There are three main types of ecommerce business loans:
- Working capital loans: These are short-term loans or merchant cash advances (6 to 24 months long) paid into your bank account. You can use them to settle urgent day-to-day business expenses, including payroll, rent, utilities, and inventory.
- Term loans: These are longer loans (2 to 10 years long), which you can use to expand your ecommerce business. You can hire new staff, purchase large assets like real estate, or refinance existing debt, among other things. They are generally larger in size than working capital loans.
- Business lines of credit: You can draw from a fixed credit limit to cover business costs. However, unlike working capital or term loans, you only pay interest on the amount you withdraw. As you repay the borrowed credit, it becomes available again. You don’t have to apply for new financing every time an expense arises.
In this article, we detail the requirements and paperwork you need for ecommerce financing, the steps to apply, and how to compare and choose between different lender offers.
Throughout the article, we explain how Redline Capital financing helps ecommerce businesses qualify more easily and much faster than with traditional banks or other lenders.
Complete this short application and we’ll send you multiple offers that can close as early as today or tomorrow.
| Funding Features | Redline Capital Terms |
| Loan amounts | $30,000 to $2 million |
| Minimum credit score | 600 |
| Minimum time in business | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly revenue | $30,000 |
| Collateral or cash reserves | None required |
| Paperwork requirements | Just a 4-month bank statement |
| Loan options | Term loans, working capital loans, business line of credit, cash advances, equipment loans, and SBA loans. |
Requirements to Meet to Qualify for Ecommerce Business Loans
The requirements you need to meet depend on two things: the financing product you’re applying for and the lender’s underwriting process.
To qualify for ecommerce financing with Redline Capital, you only need to focus on three requirements:
- A minimum of $30,000 monthly revenue
- A minimum of 12 months in operation
- A business registered in the U.S
The reason our qualification criteria are so minimal is because we’re a revenue-based financing provider, meaning our entire underwriting process is based on revenue, rather than collateral, cash reserves, and profit margins, as is the case with large banks. This makes it significantly easier to qualify; you simply need to meet the $30,000 monthly revenue requirement.
This easier qualification criteria also allows ecommerce businesses to qualify for bigger financing amounts. Banks are risk-averse and don’t want to lend large amounts, offering up to 50% of your monthly revenue at most. Redline Capital, on the other hand, regularly extends up to 200%.
Additionally, we can fund all types of ecommerce businesses, including drop shipping, Amazon FBA, Shopify, SaaS, and traditional ecommerce.
With most banks, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:
- A personal credit score of 720 or more
- Large profit margins
- Several years in business
- Personal guarantees such as real estate, bank accounts, or future sales
- Cash reserves worth three months of operating expenses
- Significant short-term growth
- Debt-to-income ratios under 35%
Most ecommerce businesses don’t meet these requirements. Those who do need to provide detailed financial records that they likely don’t have or maintain, such as audited statements and cash flow forecasts.
How to Apply for an Ecommerce Business Loan
The first step in applying for ecommerce financing is to approach a lender and go through their application process. Application processes naturally vary from lender to lender.
At Redline Capital, we designed our application process and paperwork requirements with speed in mind. In fact, you can complete the entire application process in under five minutes and receive funding on the same day. Here’s what it looks like:
- Submit this short application and four months of bank statements.
- Our underwriters run a soft credit check and underwrite your revenue. They determine whether you qualify, how much you can borrow, and at what rate.
- We then send you multiple offers within a few hours to choose from. This quick turnaround is possible because we focus on your cash flow — just four months of bank statements — not the mountains of paperwork banks require.
- Once you accept an offer, you receive access to the funds immediately.
With large banks, you’ll need to schedule an appointment to speak with a loan officer, who will ask questions to understand your business, why you need financing, and how you plan to repay it.
Then, the loan officer will give you a list of documents that you must submit. This typically includes:
- Financial records such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements
- Two years’ worth of tax returns
- Cash flow forecasts
- An appraisal report verifying the value of the collateral
- Proof of cash reserves
Once you’ve gathered and submitted all this paperwork, the bank begins underwriting, which takes between two weeks and three months, depending on the complexity of your business. This long closing time automatically eliminates banks as a funding option for those seeking quick capital.
How to Choose the Right Offer for Your Ecommerce Business
What Is the Cost of Borrowing?
The cost of borrowing is the most important factor to consider because it determines how much you’ll end up repaying in the long run.
At Redline Capital, we help our borrowers secure the best possible rates for their ecommerce business, better than what they would get elsewhere.
That’s because we are a business financing broker with long relationships with top lenders, including OnDeck, Credibility, and Rapid Finance. We’ve sent them over $50 million in loan applications, helping them grow their lending business. In return, they give our applications discounted rates, larger amounts, and exceptions not available to direct applicants.
Read more: Unsecured Business Line of Credit with Just 4 Months of Bank Statements
How Long (and Flexible) Is the Loan Term?
Consider the time you have to repay the loan.
We recommend choosing longer-term offers, as this allows you more time to repay the borrowed amount, resulting in smaller weekly or monthly installments. This prevents unnecessary strain on your business’s cash flow.
For short-term working capital loans, aim for repayment terms of 6 to 24 months; for longer-term financing, look for terms between 2 and 5 years.
Additionally, consider the loan’s flexibility. Is the lender able to tailor the payment schedule to match your business’s sales cycles and seasonality?
For example, we’ve had ecommerce clients that sell winter equipment and get over 80% of their sales in the winter months. So, we were able to draw up an equipment financing term where they make interest-only repayments in summer and larger repayments in winter. We can tailor terms to align with your schedule, regardless of your seasonality and cash flow cycles.
How Fast Can the Lender Fund Your Loan?
Another important factor to consider is the lender’s closing speed, especially if you need funds to settle business expenses urgently.
A good way to predict a lender’s closing speed is by looking at how much paperwork they require. The more paperwork involved, the longer the closing process typically takes, as the lender must underwrite all of it.
With Redline Capital, we can close faster than most online lenders — typically on the same day that you apply — because we only need to review 4 months of bank statements.
Banks and credit unions that require balance sheets, collateral, cash reserves, and cash flow forecasts can take up to 3 months to close.
Do You Need Collateral?
In most cases, we advise avoiding offers that require you to pledge business assets as collateral. That’s because if you default, it gives the lender the legal right to seize assets that are necessary to keep your ecommerce business running, such as computers, office equipment, cash reserves, real estate, etc.
In addition, collateral adds time to the closing process because the lender must appraise the collateral to verify its value.
When you apply for Redline Capital financing, we send you offers for unsecured financing, meaning you don’t have to provide any collateral, lowering your risk.
Read more: How to Qualify for Chiropractic Business Loans & Choose the Right Offer
How Professional and Borrower-Oriented Is the Lender?
A common mistake many ecommerce entrepreneurs make is focusing solely on the terms of the loan and overlooking the lender offering it.
However, many small business lenders, especially mid-tier ones, don’t really care what’s best for your business and whether your cash flow can support the loan. So, it’s common for them to offer you expensive, short-term financing filled with hidden fees, and pressure you to accept it immediately.
That’s why it’s so important to analyze a lender’s online reviews before partnering with them.
At Redline Capital, we take pride in our zero-pressure approach. We’ll email you transparent offers that your business can afford, and leave the final decision to you with no pressure to accept.
Additionally, if we determine that you don’t qualify for the financing product you want (e.g., a line of credit), we’ll send you offers for products for which you do qualify. We don’t just leave you with a rejection letter like most small business lenders, and no guidance on what to do next.
Here’s what ecommerce business owners say about our application and closing process:
Hear our clients share their experiences in our case study videos:
Secure Affordable Ecommerce Funding with Redline Capital
Submit a four-month bank statement and we’ll email you several offers that can be funded as early as today or tomorrow.
FAQs
Can you get an SBA loan for an ecommerce business?
Ecommerce businesses can qualify for SBA (Small Business Administration) loans. However, it’s essential to note that while these financing options typically offer lower interest rates, they also require a longer closing time, sometimes up to three months. With Redline Capital’s revenue-based financing, you can get funded on the same day, and we tailor the repayment schedule to your business’s cash flow.
How does ecommerce financing work?
When you apply for ecommerce financing, the lender deposits the funds into your business bank account, and you can withdraw them and make weekly or monthly payments. The only exception would be for ecommerce lines of credit, where you receive access to a borrower portal where the funds are held, allowing you to withdraw them into your account and pay interest only on the funds actually withdrawn.
How do I apply for a working capital loan?
With Redline Capital, you can apply for a working capital loan by submitting four months of bank statements, and we’ll send you multiple offers that you qualify for and close on the same day. However, when you apply at a bank, you’ll need to gather piles of paperwork and wait weeks or months to receive your funds.
What are the benefits of online business loans?
Applying through an online financing company like Redline Capital means you can close faster and more easily than with traditional lenders. We frequently fund small business loans on the same day with minimal fuss. Additionally, you don’t need to submit extensive paperwork, as we only require 4 months of bank statements. Banks will ask you for profit and loss statements, tax returns, business plans, cash flow forecasts, and more.
What are the eligibility requirements for an ecommerce business loan?
To qualify for ecommerce financing with Redline Capital, you just need to meet 3 eligibility requirements: earn $30,000 in monthly cash flow, be based in the U.S., and have a business history of 12 months or longer.