Ecommerce
Online sellers usually run short of cash on their best products. Here is how to model a reorder against your payout timing, so the funding you take matches the gap you actually have.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
Updated October 13, 2026 · Merchant Fund Express
For an online seller, the cash gap sits between paying the supplier and receiving the marketplace or processor payout for the goods that order produces. Production, freight, receiving, selling and payout holds all add days. The faster a product sells, the more often the gap repeats.
Funding a reorder only makes sense if the product’s contribution margin, after returns and fees, comfortably covers the cost of the money.
How many times a year the stock sells through. Fast turns mean shorter gaps, and the same funding can be reused.
Selling price minus product cost, fees, shipping and ad spend per unit. This is what repays the funding.
Refunds reduce payouts and can arrive after you have already spent the money. Use your real rate by product.
Marketplaces and processors can hold part of your balance or pay on a cycle. Know the real lag from sale to deposit.
A seller with about $70,000 a month in payouts reorders 4,000 units at $9 landed cost. Each unit sells for $29. About $9 in marketplace fees and fulfillment comes out of the payout, so each sale pays out about $20, and ads cost about $3 a unit, paid separately. That leaves about $8 of contribution per unit before returns. The returns rate is 6%.
| Date | Event | Cash | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2 | Supplier deposit, 30% | $10,800 out | −$10,800 |
| Oct 1 | Balance due before shipment | $25,200 out | −$36,000 |
| Oct 28 | Stock received and live | $0 | −$36,000 |
| Nov payouts | About 1,700 units sold, net of reserve hold | $32,000 in | −$4,000 |
| Dec payouts | About 1,800 units sold, November reserve released | $38,000 in | $34,000 |
| Jan payouts | Remaining 500 units | $10,000 in | $44,000 |
| Jan | Returns processed across the order | $2,900 out | $41,100 |
The order consumes about $36,000 for roughly two months and finishes about $41,000 above landed cost once it sells through, before the roughly $12,000 of ad spend. The funding need is the $36,000 at its deepest point, and the money is fully back by January. That is the window any payment schedule has to fit.
All figures in worked examples are illustrations of the arithmetic, not offers or quotes. Real terms depend on your file and the funder.
In those cases, the cheaper move is to reorder less, reorder later, or move slow stock first.
Revenue-based funding suits payout-driven sellers because it is read on deposits. See revenue-based financing and our published tiers. Sellers with three years of history and stronger credit can look at a line of credit and draw per order. For general stock funding and the broader industry picture, see ecommerce inventory funding, the ecommerce hub and the inventory financing guide.
Then start the application.
Yes. Payouts that land in your business account are read as deposits. Transfers between your own accounts are not.
A reserve is not available cash. Plan payments from payouts that actually arrive in the bank.
Fund the deepest point of the cash gap, not the invoice total, if part of the order can be paid from current payouts.
Decisions on complete files are typically same day, and funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours for qualified businesses. Apply before the supplier deadline, not on it.
Same-day decision. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
