The store handover playbook: what transfers, in what order

Most deals don't go wrong at the negotiation. They go wrong in the week after — when it turns out the ad account can't actually move, the domain transfer breaks the store's email, or a refund request lands and nobody agreed whose problem it is. This is the playbook for that week: what transfers, in what order, and where the traps are. Each asset class also has its own deeper guide, linked throughout.

Before anything moves: money first

No asset changes hands before the money is secured. Not the domain, not a login, not a collaborator invite. On EcomFlips this is enforced mechanically — the transfer checklist in the deal room stays locked until Escrow.com confirms the buyer's funds — but the principle holds anywhere: a seller who transfers early has given the store away on trust, and a buyer who pays without escrow has done the same with money. Here's how the escrow protection works end to end.

The transfer order that works

• 1. Store platform — ownership of the Shopify/WooCommerce store itself, plus billing. Shopify guide.
• 2. Domain and DNS — registrar transfer or registrar-account handover (details below).
• 3. Payment rails — Shopify Payments representative and banking, or Stripe/PayPal/Mollie re-pointed to the buyer.
• 4. Marketing accounts — Google Ads and Merchant Center, Meta, TikTok and Pinterest. Slowest and most fragile; move them gradually.
• 5. Email and retention — Klaviyo, the list itself, sending domains.
• 6. Socials, reviews, support — social logins, Trustpilot, the support inbox.
• 7. Paper — supplier contacts and agreements, SOPs, creative libraries, any IP assignment in writing.

The logic behind the order: the store has to run under the buyer's control before the marketing that feeds it moves, and the domain has to move early because half the other assets — email sending, site verification, merchant feeds — hang off its DNS. The paper comes last because nothing breaks if it's a day late.

Credential hygiene — the rule that covers everything

Treat every handover as: seller hands over access, buyer immediately makes it theirs. That means changing the password, the recovery email and phone, and re-enrolling two-factor authentication on every single account, the day it transfers — and revoking active sessions and API keys while you're at it. Where a platform supports proper ownership transfer (Shopify, Business Manager, Klaviyo), use that instead of sharing a password at all. EcomFlips never asks for account credentials, and no legitimate party in the deal ever needs yours outside the account's own transfer flow.

Domain and DNS

Two clean paths: a registrar-to-registrar transfer (buyer initiates at their registrar with the seller's auth code — can take days, and some registrars lock transfers for 60 days after changes), or handing over the registrar account itself where the domain is the only thing in it. Either way, keep the existing DNS records intact through the move — the email sending records (SPF/DKIM), site-verification records and any merchant-feed verification are what the marketing accounts stand on. Break DNS and you break assets three steps down the list.

Marketplace accounts: Amazon, eBay, Etsy

The strictest platforms of all. Marketplace terms generally prohibit casual account transfers; Amazon, for instance, has historically considered transfers only as part of a genuine business acquisition, case by case. If the store's marketplace revenue matters to the price, check the current policy and plan this path before signing — sometimes the honest answer is a fresh seller account plus a brand/listing migration, and the deal should be priced knowing that.

Refunds, chargebacks and orders in flight

A store keeps living while it's being sold. An order placed two weeks before closing can turn into a refund request two days after it. The clean rule — and the one the EcomFlips purchase agreement uses — is a bright line at the moment escrow releases: from release, the buyer owns store operations in full, including refunds, returns, chargebacks and customer service, even on orders placed before closing. The counterweight is disclosure: the seller must surface pending and reasonably expected refund requests, chargebacks and customer disputes before closing — hiding them is a warranty breach, not a negotiating tactic.

Buyers: use the inspection window for exactly this. Review open and recent orders, the refund rate, the chargeback queue and the support inbox, and price the tail into your offer. Why not make the seller reimburse pre-close refunds instead? Between anonymous parties, post-close reimbursements are promises without an enforcement mechanism — holdbacks and indemnities work in lawyer-led acquisitions, not at this deal size. A bright line both sides can see beats a promise neither can enforce.

Platform reviews are a real risk — plan, don't panic

Ad platforms and marketplaces make unilateral decisions, and a change of ownership or business details can trigger a review — Google Merchant Center is the sharpest example, covered in its own guide. Nobody can guarantee a platform's decision: not the seller, not the buyer, not EcomFlips. What you control is the shape of the transition — move gradually, keep every detail truthful and consistent, and never enter false information to dodge a review; misrepresentation is the one path that reliably ends in suspension.

How this runs on EcomFlips

The deal room generates a transfer checklist from what the listing actually declared — the platform, the ad channels, the email tools, the social accounts, the marketplaces. Every item needs confirmation from both parties, each confirmation is timestamped into the transaction record, and the inspection window only starts once the last item is dual-confirmed. The checklist is the two of you executing the transfer; EcomFlips records it and holds the rails, and the escrow releases only after inspection.

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or platform-compliance advice. Platform policies change and are applied at each platform's discretion — check the platform's own documentation for the current process, and get advice specific to your situation for a significant acquisition. EcomFlips never performs transfers and never asks for account credentials.