Tips, Expertise, Articles and Advice from the Pro's for Your Website or Blog to Succeed
Most engineers don’t want to spend more time than necessary to keep their clusters highly available, secure, and cost-efficient. How do you make sure your Google Kubernetes engine cluster is ready for the storms ahead?
Here are fourteen optimization tactics divided into three core areas of your cluster. Use them to build a resource-efficient, highly-available GKE cluster with airtight security.
Are you planning to use Kafka Streams to build a distributed application? This article shows some advanced tips and techniques for Kafka Streams developers. Over the last two years, we discovered these techniques to handle advanced Kafka Streams capabilities.
We built Kestra, an open-source data orchestration and scheduling platform, and we decided to use Kafka as the central datastore to build a scalable architecture. We rely heavily on Kafka Streams for most of our services (the executor and the scheduler) and have made some assumptions on how it handles the workload.
ShipHero is a cloud-based solution that offers warehouse, inventory management, and fulfillment services to ecommerce brands. ShipHero started in 2013 with a cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) application. It expanded to add order fulfillment services in 2019, just in time for the increase in online shopping due to the global pandemic.
ShipHero offers one-click integration with all major ecommerce shopping platforms and has seven physical warehouse locations throughout the United States. It boasts a flat rate, no zone approach to order fulfillment, making it appealing to ecommerce brands looking for a simplified approach to monthly shipping costs.
ShipHero did not make our top list of ecommerce fulfillment services. The best ecommerce fulfillment service is ShipBob because it is easy to use, offers two-day shipping in the U.S., and also offers retailer dropshipping and B2B fulfillment. Get started with ShipBob’s self-service Growth Plan for startups today.
Whatever your needs, one of these ecommerce fulfillment services will help you streamline delivery and ensure customer satisfaction.
ShipHero is somewhat unique among ecommerce fulfillment services, in that it started life as a warehouse management app and then added fulfillment later on. Now that it offers both services, ShipHero is a one-stop solution for ecommerce brands’ storage, management, and delivery needs.
ShipHero’s suite of services and solutions includes fulfillment services, a warehouse management system, integrations with top platforms for ecommerce like Shopify and WooCommerce, an API for developers, and a nationwide network of seven warehouses across the U.S. They also offer a flat-rate/no zone pricing approach for fulfillment, and no cost for setup, software, onboarding, and product receipt.
ShipHero was founded in 2013 as an online platform for warehouse management. In 2019, they expanded to also offer order fulfillment services. It is a privately held startup that competes with a significant number of other startups offering similar services – many with similar names.
ShipHero has received two rounds of private equity funding. In November 2021 it received funding of $10.4 million from investor Joe De Pinho. Seven months later, Riverwood Capital invested $50 million. ShipHero planned to seek a third round of funding in June 2022 but put plans on hold due to the weakening economy and the post-pandemic decline in online shopping.
ShipHero services more than 5,000 ecommerce brands and 3PLs around the world. As would be expected, ShipHero flourished during the pandemic years when online shopping was at its peak. However, it struggled to meet demand during the peak fall and winter shipping season of 2022, resulting in several negative reviews by customers starting in December 2022. To its credit, ShipHero acknowledged those issues and committed to improving processes in Q1 of 2023.
Like all the startup fulfillment services in this space, ShipHero is vulnerable to external economic forces and fluctuating customer demand. There are also many similar competitors in this space. Time will tell whether ShipHero rises above its competition or is acquired by another brand.
For its ecommerce fulfillment services, ShipHero does not provide any price information on its website. Instead, you must request a quote and meet with its fulfillment team. Then you’ll receive a customized quote based on your unique requirements.
ShipHero is more transparent when it comes to its warehouse management system. It offers three tiers of pricing, including Standard WMS for Brands, WMS for 3PLs, and Enterprise WMS for Brands.
ShipHero’s ecommerce fulfillment services are not transparent. The only information provided on the ShipHero website is that fulfillment pricing is flat rate and doesn’t rely on zones to calculate costs for domestic shipping in the U.S. The flat rate includes picking the order, packing, the box, and postage.
ShipHero’s warehouse management system is more clear. Pricing starts at $1,995 for the Standard plan and $2,145 for the 3PLs plan. Enterprise customers must get a quote. All three tiers include five users, with additional users added at $150 each per month. All plans include unlimited SKUs, multiple warehouses, API access, and unlimited orders.
ShipHero’s pricing for ecommerce fulfillment services is not disclosed. Contrast this with some of its closest competitors that put baseline prices on their websites: ShipBob starts at between $5.66 to $6.03, ShipMonk begins at $3 per single item order, and Easyship offers a starter plan that includes up to 50 packages per month for free, although you must pay for postage through your own shipping account.
Despite ShipHero’s refusal to disclose fulfillment pricing, it does highlight its flat rate/no zone approach as a unique selling point. Both ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment charge by package dimensional weight and shipping zone.
ShipHero takes a different approach with its Warehouse Management Services fees, which it does disclose. Monthly plans start at $1,495 per month (Standard) and $2,145 (3PL). However, its direct competitors in this space, including Red Stag Fulfillment and ShipBob, go in the other direction and keep their warehouse management service pricing hidden. You’ll need to get a quote in order to compare those services to ShipHero.
ShipHero does not offer any free trials or introductory pricing on its website. They also require full payment upfront to start using their services.
However, they do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. While this is not promoted on their website, they mention it in responses to customer reviews on sites like Capterra, TrustPilot, and G2.
ShipHero is an app-based ecommerce fulfillment platform that also offers a warehouse management system. Its streamlined approach to pricing – offering a flat rate and no zone differentials – is unique among its chief competitors.
While ShipHero didn’t make our top list of ecommerce fulfillment services, it may be a good option for online shops that prioritize consistent monthly fulfillment costs.
While ShipHero offers several compelling features that make it a good solution for some ecommerce brands, other fulfillment services are a better alternative.
If you’re an ecommerce brand that wants to streamline order fulfillment and better manage your warehouse, be sure to read our Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Services review, then take a deeper look at ShipBob, our top recommendation.
ShipHero has been involved in the ecommerce brand space for nearly ten years with its warehouse management system. It ramped up its order fulfillment services in 2019 and offers an enticing flat rate/no zone approach to shipping products.
However, we recommend considering other options like ShipBob for most ecommerce brands. You can find out more about who we recommend and why in our Best Ecommerce Fulfillment Services review.
Mobile app development is an evolving field, with new trends and technologies emerging every year. In other words, it's rapidly changing and evolving and taking a key role. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people using mobile devices and the amount of time they spend using them, making mobile app development an essential aspect of modern business.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: AI and ML are being integrated into mobile apps to provide users with personalized experiences, improve decision-making, and automate tasks.
I remember hiring freelancers for content writing, A/B testing, and many other gigs that were supposed to be the work of 'professionals' and 'experienced individuals.'
But I don't see it happening in the future.
An IoT (Internet of Things) gateway is a device that acts as a bridge between connected IoT devices and other networks, such as the Internet. It provides a centralized platform for managing and processing data from multiple IoT devices and securely transmitting that data to the cloud or other systems for analysis, storage, and further processing. The IoT gateway can perform various functions, such as data aggregation, protocol translation, security management, and device management.
An IoT gateway builds connections to connected IoT devices through various communication protocols, such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Zigbee, Z-Wave, or others. The gateway uses these protocols to communicate with the IoT devices and receive data from them. The gateway can also establish connections to other networks, such as the Internet, through Wi-Fi or Ethernet, to transmit the data it collects from IoT devices to the cloud or other systems for further processing.
React is a popular JavaScript library used for building user interfaces. One of the key features of React is its ability to manage state and re-render components efficiently. In some cases; however, re-rendering components can be computationally expensive and slow down the user interface. This is where the useMemo() hook comes in handy.
The useMemo() hook is a built-in React hook that allows you to optimize the performance of your React application by memoizing expensive computations. Memoization is the process of caching the results of a function call based on its input parameters. This means that if the input parameters of a function remain the same, the function will return the same output without re-executing the computation.
Last month I shared my first experience using ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot. I was impressed, but not overwhelmed. AI suggestions can be accurate, but only to the extent that your question is specific and to the point. It can’t read your mind, but it can find solutions to well-defined tasks that have been solved before – and for which there may already exist a perfectly good library solution. Knowing what to build remains the hardest part of all and we are nowhere near automating the entire journey from idea to code.
I have two more points to make on the topic. First, since we as programmers are required to stay in the driver’s seat for a while, we had better stay sharp. Secondly, I believe the focus should be less on solutions that convert ideas to code. I personally can’t wait for useable AI that can do the reverse: scan an undocumented tangle of eighty microservices and explain to me in clear English what it is all about, because nobody bothered to keep documentation up to date.
Last year, I wrote two articles about JPA Criteria and Querydsl (see Introduction and Metamodel articles). Since the end of last year, there's been a new major release of Spring Boot 3. This release is based on Spring Framework 6 with several significant changes and issues which we should consider when upgrading.
The goal of this article is to highlight these changes when upgrading the sat-jpa project (SAT project). The technologies used here are:
In my previous articles, we discussed what Policy-as-Code is, why we need it, and how to use the Open Policy Agent (OPA) tool. If you haven’t read the introduction yet, please take some time to read it first here.
Following the OPA introduction, I started the first part of an OPA/Kubernetes integration tutorial, showing how to use OPA to enforce policies inside a Kubernetes cluster. Here’s the link to the first part of the tutorial.
As Kubernetes has become the de-facto platform to orchestrate containerized workloads, more users have begun to look for ways to control and secure their Kubernetes clusters.
Hardening is a thing for sure, but what about enforcing policies inside a cluster? This is a completely different task that requires a different set of tools.
This article is a sponsored by Storyblok
Nowadays, web performance is one of the crucial factors for the success of any online project. Most of us have probably experienced the situation that you left a website due to its unbearable slowness. This is certainly frustrating for a website’s user, but even more so for its owner: in fact, there is a direct correlation between web performance and business revenue which has been corroborated time and again in a plethora of case studies.
As developers, optimizing web performance must therefore be an integral part of our value proposition. However, before moving on, let’s actually define the term. According to the MDN Web Docs, “web performance is the objective measurement and perceived user experience of a website or application”. Primarily, it involves optimizing a site’s initial overall load time, making the site interactive as soon as possible, and ensuring it is enjoyable to use throughout.
Achieving an excellent measurable performance as well as an outstanding perceived performance certainly constitutes a potentially very strenuous challenge for developers, especially when dealing with increasingly complex, large-scale websites. Fortunately, while it is easy to get lost in the subtle details of performance optimization measures, there are a few factors that should be the focus points of our efforts due to their extraordinarily high impact. One of these is image optimization, a topic that has been thoroughly covered in ‘A Guide To Image Optimization On Jamstack Sites’ by my colleague Alba Silvente.
Another key factor? Shipping less JavaScript (JS). A large JS bundle size takes longer to be transmitted, parsed, and executed. As a consequence, the initial page load and Time to Interactive can be delayed quite significantly. In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of extremely powerful JS frontend frameworks that offer client-side rendering and strive for an app-like experience. While their versatility, their features, and their developer experience is impressive by all means, they all share one major disadvantage in regard to performance optimization: their JS bundle size is comparably heavy, negatively impacting both the initial page load and the time-to-interactive quite substantially.
Depending on the type of your project, the question arises whether a less JS-centric approach might be feasible. In fact, if you think of your average content-driven marketing website, you would probably conclude that only a fraction of the functionality actually relies on JavaScript, whereas the majority of the site could probably be rendered as static HTML.
And that is precisely where Astro enters the game, shipping zero JS by default and letting you partially hydrate only those components that de facto rely on interactivity. Importantly, Astro accomplishes all of that without sacrificing the wonderful developer experience (DX) that we have been getting spoiled by, but actually even improving it. Let’s take a closer look.
Introducing AstroAstro defines itself as an “all-in-one web framework for building fast, content-focused websites”. One of its key features is that it replaces unused JS with HTML on the server, effectively resulting in zero JavaScript runtime out-of-the-box. This, in turn, leads to very fast load times and quicker interactivity. Notably, Astro explicitly states that it is specifically designed for content-driven websites, such as marketing, documentation, or eCommerce sites. The Astro team transparently acknowledges that other frameworks may be a much better fit if your project classifies as a web application rather than a mostly content-driven site.
Moreover, Astro provides a powerful Islands architecture that utilizes the technical concept of partial hydration. In a nutshell, this allows you to hydrate only those components that you actually need to be interactive. Importantly, this happens in isolation, leaving the rest of the site as static HTML. All in all, the impact on web performance is huge, making developers’ lives a lot easier along the way. And it gets even better: it is possible to bring your own framework. Thus, you could effortlessly use, for example, Vue, Svelte or React components in your Astro project.
Speaking of isolated islands, it is worth pointing out that developers actually rarely work alone: most larger-scale web projects typically rely on close collaboration between teams of developers and content creators. Therefore, let’s explore how going Headless with Storyblok can improve the experience and productivity of everyone involved.
Introducing StoryblokStoryblok is a powerful headless CMS that meets the requirements of developers and content creators alike. Completely framework-agnostic, you can connect Storyblok and your favorite technology within minutes. Storyblok’s Visual Editor allows you to create and manage your content with ease, even when dealing with complex layouts. Furthermore, localizing and personalizing your content becomes a breeze. Beyond that, Storyblok’s API-first design allows you to create outstanding cross-platform experiences.
Let’s explore in a case study how we can effectively combine the power of Astro and Storyblok.
Case Study: Interactive Components In Storyblok And AstroIn this example, we will create a simple landing page consisting of a hero component and a tabbed content component. Whereas the former will be a basic Astro component, the latter will be rendered as a dynamic island. In order to demonstrate the flexibility of this technology stack, we will examine how to render the tabbed content component using both Vue and Svelte.
This is what we will build:
(Large preview)
Once we’ve created an account on Storyblok (the Community plan is free forever), we can create a new space.
Now, we can copy and run the command to run Storyblok’s CLI in order to quickly create a project that is connected to your fresh new space:
npx @storyblok/create-demo@latest --key <your-access-token>
You can copy the complete command, including your personal access token, from the Get Started section of your space:
In the scaffolding steps, choose Astro, the package manager of your choice, the region of your space, and a local folder for your project. Now, in your chosen folder, you can run npm install && npm run dev to install all dependencies and launch the development server.
For the Storyblok Visual Editor to work, we need to go to Settings > Visual Editor and specify https://127.0.0.1:3000/ as the default environment.
Next, let’s go to the Content section and open our Home story. Here, we need to open the Entry configuration and set the Real path to / in order for src/pages/index.astro to be able to load this story correctly.
After having saved, you should now see the page being rendered correctly in the Visual Editor.
Perfect, we’re ready to move on.
In the Block Library, which you can easily access from within your Home story, you will find four default components. Let’s delete all of the nestable blocks (Grid, Teaser, and Feature). For our case study, we just need the Page content type block.
Note: In order to learn more about nestable and content type blocks, you can read the Structures of Content tutorial.
Now, we can create the first component that we will need for our case study: A nestable block called Hero (hero) and the following fields:
caption (Text)image (Asset > Images)
Next, close the Block Library, delete the instances of the Teaser and Grid blocks, and create a Hero, providing any caption and image of your choice.
The next step is to create a matching counterpart for our Hero component in our Astro project. Let’s open up the project.
First of all, let’s modify astro.config.mjs in order to register our Hero component properly:
storyblok({
accessToken: '<your-access-token>', // ideally, you would want to use an environment variable for the token
components: {
page: 'storyblok/Page',
hero: 'storyblok/Hero',
},
})
Next, let’s delete the Grid, Feature and Teaser components in src/storyblok and create a new src/storyblok/Hero.astro component with the following content:
---
import { storyblokEditable } from '@storyblok/astro'
const { blok } = Astro.props
---
<section
{...storyblokEditable(blok)}
class='relative w-full h-[50vh] min-h-[400px] max-h-[800px] flex items-center justify-center'
>
<h2 class='relative z-10 text-white text-7xl'>{blok.caption}</h2>
<img
src={blok.image?.filename}
alt={blok.image?.alt}
class='absolute top-0 left-0 object-cover w-full h-full z-0'
/>
</section>
Having taken care of that, the Hero block should now be displayed correctly in your Home story. In this particular case, we are using a native Astro component, which means that this component will be rendered as static HTML, requiring zero JS!
Amazing, but what happens if you actually need interactivity on your frontend? This is precisely where dynamic islands come into play, which we will explore next.
Let’s proceed by creating the blocks that we need for our tabbed content component, which will have a slightly more complex setup.
First of all, we want to create a new nestable block Tabbed Content Entry (tabbed_content_entry) with the following fields:
headline (Text)description (Textarea)image (Asset > Images)
This nestable block will be used in superordinate nestable block called Tabbed Content (tabbed_content) consisting of these fields:
entries (Blocks > Allow only tabbed_content_entry components to be inserted)directive (Single-Option > Source: Self) with the key-value pair options: load → load and idle → idle, and visible → visible (Default: idle)
The entries field is used to allow nesting of the previously created Tabbed Content Entry nestable blocks. In order to prevent any kind of block could get inserted, we can limit it to blocks of the type tabbed_content_entry.
Additionally, the directive field is used to take advantage of Astro’s client directives, which determine if and when a framework component should be hydrated. Utilizing the single-option field type in Storyblok enables content creators to choose whether this particular instance of the component should be hydrated with the highest priority (load), after the initial page load has been completed (idle), or as soon as the component instance actually enters the viewport (visible).
Utilizing Astro’s visible directive would result in the biggest performance gain as long as the component is below the fold. As the default option, we will use Astro’s idle directive, hydrating the component immediately on page load. However, in all cases, the rest of our landing page will remain as static HTML. As a result, the out-of-the-box performance should theoretically always be superior when compared to alternative frameworks.
Before moving on, we can use our newly created Tabbed Content component and insert three example entries in the entries field.
First of all, let’s register our Tabbed Content component in our astro.config.mjs:
storyblok({
accessToken: '<your-access-token>',
components: {
page: 'storyblok/Page',
hero: 'storyblok/Hero',
tabbed_content: 'storyblok/TabbedContent',
},
}),
Next, let’s create storyblok/TabbedContent.astro with the following preliminary content:
---
import { storyblokEditable } from '@storyblok/astro'
const { blok } = Astro.props
---
<section {...storyblokEditable(blok)}></section>
This will serve as our wrapper component, wherein we can subsequently import the actual component using the UI framework of our choice and dynamically assign a client directive derived from the value we receive from Storyblok.
With everything in place, we can now start building our tabbed content component using Vue. First, we need to install Vue in our project. Fortunately, Astro makes that very simple for us. All we have to do is to run the following command:
npx astro add vue
Next, let’s create a new Vue component (storyblok/TabbedContent.vue) with the following content:
<script setup lang="ts">
import { ref } from 'vue'
const props = defineProps({ blok: Object })
const activeTab = ref(0)
const setActiveTab = (index) => {
activeTab.value = index
}
const tabWidth = ref(100 / props.blok.entries.length)
</script>
<template>
<ul class="relative border-b border-gray-900 mb-8 flex">
<li
v-for="(entry, index) in blok.entries"
:key="entry._uid"
:style="'width:' + tabWidth + '%'"
>
<button
@click.prevent="setActiveTab(index)"
class="cursor-pointer p-3 text-center"
:class="index === activeTab ? 'font-bold' : ''"
>
{{ entry.headline }}
</button>
</li>
</ul>
<section
v-for="(entry, index) in blok.entries"
:key="entry._uid"
:id="'entry-' + entry._uid"
>
<div v-if="index === activeTab" class="grid grid-cols-2 gap-12">
<div>
<p>{{ entry.description }}</p>
<a
:href="entry.link?.cached_url"
class="inline-flex bg-gray-900 text-white py-3 px-6 mt-6"
>Explore {{ entry.headline }}</a
>
</div>
<img :src="entry.image?.filename" :alt="entry.image?.alt" />
</div>
</section>
</template>
<style scoped>
ul:after {
content: '';
@apply absolute bottom-0 left-0 h-0.5 bg-gray-900 transition-all duration-500;
width: v-bind(tabWidth + '%');
margin-left: v-bind(activeTab * tabWidth + '%');
}
</style>
Finally, we can import this component in TabbedContent.astro, pass the whole blok object as a property and assign the client directive based on the value we receive from Storyblok.
---
import { storyblokEditable } from '@storyblok/astro'
import TabbedContent from './TabbedContent.vue'
const { blok } = Astro.props
---
<section {...storyblokEditable(blok)} class='container py-12'>
{blok.directive === 'load' && <TabbedContent blok={blok} client:load />}
{blok.directive === 'idle' && <TabbedContent blok={blok} client:idle />}
{blok.directive === 'visible' && <TabbedContent blok={blok} client:visible />}
</section>
Furthermore, our Astro wrapper component is the right place to assign a client directive to the Vue component. Since we would like to give the content creators the possibility to choose between different directives, we need to assign them based on the value we retrieve from Storyblok.
Our tabbed content component will now be rendered correctly. Using Astro’s dynamic islands and hydration directives can tremendously boost your site’s performance, and combined with Storyblok, you provide content creators with straightforward and easy-to-use possibilities to tap into the power of this next-gen approach.
Let’s conclude our case study by examining how to render the very same component with Svelte (or any other popular framework supported by Astro).
First of all, as before, we need to install Svelte in our Astro project. Again, we can easily accomplish that by running the following command:
npx astro add svelte
Now, we can create the Svelte component (storyblok/TabbedContent.svelte) with the following content:
<script>
export let blok
let tabWidth = 100 / blok.entries.length
let activeTab = 0
let marginLeft = 0
const setActiveTab = (index) => {
activeTab = index
marginLeft = activeTab * tabWidth
}
</script>
<ul
class="relative border-b border-gray-900 mb-8 flex"
style="--tab-width: {tabWidth}%; --margin-left: {marginLeft}%;"
>
{#each blok.entries as entry, index (entry._uid)}
<li style="width: var(--tab-width)">
<button
class="{index === activeTab
? 'font-bold'
: ''} w-full cursor-pointer p-3 text-center"
on:click={() => setActiveTab(index)}>{entry.headline}</button
>
</li>
{/each}
</ul>
{#each blok.entries as entry, index (entry._uid)}
{#if index === activeTab}
<section id={entry._uid}>
<div class="grid grid-cols-2 gap-12">
<div>
<p>{entry.description}</p>
<a
href={entry.link?.cached_url}
class="inline-flex bg-gray-900 text-white py-3 px-6 mt-6"
>Explore {entry.headline}</a
>
</div>
<img src={entry.image?.filename} alt={entry.image?.alt} />
</div>
</section>
{/if}
{/each}
<style>
ul:after {
content: '';
@apply absolute bottom-0 left-0 h-0.5 bg-gray-900 transition-all duration-500;
width: var(--tab-width);
margin-left: var(--margin-left);
}
</style>
The only change that we have to make in order to load the Svelte component instead of the Vue component can easily be completed by simply changing the import in TabbedContent.astro:
//import TabbedContent from './TabbedContent.vue'
import TabbedContent from './TabbedContent.svelte'
And that’s it! Everything else can remain the same. Amazingly, our tabbed content component still works but is now using Svelte instead of Vue. Since Astro makes it possible to pass down the blok object, containing all of the data coming from Storyblok, as a property to the different framework components, we can simply reuse all of the information in various environments.
With Astro, you as a developer benefit from phenomenal DX, mind-blowing performance out of the box, and a high degree of flexibility thanks to the possibility to bring your own component framework (or even combine multiple component frameworks) and the availability of integrations. Moreover, Astro is highly future-proof: Considering moving from Vue to Svelte? From React to Vue? Astro makes the transition seamless, keeping the foundation of your project the same.
With Storyblok, your clients or fellow colleagues from the content marketing team get to enjoy a high degree of autonomy and flexibility, effectively utilizing the full potential of your Astro code base. Landing pages can be created in a matter of mere minutes, and dynamic, interactive components will have no negative impact on their performance.
Taking everything into account, Astro and Storyblok may very well be the last technology stack you will ever need for your content-driven website projects.
A Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is getting more and more important in the software supply chain. In this blog, you will learn what an SBOM is and how to build the SBOM in an automated way. Enjoy!
An SBOM is a list of software components that makes up a software product. This way, it becomes transparent which software libraries, components, etc., and their versions are used in the software product. As a consequence, you will be able to react more adequately when a security vulnerability is reported. You only need to check the SBOMs for the vulnerable library, and you will know immediately which applications are impacted by the vulnerability. The SBOM of a library or application you want to use can also help you in your decision-making. It will become more common ground that software suppliers will be forced to deliver an up-to-date SBOM with each software delivery. Based on this information, you can make a risk assessment of whether you want to use the library or application.
Our recommendation for the best broker to sell your ecommerce business is Dealflow Brokerage because of its high success rate, extensive investor network, and exit planning expertise. Get your free valuation today.
Selling an ecommerce business on your own is a complex and time-consuming task. You need to find a buyer, negotiate the deal, and go through the legal steps associated with selling a business.
Ecommerce business brokers simplify this process by doing all the heavy lifting for you. From finding qualified buyers to escrow services, exit planning, and more, they’ll ensure you get maximum value on the sale.
We’ve identified the five best ecommerce brokers on the market today. Dealflow Brokerage is our top recommendation for most ecommerce sites because they help you plan your exit and find buyers willing to pay top dollar for your business. Find out what your online store is worth today.
Continue reading to find the best broker to sell your ecommerce company.
During our extensive research process, our team at Quick Sprout identified the most common scenarios for people wanting to sell their ecommerce business. If you see a scenario below that best fits your needs, you can jump straight to that section to see the best brokers for your specific needs. This is the fastest and easiest way to find the right ecommerce broker.
Best Option: Flippa
If you’re ready to sell and want to get your ecommerce business listed immediately, Flippa is the fastest and easiest way to get exposure. The average sale time is one month, and your business will be on an open marketplace of over 300,000 buyers, increasing your chance to sell sooner than later. Flippa also offers free escrow services and negotiation tools so you can manage everything through a single platform.
Another Great Choice: Website Properties
The average time to sell an ecommerce business with Website Properties is six to eight weeks. This is very fast compared to alternatives on the market, especially since you get such high-quality service throughout the process. This broker doesn’t cut corners and still knows how to get your online business sold quickly.
If you’re ready to sell now, consider brokers with:
Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage
Dealflow Brokerage has several different exit planning options, each with a higher level of involvement from a dedicated mergers and acquisitions advisor. They provide monthly coaching services to ensure you do everything possible to set your online store up for maximum value.
This is a great way to identify both risks and opportunities in the market. The services also include a full exit plan audit, a detailed list of action items, and exit roadmapping—all leading up to the official listing and sales process.
Another Great Choice: FE International
As an M&A firm, FE International specializes in maximizing the value of your online store. They’ll handle all of this for you, so you can continue running your business while they work behind the scenes to prepare for the sale. FE International provides exit planning services along with legal structure, due diligence, strategic negotiations, and everything else you need to get ready to sell.
If you need exit planning help, pay attention to:
Best Option: Flippa
Not everyone wants to work with a dedicated advisor to sell their ecommerce business. This is especially true for smaller ecommerce stores and owners who don’t want to pay higher commission fees. If you fall into this category, Flippa is the best marketplace option for your ecommerce store.
The commission fees start at 10%, even for ecommerce sites sold for under $50,000. Other brokerages take 15% for similar sales prices. You can also access free escrow services with your Flippa listing package.
Another Great Choice: Empire Flippers
Empire Flippers is another excellent DIY solution for ecommerce businesses that want to go through a marketplace. They’re great at vetting buyers, so you’ll never hear from people who are just window shopping and aren’t actually interested. Beyond the DIY approach, Empire Flippers provides you with different ideas and unique deal structures to help finalize the sale. They’ll even contact your web host on your behalf once the deal goes through to ease the transition.
If you prefer a DIY approach to selling your ecommerce business, keep an eye on:
Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage
Dealflow Brokerage has an investor network of more than one million buyers, and they’ll list your business for sale on their own platform and third-party networks. But what really separates Dealflow Brokerage from the crowd is how they actively reach out to qualified candidates instead of just letting your listing sit dormant online for people to find.
Another Great Choice: FE International
FE International has a global network of more than 80,000 pre-qualified buyers. These buyers represent more than $41 billion in capital. This broker boasts an impressive 94.1% sales success rate, so you know that they’re connecting clients with the right buyers.
If you need help finding qualified buyers, consider:
Best Option: Dealflow Brokerage
Deaflow Brokerages provides free business valuations for ecommerce sites. There’s no commitment and zero upfront cost to see how much your business is worth. In addition to getting an accurate valuation of your business today, Dealflow Brokerage will also let you know if it’s the right time to sell based on the stage of your online store and the overall market conditions. They can help you get maximum value by telling you when it’s the right time to sell.
Another Great Choice: Empire Flippers
Empire Flippers has a free and simple valuation tool to help you discover what your business is worth. They use a proven formula based on net profit and a specific multiple that varies based on other factors you provide. The cool part about Empire Flippers is the valuation tool accounts for all of your revenue channels and monetization models. But you will need to create an Empire Flippers account to get the valuation.
When you’re getting a valuation for your ecommerce business, look for:
Continue to read our in-depth reviews of the best brokers for selling your ecommerce business. Every option on our list is a quality candidate to consider, but each one stands out for a specific reason or scenario. As you read these reviews, you’ll learn more about each broker’s strengths, as well as any potential drawbacks. We’ll also cover the costs associated with each ecommerce broker.
Dealflow Brokerage is an experienced mergers and acquisitions advisory company specializing in online businesses. They boast a 93% success rate and have access to more than one million potential buyers within their investor network.
Its white-glove service makes Dealflow Brokerage stand out from the crowd. Unlike other brokers that just want to sell your business as quickly as possible to earn a commission, Dealflow Brokerage will advise you on whether or not this is the right time to sell.
If it’s not the best time to sell, Dealflow Brokerage will actively work with you to find ways to improve the value of your ecommerce business—helping ensure maximum sales value.
It’s worth noting that Dealflow Brokerage is typically a better option for well-established ecommerce sites looking to sell for millions of dollars. While they work with smaller sites, it’s probably unnecessary for you to go through this process if you’re only trying to get a couple hundred thousand for the sale. It’s also worth noting that if you do sign up for the exit planning service, Dealflow Brokerage has the first right of refusal when you decide to officially sell.
The exit planning services at Dealflow Brokerage are second to none in this industry. So if you’re not quite ready to sell today but want to position your ecommerce business for maximum value over the next year or so, Dealflow Brokerage has you covered.
They offer three different exit planning packages for ecommerce businesses in different stages. The first option is more of a DIY approach that helps walk you through the steps for your exit plan. The second tier is a two-page exit plan that includes your existing business valuation and a checklist of action items to complete.
Dealflow’s top-tier exit planning service comes with a 20-page report and a dedicated senior advisor that will coach you through the process on a monthly basis until it’s time to sell. Once the business is ready, Dealflow Brokerage can take the reins and actively find buyers in their network.
The full exit planning service starts at $3,500 for your 20-page report and $600 per month for ongoing coaching. They’ll also take a commission when your business sells, and the percentage depends on the sales price.
Flippa is arguably the most popular and well-recognized marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. It stands out from alternative marketplaces for its simplicity, reputation, and low fee structure.
For those of you who are ready to sell and want to get your ecommerce business listed ASAP, Flippa is undoubtedly the way to go.
Any online store, regardless of revenue or asking price, can list on Flippa. So whether you’re a small shop that just wants to cash out for $250,000 or you’re a big player selling for $10 million, you can use Flippa as your brokerage.
In addition to the marketplace, Flippa offers free escrow services and other useful tools, including NDAs, confidentiality agreements, legal templates, and more. The downside of using an online marketplace alone is that nobody is actively finding buyers for your business. The hand-picked buyer service is only available if your business is worth over $10 million.
Flippa has become such a reliable source for buyers who want to purchase online businesses. This popularity and strong reputation are great news for sellers—since you’ll be listing your online store where buyers come first.
The marketplace has over 313,000 buyers, and nearly 275,000 online businesses have been sold through Flippa. Ecommerce is one of the most popular categories on the platform.
While nobody is actively reaching out to buyers on your behalf, Flippa’s unique algorithm does make it easier for buyers to find your listing based on what they’re looking for. You can negotiate with buyers directly through the platform as well.
Listing packages start at $39, and Flippa’s success fees range from 4% to 10%, depending on the sale price. If you find a comparable platform offering a lower success fee, Flippa will beat it by 1%.
FE International is a global mergers and acquisitions advisor that has successfully brokered over $1 billion in acquisitions. They provide all of the accounting, valuation, and technical expertise in-house to ensure you can successfully sell your ecommerce store in a timely and efficient manner.
This is an excellent option for ecommerce sites that have complex operations or want to sell for high prices. But one unique standout of FE International compared to every other brokerage we reviewed is its ability to accommodate online stores that also operate offline.
As long as 50% of your sales are online, FE International will qualify you as an ecommerce store. If the rest of your revenue is coming from retail, wholesale, or another revenue stream, they’ll know how to position your listing to target the right buyer pool.
FE International is better suited for larger ecommerce operations that are well-established and flowing cash. If you’re a small startup or not ready to list for more than $2 million, you’ll probably find other solutions on our list a bit more fitting for your needs.
FE International has different buyer pools willing to invest and purchase ecommerce businesses. They know what types of businesses their buyers want and what their strengths are.
So let’s say you specialize in wholesale but also operate a DTC online store. For some buyers, those are two different businesses. But FE International can help you position yourself appropriately, appealing to the right type of buyer who knows how to handle both ends of the operation.
They can even work with you if your operation is a mix of B2B ecommerce, DTC ecommerce, consumer retail, and wholesale B2B retail. So if part of your business sells online through Amazon and Walmart and the other part is a storefront chain, FE International can still broker the deal and manage all of the complexities associated with it.
Pricing for services and commissions is not available online. But you can reach out to FE International for a free valuation and consultation and inquire about those rates during your call.
Website Properties has over 20 years of experience brokering online businesses. They boast an impressive 90% deal closure rate and have facilitated over $550 million in gross sales.
While Website Properties is a great broker for selling any type of online store, this brokerage specializes in Amazon and Shopify businesses. They’ve learned through years of experience that these types of businesses are in high demand from investors, and they know how to facilitate those sales.
It’s worth noting that the list of buyers they work with is a bit smaller compared to other brokerages. However, the list is much more targeted. So don’t let that throw you off if you’re just comparing those numbers side by side.
When you work with Website Properties, you’ll get a white-glove touch from their team of experts. Their small team approach takes the time to understand your needs so they can find qualified buyers.
Website Properties has a private list of 35,000 buyers that they deal with. So when they see an Amazon or Shopify business, they know exactly who to pick up the phone and contact.
This starts with a free evaluation. From there, they’ll prepare a narrative that introduces your company to prospective buyers. Then Website Properties will market the listing, find buyers, and manage the entire sales process—all while maintaining confidentiality for you and your business.
You can get a free valuation from Website Properties to find out how much your ecommerce business is worth. Commissions are based on successful sales, and rates vary based on the sales price.
Empire Flippers is an online marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. More than $400 million in sales have been brokered through this company.
What makes Empire Flippers unique compared to similar marketplaces is its ability to provide accurate valuations for online stores with unique revenue models.
For example, maybe you’re selling products through a traditional online store, but you also make money through affiliate marketing and advertisements. Or maybe you sell subscription box services online but also sell one-off items through Amazon. Empire Flippers takes all of this into consideration when they’re coming up with a valuation and positioning your business for sale on the marketplace.
Just note that Empire Flippers does have other listings for online businesses that fall outside the scope of ecommerce. So ecommerce isn’t their only area of focus. It’s also worth noting that at 72%, Empire Flippers has a lower success rate than other options on our list.
When you’re going through the valuation and listing process on Empire Flippers, you’ll be walked through a series of questions related to your online store. But unlike similar tools on the market, Empire Flippers lets you account for all of your revenue models in a DIY approach.
So you’re not forced to pick just one area of your online business. All of your online sales channels and monetization methods are included.
This includes traditional ecommerce, Amazon FBA, Amazon associates, display advertising, subscription services, subscription boxes, dropshipping, and more. Maybe you offer software, SaaS, or digital products too. Empire Flippers is perfect for anyone who falls into one or more than one of these unique categories.
Commissions start at 15% for sales under $700,000. They drop to 8% between $700,000 to $5 million and are further reduced to 2.5% if your ecommerce business sells for over $5 million.
To help assist you even further, we have some additional resources related to ecommerce brokers, business brokerages, and selling your business. Check out these guides and reviews below:
The best business brokers to sell your ecommerce business help simplify the sales process and set you up for success. Some are great for simple marketplace listings, while others are better for guided exit planning and buyer outreach. You’ll even find some that specialize in specific types of online stores, like Shopify or Amazon.
Dealflow Brokerage will be the best ecommerce business broker for most sellers. They have a high success rate and offer a range of exit planning solutions to ensure you get top dollar for the sale.
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