This 4-year-old eCommerce business brokerage has completed 230+ transactions, including 85+ in its latest year, with a reported 92%–94% close rate. One important update:

The numbers: The current broker page reports $8.63M gross income / $2.40M cash flow, or roughly a 28% cash-flow margin. At the $14.5M ask, that works out to approximately 1.7x gross income and 6.0x cash flow.

How it works: This is not a traditional commission-based brokerage. Revenue is generated from the spread between the seller's expected price and the final transaction value, with no retainers or listing fees. The broker says the company averages roughly $29.5K of revenue per transaction, handles 6–8 closings per month, receives 1,000+ seller submissions annually, and has a network of 2,000+ active buyers. Seller acquisition is described as entirely organic, while paid search is used on the buyer side.

The seller situation: The public listing does not disclose why the owner is selling. More importantly, the reported unit economics do not obviously reconcile with the headline financials: 85 deals at roughly $29.5K of average revenue per transaction implies about $2.5M, well below the $8.63M of reported gross income. That may come down to how revenue is recognized under the spread-based model, but a buyer should understand it before relying on the headline multiple.

Worth asking: How exactly is the $8.63M of gross income calculated, and can the seller provide a deal-by-deal bridge showing transaction value, seller expectation, brokerage spread, and recognized revenue for the latest full year?