In brief: Ecommerce diligence should verify margins, inventory, suppliers, acquisition channels, customer behavior, refunds and platform-account health.
Unit economics
- Revenue by product and channel
- Gross margin and contribution margin
- Advertising spend and blended acquisition cost
- Refunds, returns and chargebacks
Inventory
- Inventory aging
- Stockout history
- Lead times
- Obsolescence risk
- Working capital required after closing
Suppliers
- Supplier concentration
- Written terms and pricing
- Transferability of relationships
- Quality-control issues and lead-time risk
Channels and customers
- Marketplace versus owned-store mix
- Paid versus organic acquisition
- Repeat purchase and retention
- Account-policy history
Transfer
Confirm how store access, marketplace accounts, domains, supplier relationships, inventory, customer systems, creative files and fulfillment arrangements will move.