#ask-the-community
Thread
Hi all
I am interested in hearing how you are all funding your e-comm businesses in terms of stock purchasing.
We are a seasonable business with our main revenue coming from March to September, at this time of year we need to push suppliers on better purchase prices and we have to stock up for the year.
Previously we’ve used Working Capital loans from PayPal Working Capital, Shopify Capital and more recently Wayflyer which are paid back as a % of our sales.
% of sales works well for us because sales will drop in the winter months being a UK based sailing business.
Any other recommendations?
Thank you in advance.
Credit line from traditional bank?, is by far the cheapest option. But is a hassle to get
Happy to answer any Revenue Based Financing Questions here - Price an issue currently due to how Rates are affecting lenders cost of capital, but from what I hear Wayflyer etc all building additional offerings to solve for this.
we used Tradebridge from the UK for a while, that ended up being cheaper because its an overdraft facility. So when you don’t use it, it’s free. And you don’t have to reapply every season
but they pulled out of EU without a warning, so now I dont like them
We got a credit on our current account from our traditional bank (Dutch bank Rabobank) we do all our banking with. I thought it would be a hassle.
In the end, it was way easier than expected. We signed up online, we had one call with a sales representative after, their software looked at our transaction over the last few years, and he gave us a €100k credit allowance on our current account. After that, I received the contract the same day, I signed it, and 2 working days later we had it reflected in our bank account.
Personally I really liked the idea of a current account credit, because it means you only pay for the debt the moment you actually need to use it.
Traditional bank revolving credit facility or trade finance facility
Best is to push suppliers on payment terms
Aim for 90 days after delivery
Thanks all for your comments, certainly some options to chase after and investigate.
I agree with the credit account with your current bank. It took some time and hassle to get, but once obtained it's very useful.