Buyout Closing Shops Domain Name?

J

jordan

Member
Dec 12, 2013
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Ca
Hey everyone. I stumbled upon your forum few weeks ago and have been hooked since. Looking for advice and direction on this one.

3rd generation florist, nearly 70 yrs same location. A local shop recently closed up for personal reasons and didn't sell their business. Basically just walked away. We were offered to buy up their inventory for pennies on the dollar which we took in a heart beat, but now we are talking to them about their domain and client list.

I am interested in their domain name solely for where it ranks in organic searches. It usually falls in the 2-3rd spot. They showed me their reports which show 15k in sales in 11, 25k in 2012 and were on pace for 30k this year when they suspended their site and closed the doors in August.

The question is, if we acquire the domain, what is the best way to benefit from the acquisition? Do we have it redirect to our page home page or landing page examining why they ended up some where else? Maintain a 2nd ecommerce site?

The name of the domain IMO isn't the value, it's where they show up in searches, which btw is behind us if anyone was curious. I'd hate to lose a good opportunity to direct more traffic from a source that has already had significant work put into it to make it relevant.

What are your thoughts?
And how do I value it to make a offer on it which they have asked us to do.
 
My guess is if you acquire the domain and re-direct it, you will loose the search engine ranking. I think you would have to maintain their site. Either that or figure out WHY and HOW they came up well in searches, and do the same for your own site.

But if they are already behind you in the searches, I'd personally forget about acquiring their domain name. Just one less competitor to worry about. In that case, acquiring the domain and redirecting it would give you a short term boost in business.
 
I know this is a little off-topic but did you ask them about buying their phone number?

When presented with that opportunity shops generally say "no, their customers will probably end up calling us anyway" but some always try and get the number if the price is right.

Many (maybe most) of the most successful operators I talk to make it a rule - they buy every phone number they can and it seems to work very well for them.

As for the domain - Ryan is the SEO expert and he'll know for sure but aside from that… some people probably have the other store bookmarked. What if you bought the domain and used a 301 redirect to send them to a special landing page on your site explaining that the former owners had trusted you to take great care of their former customers?

You wouldn't get the additional search position but you might get some bookmarked traffic, and the 301 might get you some benefit from any links going to the old site. But, again, Ryan is the ultimate authority on this stuff.
 
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Do you have traffic stats for the site? It would be interesting to see how much traffic and revenue they get from direct vs referral vs search traffic.

As Mark said, some people have it bookmarked. Others have old flyers (hence the "Get the phone #!!" message from Mark, which is spot on). Some people keep old email campaigns ...

If the site has been truly offline since August I don't know how much search benefit you'll get, but if you get the domain and 301 it to your current site you'll get the benefit of their incoming links AND the residual direct and referral traffic. That can continue paying off over a span of years.

Ranking is a combination of on- and off-site factors, so losing the site might hurt a bit, but in the long run the links and traffic will pay off.

How to: First agree on an amount, then after paying initiate a Domain Transfer to your registrar account. If you're not sure how, just contact the company you use to register your domains, or call the help line here: www.DomainsByStrider.com.
 
Hey guys, I appreciate your responses. The only data on their web page I have, is user sessions, page views, # of orders, gross sales and conversation. It's one of the simple reports that the TF sites produce.

I see value in their domain name based on where it ranks in our community and do not want to miss a good opportunity . Does anyone know who has experience acquiring domain names and phone numbers from shops that have closed their doors that I can speak to?
 
The pricing depends a lot on area, brand recognition, order volume, and competition. The more bidders, the higher the price.

I would start with a combined offer for the phone and domain in the mid-hundreds ($5-800?) unless they have given a strong indication that they want more.

You can also pose the question to florist accountant to the stars Derrick Myers (http://crockettmyers.com/) who is the go-to guy for accounting questions AND a super-nice dude.
 
They did give a indication that they wanted wayyyy more. They are walking away from the business basically. We already bought their inventory on the cheap. They have been closed since Aug. and their sales last year were 280,000, of which 180,000 was wire-order. So we are not talking huge brand recognition. They were a wire shop basically.

I was thinking 1k for both, but their last email gently spelled out we can basically purchase the business no risk and acquire the equity and goodwill that is left, which is the phone lines (still connected) website (still up, not sure where the orders go) and a customer list that I assume is nothing too special given their yearly sales are about 90k.

They gave me the estimated sale price of 79,000 for the business, minus their large cooler (15K?) a van (10k) minus the inventory we took @ 1,500 and landed ballpark 49,000 although they said they are looking to land a price somewhere that is fair for the both of them.

their website last year generated 26k and this year did 17k through Aug.
Based on the numbers and given the devaluation of being closed since Aug. I felt 1k was fair given they are walking away from it anyways.
 
$49k is a joke - but sadly this is what too often happens. Florists (and all small biz owners) look at the effort and love poured into a business, not the dollars that come out.

Based on those numbers I would value the client list, phone and web site at $9-10k (10% of non-wire business). If the client list is not electronic, value goes down. If the addresses are not complete (not mailable), value goes down.

You can always just backorder their domain if they don't see reason.
 
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Ryan, is right on the money. I'm in the process of buying a store here in town, same sales level, etc. 10K, 5k down and the other 5 after the next 5 holidays. Even with the best of procedures, average is only 80% will convert. Many will change just because of change.
 
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