I'm considering selling an online shopping mall — how is the price determined?

The sale of an online shopping mall is not a transaction where the price is determined based on sales scale alone. Rather than just sales, the sale price is determined by comprehensively considering various factors such as net profit, inventory value, customer data, brand recognition, and growth potential.

Generally, the sale price of an online shopping mall is often calculated by applying a certain multiple to the annual net profit and adding inventory assets and additional value.

Net profit refers to the actual remaining amount after excluding product costs, advertising costs, and operating expenses from sales.

In online shopping mall transactions, depending on the industry characteristics and stability, multiples typically between approximately 1.0 and 2.5 times net profit are often applied, and for clothing shopping malls, discussions are generally held at a level of about 1.2 to 1.8 times.

In addition, inventory assets are also an important factor in shopping mall sales.

However, inventory is often evaluated based on cost or wholesale price rather than retail sale price.

Inventory with high salability is sometimes included in the sale price for negotiation, but old inventory may be subject to discount application or separate liquidation.

Due to the characteristics of online shopping malls, intangible assets also affect the sale price.

For example, the size of Instagram or SNS account followers, member database, number of reviews, number of site visitors, and repurchase rate are representative factors. Whether trademark rights are registered and brand recognition can also serve as factors that increase the sale price.

In sale negotiations, the evaluation is usually conducted based on performance over the past 6 to 12 months, and it is common for the price to be adjusted by a certain ratio from the initial price proposed during the negotiation process.

Therefore, it is important to prepare materials in advance that can objectively prove sales, net profit, advertising costs, inventory status, etc.

Selling a shopping mall is a transaction in which the business structure, customer base, and brand value are also transferred together.

In particular, since there are many factors that require legal review, such as member data transfer, trademark transfer, inventory disposal, and operating account transfer, the contract structure must be carefully designed.

Daeryun Law Firm provides legal advice on the entire scope of corporate transactions, including shopping mall sales as well as online business transfers, trademark transfers, and business transfer contract reviews.

If you are considering selling a shopping mall, we recommend reviewing the transaction structure and contract terms in advance.

Korea's 9th-ranked law firm Daeryun (based on 2025 National Tax Service VAT filings) helps resolve cases through systematic strategies of legal experts in various fields.