Valuations for Melbourne online stores and retailers, with platform risk priced in.
For selling or buying a store, founder exits, family transfers and restructures, whether you ship from a western suburbs warehouse or trade from a shopfront.
A Melbourne online store or retail business is valued on profit that a buyer can keep earning without the founder, after testing how much of it depends on one platform, one ad account or one supplier. Stock is valued separately at what it will realistically sell for. Our valuers prepare independent valuations for online-only brands, marketplace sellers and shopfront retailers across Melbourne.
Platform and channel risk
A store that sells through its own site, a marketplace and a shopfront spreads its risk. A store where most sales come through one marketplace account or one paid ad channel can lose a large part of its revenue overnight if an account is suspended, fees rise or an algorithm changes. The valuation looks at where sales come from, what it costs to win a customer, how often customers come back, and whether the accounts, domains and supplier terms can actually be handed to a buyer.
Owner dependence
Many Melbourne e-commerce brands are built around a founder: their face on social media, their relationships with overseas suppliers, their eye for product. That can be the brand's strength and its biggest risk on sale. The valuation adds a market cost for the work the owner does, and asks how much of the social media audience, the supplier terms and the know-how would stay with the business after a handover period.
Stock, fulfilment and premises
Stock is checked line by line where it matters: aged and slow-moving lines, landed cost including freight and currency, and what it would sell for today. Melbourne stores often fulfil from their own warehouse or a third-party logistics provider in the western suburbs, such as Truganina, Derrimut or Laverton North. The valuer reads the warehouse lease or the logistics contract, because fulfilment cost per order and the term left on those agreements feed straight into maintainable earnings. For shopfront retail, the shop lease gets the same test.
When Melbourne retailers order a valuation
- ·Sale of an online store or retail business
- ·A co-founder leaving and the other buying their share
- ·Moving the business into a company, trust or new structure
- ·Bringing in an investor or a new shareholder
- ·A price check before listing the business
- ·Market value evidence for CGT on a transfer (your accountant applies the tax rules)
Common questions.
Is an online store valued on revenue or profit?+
On profit that can be maintained, in most cases. Revenue can look strong while ad spend, returns and fulfilment eat the margin. Where a business is growing quickly and profit is still building, other methods are tested alongside, and the report explains which one it relies on.
How is brand value reflected?+
Through the goodwill in the valuation, supported by evidence such as repeat purchase rates, direct and organic traffic, registered trade marks and how much the brand relies on paid ads. A brand that customers search for by name is worth more than one that only sells when ads are running.
Is stock included in the price?+
Usually stock is added at completion at an agreed value, on top of the price for the business. The valuation gives the trading value and the stock value separately so the sale can be structured either way.
What does a valuation cost?+
The fee is fixed before work starts and set by annual turnover: $1,495 + GST under $2 million, $2,495 + GST for $2 million to $3 million, $3,495 + GST for $3 million to $10 million, and a written quote above $10 million. Small reports take 2 business days and medium and large reports 3 business days, counted from when payment and all the information we need are in.
Talk to a valuer
Tell us what you need valued.
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03 8375 4177Mon to Fri, 9am to 5:30pm Melbourne time
Send the form and we reply within one business day. No documents needed to start.
Small Business Valuation
$1,495 + GST
For a business with annual turnover under $2 million. Signed report in 2 business days. Delivery time starts once payment and all required information have been received. The fee is fixed in writing before we start and never tied to the outcome.
Larger business? Tell us in the form and we recommend the right package. All fees
Last reviewed 10 November 2026 by Business Valuations Melbourne, Level 7, 55 Collins Street, Melbourne.