what you accept. We broke down exactly what brokers do and what they charge in our ecommerce business broker guide—worth a read if you’re on the fence about getting help.
If your store is under $100K, DIY on a marketplace and keep the commission. Above that, at least get an independent valuation before you list. Walk into the conversation knowing your number instead of asking the buyer what they think.
How to Avoid All Five
Get your SDE right—and remember, inventory is always priced separately at cost. Price the numbers, not your feelings. Fix your traffic story before you list. Use 12-month averages, not peak months. Know your number before anyone else does.
And if you want a starting point that takes about 30 seconds, run your store through our valuation tool. It’ll give you a grounded number and flag what’s helping or hurting your valuation—before a buyer does.
