No Obligation, Pre-Qualification
E-Commerce Loans for Inventory, Ad Spend and Peak Season
Fast Approvals Made Simple
An online seller pays for the inventory and the ads first and gets paid last. Stock is ordered months ahead of a sale event, ad spend runs every day whether or not it converts that day, and the marketplace holds your money on its own settlement schedule. We source funding for marketplace sellers, wholesale accounts and multi-channel brands through our extensive network of funders.
Funding for Marketplace and Multi-Channel Sellers
- Fund a Q4 Inventory Buy
- Keep Campaigns Running
- Hiring Employees
- Free Up Cash Flow
Why Online Sellers Run Short on Working Capital
The money in an e-commerce business is nearly always sitting in stock or in ads. A stockout on your best listing costs more than the inventory would have, so you over-order, and over-ordering ties up the cash you then need for the ad spend that moves it. Platform fees, fulfillment and returns processing all come out before the payout lands, and an infrastructure upgrade tends to be needed precisely when traffic is highest and least convenient to interrupt.
Selling across several channels multiplies that rather than smoothing it. Each marketplace wants its own stock allocation and pays on its own settlement cycle, and a change to a platform’s algorithm or fee structure can move your revenue in a week with no warning. Meanwhile the seasonal buy for the fourth quarter has to be committed in summer, which is the point in the year with the least cash behind it. Plenty of sellers also carry an independent retail storefront alongside the channels, which puts a lease and a floor team on top of the same inventory bill.
Funding a Peak Season Before the Money Arrives
Here is how the products get used against the way an online seller’s year is actually shaped.
Peak season is bought in advance. Black Friday and Cyber Monday inventory has to be ordered, paid for and often shipped from overseas months before the sale weekend, and the supplier discount that makes the margin work is the one that requires committing early. A Merchant Cash Advance carries that with repayment taken as a share of sales, so the cost tracks the volume and eases off in the slow weeks after the event. A short-term Working Capital Loan does it as a lump sum on a fixed schedule, which is simpler to plan against when you already know what the buy costs and roughly what it should return. The wholesale distributors filling those container orders are financing the same commitment one step earlier in the chain, on terms shorter than the ones they extend to you.
Then there are the gaps that have nothing to do with growth. Returns land in January after a December that looked excellent, and the off-peak months still carry the same subscription software, warehouse and staffing costs. A Business Line of Credit is built for that. You draw what the shortfall needs, pay interest only on what you drew, and the limit refreshes as the payouts come in. Clearing it inside a couple of months keeps it cheap.
Ad spend deserves its own line in this. A working capital loan used to keep campaigns running through a slow stretch is a different decision from one used to buy stock, because ad performance decays when you switch it off and restarting costs more than continuing would have. If that is what the money is for, say so on the application, because it changes which repayment shape actually suits you.
Matching Online Sellers With the Right Funder
Sterling Street Financial sends your file to an extensive network of funders, which matters more for online sellers than for most. Some funders will not write for a business with no storefront and no receivables in the traditional sense. Others read storefront, marketplace and processor data as their primary underwriting input and are entirely comfortable with it. We source offers from the second group and lay out what each one costs and how each one repays.
Business loans crafted for the e-commerce sector can be classified as:
See what your business qualifies for.
One application, compared across our extensive network of funders. On average, funding is received within 2-4 business days.
Online Seller Funding Questions
It is funding shaped around a seller whose money goes out well before it comes in. That covers inventory bought months ahead of a sale event, ad spend that runs daily, platform and fulfillment costs, and the development work behind the storefront itself.
Because the things that grow an online business all have to be paid for up front. Funding buys inventory across every channel you sell on, keeps traffic coming when a competitor raises their bid, pays for the storefront work that lifts conversion, and covers the stretch between a marketplace payout and the costs it is meant to cover.
Revamping the storefront, digital marketing across channels, buying inventory ahead of a peak season, upgrading servers when traffic spikes, customer service staffing, and the technology behind faster fulfillment.
Working Capital Loans for stock buys, Merchant Cash Advances where a high share of revenue arrives as card payments, and Business Lines of Credit for returns season and off-peak gaps. The right mix depends on how many channels you sell through.
It follows the sales data rather than the square footage. A Merchant Cash Advance is tied to your online sales, so repayment flexes with volume. A Working Capital Loan gives a lump sum sized to an inventory buy, which suits stocking up before Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
It removes the trade-off between inventory and ad spend. You can take a supplier discount, launch into a new channel, hold enough stock to avoid going dark on your best listing, and keep marketing running through the slow months.
Sizing the payment to a peak month. Fourth-quarter revenue is not first-quarter revenue, and a daily remittance set against November is a problem by February. There is also a risk particular to this trade, which is that a platform change or an account suspension can move your revenue overnight. Leave more headroom than a bricks-and-mortar business would.
It changes by product and by funder. Most look at annual revenue, credit history, how long you have been trading and what other debt you carry. In this category the sales and processor data does most of the work, and funders in our network can read it across several channels rather than requiring a single marketplace history.
Yes. We work with every credit profile, prior bankruptcies and tax liens included. For a young store the growth curve and the processor data usually carry more weight than the credit file, because between them they show whether the revenue is real and whether it is heading in the right direction.
We ask what the reason was. Some funders never fund online-only businesses and others specialize in them, so a rejection frequently says more about the desk than about the store. The same file goes to other funders in our network, and if the block is something you can move, we will tell you what it is.
One online application, with recent bank statements and your processor or marketplace reports. If the money is for a specific inventory buy, give the number rather than a round figure. That one submission reaches our funder network, and approved funds can arrive in as little as 24 hours.
Steps to Secure Business Funding with Sterling Street Financial
Submit Your Online Application
Fill out the online form. It asks what your business does, what the money is for, and what your revenue looks like. Call, chat or email if a question comes up.
Talk to Our Experts
A funding specialist reads your file and calls you with what the funders in our network sent back — the amounts, the costs and the repayment schedules.
Get Funded!
Choose the offer you want. Approved funds reach your account in as little as 24 hours, and most requests fund within 2-4 business days.
A Few Minutes to Apply
Fill out our online form and get approved quickly.
Compare Options
Both secured and unsecured loans with no personal guarantee.
Customize Terms
Choose what best suits you and your company’s needs.
Get Funded
Funds in as little as 24 hours, directly to your account.
Take your business to new heights.
Tell us the amount you are after and what your business takes in each month, and we will point your application at the programs that fit. No application fees, no obligation, and no impact on your credit score.