Amazon Seller Funding
Amazon sellers face an age-old challenge when it comes to working capital: they need the bulk of it upfront to grow their business. But which solution is the quickest and most efficient?
While Amazon sellers have greater access to working capital solutions than ever before, it can still be challenging to secure the right Amazon financing option at the right time. As the largest eCommerce marketplace in the United States, Amazon is home to a wide variety of selling strategies that each have their own unique cash conversion cycle. In order to find the right funding for your Amazon business, it’s critical that you find an Amazon financing solution that takes the time to recognize and accommodate the unique differences in Amazon seller strategies when allocating capital. That’s where Viably comes in.
No matter what selling strategy, or combination of selling strategies, your Amazon business embraces, Viably has a tailor-made working capital solution to help your business scale sustainably. Plus, Viably offers an all-encompassing financial management platform, designed to save you time and money by seamlessly integrating your funding, forecasting, and banking experience. With cash flow visualizations, no bank fees, and revenue-based funding options, it’s easy to optimize your Amazon seller finances and drive growth.
What makes working capital so important to Amazon Sellers?
Can you grow your business entirely on bootstrapping and your own cash flow? Technically, yes, but you’ll be stuck scaling up your Amazon seller business at a snail’s pace with thinner margins. What do you do if you want to grow your business sustainably and swiftly? Since most Amazon seller models require significant upfront capital investment, external Amazon funding to provide supplementary working capital becomes a clear path forward.
External funding is paramount for sustainable cash flow management as an Amazon seller because it provides the financial flexibility to address inventory needs, navigate cash flow roller coasters, scale operations, and remain agile enough to respond to unforeseen challenges. Supplementary working capital enables you to seize growth opportunities and remain competitive in the dynamic world of eCommerce.
Private Label Sellers
To stay competitive, private label Amazon sellers not only need capital to make inventory purchase, they also invest heavily in advertising to establish brand awareness and reach customers. External Amazon funding can provide the necessary working capital to make these inventory investments and invest in growing their brand without financial pressure.
Arbitrage Sellers
Arbitrage sellers need capital constantly to keep inventory stocked. Since arbitrage sellers are constantly purchasing more inventory when they see a deal, it’s critical that they always have access to liquid capital. Supplementary working capital from Amazon seller loan providers can help streamline cash flow to avoid crunches and help sellers take advantage of new opportunities quickly. It also helps keep inventory in stock to stay competitive and win the elusive Buy Box.
Wholesale Sellers
Amazon wholesalers purchase products in bulk from manufacturers or distributors to take advantage of lower unit costs. The key is to streamline cash conversion cycles, ensuring that inventory (and $$) are moving through your Amazon business efficiently. External Amazon funding can provide the necessary working capital to streamline your cash conversion cycle, especially during peak seasons or when scaling up operations to increase inventory and win the Buy Box.
With greater Amazon financing options at your fingertips, you’ll have more purchasing power available to scale your business. External funding also can greatly improve your cash flow, ensuring that you’re no longer skating by on thin margins or worrying about hiccups, and instead maintain a healthy amount of liquidity in your Amazon seller business. By taking on funding that helps your business remain agile, you’ll have more flexibility to scale your business in the way that you see fit.
Scaling Sustainably: The Focus on ROI
While most Amazon sellers tend to prioritize the cost of capital (outgoing funds), fewer pay attention to the return on capital (incoming funds). Understanding the return on investment (ROI) for every borrowed dollar can be a game-changer in scaling your business. ROI signifies that your Amazon business financing options continue to work for you, even when you’re not actively engaged, ensuring that your business thrives around the clock.
To make it simple, we have developed this useful calculator to do the heavy lifting for you. Just share some basic data about your Amazon business sales and the percentage of growth you’re hoping to achieve. Then watch in amazement as our handy little Growth Calculator does all the hard work for you.
How Viably built funding for Amazon Sellers
What type of funding is out there for eCommerce sellers?
Amazon sellers have access to more financing options today than ever before. With the rise of eCommerce, new financial companies have emerged with creative and unique Amazon business financing options, many of which were designed specifically for eCommerce business owners. These solutions include a wide variety of subsidiaries from traditional small business lenders and online marketplaces.
Conventional lenders, particularly banks, often offer traditional funding avenues such as business loans, a business line of credit, or personal credit cards, tailored mainly for established small businesses. While these financing options may appear stable, they pose significant entry barriers. Conventional lenders typically evaluate small businesses eligibility based on outdated criteria, unsuitable for modern Amazon sellers. Requirements like small business credit scores, credit histories, and collateral are common but often difficult for Amazon sellers to fulfill, given their reliance on cash flow for inventory financing. Plus, many Amazon stores utilize fulfillment services like Amazon FBA sellers, leaving little collateral to offer at any time.
In contrast, emerging alternative lenders, including online funding platforms, provide financing solutions explicitly crafted for Amazon sellers and eCommerce ventures. These solutions prioritize criteria more relevant to Amazon businesses, especially emphasizing Amazon sales history and projected revenue. Speedy approval and disbursement are key features for Amazon seller loans, ensuring sellers can access working capital swiftly.
With Amazon Lending’s closure in March of 2024, many Amazon sellers are on the hunt for a new, long-term financial partnership. Since the closure of Amazon Lending means sellers no longer have access to in-market financing, it has opened up doors for more strategic working capital solutions. Those looking for Amazon seller financing solutions to replace Amazon Lending should consider their selling type, personal challenges, and current financial state, among other factors.
When it comes to funding options for Amazon sellers, most plans and strategies can be categorized into three main types:
Term Loans
These involve substantial upfront sums repaid over an extended period. This is the model formerly used by Amazon Lending.
Line of Credit
While flexible, outside of credit cards, these are often challenging to secure, expensive, and come with caps on usage.
Working Capital
Typically short-term financing, spanning 3-6 months, with modest rates, designed to meet immediate operational needs.
Choosing the right funding option depends on factors such as business goals, cash flow requirements, and growth strategies.
What's important to Amazon sellers in their cash flow cycles?
Depending on what Amazon seller strategy, or combination of strategies, that your business utilizes you’ll need working capital at varying rates. Whether you’re looking for a lump sum upfront to invest in inventory, daily payouts to streamline cash flow, or a combination approach to help you take advantage of unique opportunities, Viably offers a solution that fits your business. No matter how you’re trying to scale your business, greater access to capital gives you more flexibility and agility when it comes to running your Amazon seller business.
To determine the best working capital solution for your Amazon seller business, consider:
Every Amazon seller is different, and there’s no one-size fits all when it comes to funding. Choose an offer tailor-made to your Amazon seller-specific sales strategy and history.
People trust people–especially when there’s money on the line. Talk to a Customer Success specialist about your cash flow needs to build that relationship.
Obtain rapid working capital quickly (in as little as 24 hours) so that you can truly take advantage of time sensitive opportunities, including optimal inventory financing.
Always know what’s coming next and avoid unexpected expenses.
Easily see how additional outside working capital will impact the growth of your business, compared to trying to grow without funding.
Avoid unnecessary banking fees, transfer delays, and manual expense management with an all-in-one financial management tool.
Partnering with Viably for Amazon financing options opens doors to unlocking your business’s full potential and seizing the myriad opportunities available through eCommerce funding. Our dedicated Growth Specialists are committed to guiding you through the intricacies of financial decisions, ensuring you identify the optimal funding solutions to drive your success.
Reach out to us anytime at 1.855.650.5255 or via email at [email protected] to kickstart the process. A Viably Growth Specialist will promptly connect with you to explore your Amazon seller financing options and steer you through unlocking your business’s maximum potential. Let Viably be your trusted banking and funding partner in propelling the growth of your eCommerce store.
What our customers say
Finding an eCommerce banking partner
Michael needed to find a funding solution that had a transparent funding structure, didn’t have huge fees, and was interested in a longer term partnership.
Mike D’s BBQ
Better financial planning and cash flow forecasting helps Mike D’s BBQ put more sauces and rubs in the store and open a new brick and mortar restaurant.
Changing how eCommerce views debt
Not only did Michael feel confident and trusting of the company though, he also found Viably’s tools and resources to be incredibly helpful to his business.
Beyond the Basics: An all-in-one Banking Experience
As the eCommerce landscape has continued to evolve, service providers have worked hard to “decouple” financial management and provide highly specialized tools for each step of the process. However, this creates a new problem for Amazon sellers when it comes to streamlining their financial operations. When cash flow and expense management, banking, and Amazon seller financing tools are all located in separate applications, Amazon sellers are forced to spend time and energy manually transferring data.
Imagine having a complete picture of your real-time cash flow right at your fingertips. Even better, picture being able to simply tap a button and receive offers for working capital to help grow your Amazon seller business based on all of that data. That’s why Viably created our all-in-one banking experience for Amazon sellers.
Viably offers a fully-integrated business checking account for all of our customers, offering fee-free banking, digital debit cards, and seamless integration into our forecasting and expense management tools. Use this suite of resources to pay suppliers, track purchases and categorize them for an easy tax season, view your cash flow growth, and apply for a boost of funding all in one user-friendly platform.
Thanks to your connected Amazon account, our underwriters can present you with up-to-date offers as often as you’d like. And, best of all, use insights from the most comprehensive picture of your Amazon seller business’ financial health to make data-driven decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Viably Growth Capital for Amazon Sellers
Also known as Amazon seller financing, Viably has built a unique set of working capital products for different Amazon seller strategies. These solutions take into account the cash flow patterns of your specific business in order to provide the right, personalized and sustainable funding offers.
All of Viably’s solutions are designed to improve your cash flow and increase your buying power, allowing you to take advantage of opportunities that can help your Amazon seller business reach new heights.
Viably offers two unique working capital solutions in order to provide each Amazon seller with the best funding for your Amazon store. In the initial phases of your application you will see Amazon seller financing offers that align with one (or multiple) of these funding products.
Viably Growth Capital (VGC): Viably Growth Capital is a working capital product that provides a one-time infusion of funding designed to provide a one-time cash flow boost at a fixed fee. This working capital solution was designed to help sellers make the most of short-term events and opportunities, such as a product launch or shopping event. While sellers can apply for Viably Growth Capital repeatedly, it was not designed to be recurring on a scheduled cycle.
Viably Wholesaler Accelerator (VWA): Viably Wholesaler Accelerator is a working capital product that aligns with an Amazon wholesaler’s cash cycle to increase buying power with suppliers and improve their margin, offering a fixed and higher, adjustable credit limit. In this working capital product, funding is distributed on a recurring basis to align with your sales cycle and streamline a boosted cash flow.
In order to apply for any Viably Amazon seller working capital product, you must own a U.S. based business that has been selling on Amazon for a minimum of 6 months. To qualify for Viably Growth Capital or Viably Wholesaler Accelerator, your business also must have an average of at least $10,000 in revenue and 6 months of recent sales history.
Keep in mind that these are the minimum requirements necessary to receive Amazon seller working capital from Viably. We cannot guarantee that by meeting these qualifications your Amazon store will be approved, however they are good general indicators.
Each of Viably’s working capital solutions for Amazon sellers has different limitations when it comes to the amount of funding you can receive, all based on your sales history.
Viably Growth Capital can provide Amazon sellers with an initial offer of up to $1,000,000, that can be adjusted over time. On the other hand, Viably Wholesaler Accelerator has no limitations. An initial offer will be made, then confirmed with our underwriting team, and can be adjusted over time.
Amazon wholesale sellers may also qualify for a higher adjustable credit limit that has the potential to grow with the business, unlike other working capital solutions, such as Amazon Lending.
Unlike traditional small business lenders and eCommerce lenders, including Amazon Lending, Viably does not require a personal guarantee or collateral from the business owner in order to receive working capital as an Amazon seller. We recognize that Amazon sellers are in a unique position and often don’t keep inventory on hand, but need capital upfront in order to make bulk purchases.
Instead, our underwriters review your business’ Amazon sales history to ensure that we’re making an offer that’s healthy for your business. Although you may start with a smaller offer, over time, with a healthy monthly payment history and a strong partnership that helps your business grow, we’ll be able to offer greater funding without personal guarantees or collateral.
After applying to receive funding and indicating you are an Amazon seller, you will need to wait for a final offer and approval from our underwriting team. It typically takes less than two business days to receive your Amazon seller financing offer.
After you’ve been approved for Amazon seller funding, you can expect that money to hit your Viably business checking account within 24 hours.
At Viably, we believe that you, as the Amazon seller and business owner, know the challenges your business is facing (and your goals for the future) better than anyone else. While we’re here to help with cash flow and funding, you’re the one truly running the business and finding unique solutions everyday. That’s why funding from Viably isn’t limited to inventory financing. You can use funding from Viably for any expense related to your Amazon wholesale business.
Whether you’re interested in Amazon inventory financing while in between payouts, adding a new product to your catalog, or using working capital to build a cash flow cushion, feel free to use your funding at your own discretion. After all, you know your business better than we do.
Viably’s working capital solutions are tailor-made for each individual Amazon seller. Unlike other Amazon seller financing solutions, Viably’s personalized offers take into account the opportunities and challenges that your business is facing to ensure that you get sustainable funding that can help your eCommerce business grow. And, in our quest to provide sellers with a people-first experience, our Customer Success Specialists are available to you at any time with just a click of a button.
Schedule a meeting at any time to discuss your funding options, available offers, repayment terms, and more.
Get started with your application for Amazon seller working capital by clicking here. You’ll fill out some information about your Amazon seller business and sales history, connect your business bank accounts, and then be able to view your preliminary offers.
How Online Sellers can get funded
Apply
Tell us about your eCommerce business.
To start your Viably funding application, simply tell us a little bit about your eCommerce business.
Connect
Securely connect your marketplace & bank.
Bank accounts, QuickBooks, and anywhere else your data lives, you can connect in minutes.
Get Funded
Receive customer funding offers.
You can choose the offer that meets your needs, and grow your business with our free cash flow insights and projections.
