What actually transfers when you buy an ecommerce store
The asset list in a GMC Marketplace handover — store, domain, Merchant Center or Meta access, ad accounts, credentials — and the things no marketplace can transfer to you.
The word “store” hides a bundle. When a deal completes on GMC Marketplace, several separate things move, each with its own transfer mechanics, and one of them is usually the reason the buyer is here at all — the advertising history.
The asset list
The handover on a store listing is guided by the admin team, one asset at a time. It typically covers:
- Shopify or WooCommerce store ownership.
- The domain name.
- Google Merchant Center or Meta advertising platform access.
- Advertising account access, where the listing includes it.
- Associated business assets and platform credentials.
App and tool listings are a different shape: there is no storefront and no feed, so the assets are the app itself, its listing, and the accounts around it. Check the specific listing rather than assuming the store checklist applies.
What the seller writes down, and what you should ask
The listing fields tell you what exists. The deal chat is where you pin down how each item moves. Before you agree a price, get specific answers on the registrar, on who currently owns the Merchant Center or Meta assets, on whether any account is shared with another business, and on what happens to supplier or fulfilment relationships you are relying on.
The asset list goes into the Asset Purchase Agreement for your deal. If an asset matters to you and it is not written down before you sign, you are trusting a chat message instead of a contract.
The part that does not transfer
After handover the website is yours, and so is the ongoing duty to keep business information, policies and offers consistent with whatever the advertising account claims. Google’s published website audit for misrepresentation and “website needs improvement” looks at consistent business details, explicit shipping, refund and privacy links, working links, and HTTPS checkout. An About page still naming the previous operator is now your problem, not theirs.
This is the honest limit of buying history: it can save you the wait of building an account, and it cannot immunise you against a policy review. Read the misrepresentation guide before you enquire, not after.
Sources
Questions
Is the domain included?
Domain transfer is part of the handover on store listings, and it is one of the assets the admin team walks through step by step. Confirm the exact registrar and the transfer method in the deal chat before you agree terms — domains move differently depending on where they are registered.
Do I get the Merchant Center account itself, or a new one?
On a GMC listing you are getting access to the existing Merchant Center account, which is the reason the listing exists. What that looks like in practice — ownership change versus added access — is agreed in the deal chat and written into the Asset Purchase Agreement for that deal. Ask before you sign.
What is never included?
Future platform decisions. Nobody can transfer you a promise that Google, Meta, Shopify or a payments provider keeps the account in good standing after handover. Buyer Protection covers whether you receive the agreed assets, not what a platform does next.
What if an asset on the list never arrives?
That is exactly what the payment order is for. Settlement funds are only released to the seller after you confirm the agreed assets have been transferred. If something is missing, say so in the deal chat before confirming — the admin team holds the funds while it is sorted out.
Related guides
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