Once again, I've run into a businessman who thought he could purchase an already established Zen Cart site and make money. 

So once again I'm having to deliver bad news to a man who just got cheated.

Of course there are profitable sites on the web. We all know that.

But buying a website is too easy – too easy to do. So start by asking the owner, and yourself, when appropriate, these questions:

1) Why is the owner selling? 

Legitimate answers are disability, disease, retiring at age 90, etc. No, I'm not being facetious; I'm being real. Someone has decided to recoup their investment because it hasn't been very profitable. Someone has set up a site (in possibly less than an hour) and is doing this as a way to generate an income with little effort. Selling a profitable website that provides passive with little effort? Why in the world would an owner let go of that unless it's become impossible to continue it due illness or disability and he had no children to give it to?

2) Can the owner provide real sales information?

Think brick and mortar. Due diligence is required. Ask for proof. Spreadsheets, bank account statements, paypal statements. Don't look in admin at number of orders or the total income based on those orders. Those can actually be manufactured. Anyone wishing to sell a profitable website will be glad to provide normal proof of sales volume and the cost of doing business. What, they claim it will make money? Sorry, that's not a business fact; that is a hope.

3) What / who are the competing websites?

Quick investigation. Take a line from one of the products – try to find something that sounds unique and actually gives some info. Google the product name and that line and see what pops up.  Too often you are going to find that the line of products exists on quite a few websites – amazon and other large sites included. Product feeds are product feeds from either the manufacturer who just wants more exposure or manufacturer aggregators who just want to sell you a site and the ongoing costs of the feed. Neither of them cares about your bottom line. Small one owner sites that make it are more likely to be unique – products that you can't be found in that way somewhere else. I have yet to have anyone come to me and tell me he's making so much money that he wants to upgrade his site or change the template. I get these requests normally because they aren't making money or have problems running old code or ugly websites! Just beware product feeds.

4) Can this site compete against the big boys?

Can you beat the prices on the sites you find? What kind of volume would it take to make a real profit, a sustainable profit? Most of the larger sites offer free shipping, sales or promotions that we as consumers look for. I personally find a product and frequently buy it on Amazon because I can get free shipping with Amazon Prime. If the same product is bought on Amazon from the same manufacturer, the profit is way less but you still have to support the product line and respond to customers. How much is a $2 profit going cost you? Sure you can sell on Amazon but if your profit margin is small to begin with, it's going to take a lot of sales in order to generate a real income. And the shipping is major – if you can't offer free shipping, you may be dead in the water before you get started. 

5) How deep are your pockets?

Any store whether it's on the corner or on the web, requires advertising and ongoing maintenance. If you open a brick and mortar store, you are instantly aware of the costs of rent and inventory. When there's no rent and no investment in physical inventory, it's easy to forget a business still has start up costs. It is still a basic business profit vs loss. Sometimes it just takes money to make money. There is very little in the world that makes profit off of little investment in either money or extended time. Believe me, I've done both types of businesses. It takes money.

6) All that aside, What Version of Zen Cart Does the Site Have?

If it's anything before 1.5.4, it needs upgrading and will definitely cost money if not immediately, most likely soon. Most hosting companies have upgraded to PHP 5.4 or more and some versions of Zen Cart don't run properly on earlier PHP versions. Some hosting companies are still allowing clients a choice of PHP, but not many. And if you are running an old version of Zen Cart on an old version of PHP, your site is just more vulnerable. To check both, in admin, go to Tools > Version/Server Info. That info is there.

7) What About the Template?

Well, what about it? It's really hard for folks to tell anything about a template. I can usually either find the template online or figure out where it came from. If it's customized, that might actually be to your disadvantage. Most templates are just crappy and don't do you any favors. The free ones can be okay (for the money…) but may have issues as well. If it's a bought template, it might actually have old code in it as the sellers don't care and advertise their templates for versions 1.5.x. Sorry, it may work but the improved code of the later versions will not be there. It is not to their advantage to keep upgrading their templates. In fact, it's a money hole they aren't participating in most of the time.

Also problematic might be the way the template was done in the first place which could either drive up the cost of Zen Cart upgrade or else end up with being overwritten in spots due to the template overrides not being done correctly by later developers/site owners.

The Bottom Line?

So my advise is simple. Buyer beware of buying an established website. The odds of you making money off that purchase is probably pretty low. Want to go forward with it anyway? At least let me vet it. A site evaluation covers all the possible issues and will at least give you the Zen Cart look-see that you should have before your purchase.