Bonanza Marketplace Launches Seller Loan Portal

Bonanza launched a new financing service, with CEO Quincy Faison telling EcommerceBytes the new seller loan portal is designed to help sellers access the capital markets for inventory, marketing, and other activities to grow their booths.

Faison acquired Bonanza last month, when he shared his plans with EcommerceBytes about a program that would allow sellers to borrow working capital to invest in revenue-generating activities with payback based on revenue generated.

Bonanza launched the new platform on Wednesday. According to the landing page describing the new service, sellers must generate $10,000/month in revenue (Faison confirmed that’s across all selling channels) and have been in business for at least 6 months, and they must have a minimum credit score of 550.

The page describes various types of financing:

• Receivables Advance: Up to $750,000 (3-12 months). “Lender purchases future revenue from sales at a discount and you pay back over a period of time with fixed daily or weekly payments.”
• Line of Credit: Up to $10 million, revolving terms. “You can borrow up to a maximum credit limit and only pay interest on the amount of funds you draw from your credit line on a monthly basis.”
• Term Loan: Up to $10 million (6-36 months). “Lump sum amount lent to the business, which is paid back over a period of time with regular scheduled payments determined by your credit profile.”
• Invoice Factoring: “Sell outstanding invoices to a lender who will pay you a portion of the amount up front. The remaining percentage is held until the invoice is paid by your customer and a fee is deducted.”
• Equipment Financing: “Lender provides you the cash you need to purchase a piece of equipment. You pay back the total amount, plus interest, over a period of time.”

Faison told EcommerceBytes that while there are various forms of financing, there are lenders on the platform that take payments out of sales. “We are constantly adding additional lenders to the marketplace and we will continue to expand on revenue based lenders,” he said.

“We have several lenders on the platform and are actively recruiting more especially micro lenders for our smaller lenders,” Faison said. “The relationship will be directly with the lenders on the sellers.”

Bonanza will market the new lending platform to its own sellers, but the offerings are available to anyone – Faison said he hopes that non-Bonanza sellers who take advantage of the program will also give the Bonanza marketplace a chance.

What does he see as the biggest need Bonanza sellers have for getting financing to grow their business? Marketing followed by inventory, he said.

The new platform is hosted on BonanzaLending.com.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.