Free Consultation
Book a Free Consultation
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Direct-to-consumer brands run from Cremorne and Collingwood, marketplace sellers shipping out of Truganina: valued on the earnings a new owner could repeat without you.
A Melbourne ecommerce business is valued mainly on comparable sales of online businesses, expressed as a multiple of maintainable earnings. The multiple chosen depends on how concentrated the traffic, sales channels and supply are, how much revenue comes from returning customers, and what it would cost a buyer to run fulfilment, marketing and service without the founder.
Usually an offer. Aggregators, brokers and trade buyers approach Melbourne online brands quoting a multiple of earnings with very little reasoning behind it, and the owner needs an independent way to tell whether that multiple reflects the risk in their own business. Other triggers are a co-founder leaving a brand built in a Richmond office, a lender asked to fund a large stock order against the inventory, a property settlement in the Melbourne registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court, or a restructure where the ATO expects a market value.
Founders also value well ahead of a sale because the work shows what to fix. Moving traffic off a single ad platform, building a list of repeat buyers, signing a second supplier and getting fulfilment out of the garage all move the multiple, and each takes time to show up in the accounts.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach leads. Online businesses change hands often enough, through brokers, listing sites and direct approaches, that comparable transactions are the strongest evidence of what a buyer will pay.
We use the guideline transaction method. Comparable sales are filtered for product category, size, growth, margin and channel mix and expressed as a multiple of maintainable earnings. Where the business sits in that range is argued from its traffic quality, repeat purchase rate and supplier position compared with the businesses that sold.
The income approach takes on more weight when a meaningful share of revenue is subscription or regular replenishment, because those orders can be forecast. Earnings are then capitalised, or a discounted cash flow is built when growth is changing direction, for example after a move into wholesale or a new market.
Earnings are capitalised after the founder is charged at market rates for the operational roles they fill. It shows up businesses whose profit depends on the owner packing orders, answering customers and running the ads for nothing.
Stock at realisable value rather than cost, plus equipment and any warehouse the business owns. For a retailer holding a lot of stock this sets a real floor, and the age of that stock decides how high the floor sits.
Two valuations of the same business usually split over normalisation, so we set out each adjustment in the report with the reason for it. For online retail the regular ones are:
Retail trade was close to flat in the national business count in 2025 to 2026, up 0.1 per cent, while information media and telecommunications grew 4.0 per cent and transport, postal and warehousing 4.9 per cent (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). For an online retailer the lesson is about the comparable set: the evidence has to come from online businesses, not shopfronts, because the businesses that sell, store and deliver online are adding numbers while traditional retail is not.
Many Melbourne online brands, in fashion, homewares and food among others, are run from Cremorne, Richmond, Collingwood and Brunswick, with stock held in the warehouse belts of Truganina, Derrimut and Laverton North in the west, Somerton and Campbellfield in the north, and Dandenong South in the south east. Rent, labour and courier costs differ across those belts, and an owner fulfilling from home has an unpriced cost a buyer will have to carry. Imported stock landed through the Port of Melbourne should be costed in full, freight and duty included, before margins are compared.
Two state matters come up regularly. A growing online business that pays warehouse and customer service staff as contractors may have payroll tax exposure under the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (Vic), which a buyer will want quantified. And the Australian Consumer Law is national, but Consumer Affairs Victoria enforces it here alongside the ACCC, so refund practices and product safety records form part of diligence. Concentration is still the risk buyers price hardest: one platform, one marketplace or one supplier, named in the valuation rather than averaged away.
The report sets out the purpose of the engagement, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information we were given, with any limits on it. It records the approaches considered, the method used under each, every normalisation adjustment and its reason, and how the results were reconciled into a range, with the weighting argued in words.
Online businesses attract arguments over channel data and stock, and the reasoning is what a second expert will test. A report that cannot show why one channel was treated as durable and another as at risk, or why the multiple sits where it does, will not hold in a shareholder dispute in the Commercial Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria or a property settlement in the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Melbourne. We prepare reports in line with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services, and the certified valuer who signs one is prepared to defend it.
Where is this report weakest, and what would you say if a reviewing expert pressed on it? The answer should come without hesitation.
An Indicative valuation suits a founder weighing an approach from an aggregator, a broker or a competitor. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a sale, a co-founder buyout or a lender funding stock. A Detailed report is needed for family law, a shareholder dispute, or any matter where another expert will review the opinion.
The use of the figure sets the depth. If a court, a lender, the ATO or a competing expert is likely to examine it, the report has to show every step.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.