Revenue-Based Finance for Retail & E-Commerce
By Joshua Giles, Founder and Director · Reviewed by the CoreFi credit team
Last updated 20 July 2026
CoreFi is a broker, not a lender. We do not set rates and lenders make all credit decisions.
In short: £10k - £2M over 6 - 18 months. Revenue-based finance works like this: a lender advances you capital today, and you repay it as a fixed percentage of your daily or weekly card and online sales until a pre-agreed total (the factor amount, typically 1.1x to 1.5x the advance) is cleared.
Revenue-based finance works like this: a lender advances you capital today, and you repay it as a fixed percentage of your daily or weekly card and online sales until a pre-agreed total (the factor amount, typically 1.1x to 1.5x the advance) is cleared. There are no fixed instalments. When sales drop, repayments drop. When you have a strong week, you clear the balance faster.
For retail and e-commerce, the underwrite is built on revenue data rather than property or personal guarantees. Providers connect directly to Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, WooCommerce, or your payment processor and pull six to twelve months of sales history. That data is the security. An Amazon FBA business with consistent margins and a clean charge history can often access six figures quickly, without a single form being printed.
We place these regularly for seasonal stock builds ahead of Q4, for paid-media campaigns where the return is measurable, and for brands scaling into new channels that need inventory before revenue comes in. Where it falls down is thin-margin retail, businesses with very lumpy or unpredictable revenue, and anyone who needs a longer horizon than 18 months, because the factor rate makes it expensive to hold for two or three years.
The lender who says yes to this is usually a specialist revenue-finance platform, not your high-street bank. We are a broker, not a lender, so we cannot promise a rate. Factor rates depend on your margin profile, revenue consistency, and the platform the lender uses to pull your data.
Key Benefits
- The repayment is a percentage of sales, so a quiet January costs you less than a busy December, without needing to ask anyone's permission
- Underwriting is based on live sales data from your platform, not a bank manager weighing up accounts from two years ago
- No property charge, no first charge over business assets, and no personal guarantee in most cases. The revenue stream is the security
- Straightforward applications tend to move fast once the platform connection is live and sales history is verified
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it available for marketplace sellers?
Yes. Amazon FBA sellers, eBay traders, and marketplace-only businesses sit well within appetite for most RBF providers. They connect to your seller account directly to verify sales history and gross margins. You do not need a standalone e-commerce site.
Can I use it to fund a product launch?
Yes, provided you have an existing sales track record on other lines. Lenders are advancing against future revenue, so they need evidence that revenue actually comes in. A brand-new business with no sales history will struggle. An established seller launching a new SKU on the back of proven demand is a much easier conversation.
What happens during seasonal dips?
Repayments shrink automatically because they are calculated as a share of what you actually take. If January is half the volume of December, you pay roughly half as much that month. You do not need to request a payment holiday or call anyone. That self-adjusting mechanic is the main reason seasonal retailers prefer this over a term loan.
Do I need to be profitable to qualify?
Not necessarily. RBF lenders look at revenue trajectory and gross margins rather than bottom-line profitability. A business reinvesting heavily in stock and marketing and running at a small net loss can still qualify if the revenue trend is upward and margins are healthy. What kills an application is erratic revenue or margins too thin to absorb the factor cost.
Revenue-Based Finance calculator
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Total repayable
£120,000
Total cost
£20,000
Per month (approx)
£8,000
Est. months
15.0
Illustrative estimate only, not a quote or financial advice. A broker will confirm exact terms based on your circumstances and lender appetite.
Work out your numbers
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Lender appetite varies by city and region. If you would rather start from where your business is based, these local guides cover the same funding with the local picture.
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Get matched with lendersCoreFi is a trading name of JG Core Ltd (Company #16218779, England & Wales). CoreFi acts as a commercial finance broker and does not provide regulated financial advice. All products described are unregulated business-to-business finance. Information on this page is for general guidance only and does not constitute a formal offer of finance. Terms, rates, and availability are subject to lender criteria and may change without notice.