Funding purpose
Business finance for stock and inventory finance
Stock is cash sitting on a shelf. Financing it lets you buy at the right time and in the right quantity instead of only what today’s bank balance allows.
Stock and inventory finance is funding used to buy goods for resale ahead of the season or contract that will sell them, repaid from the sales proceeds rather than from existing working capital.
Retailers, wholesalers and distributors face the same recurring decision: commit to inventory months before it sells, or under-order and miss the sales. Supplier deposits on imported goods fall due at order, the balance at shipment, and the goods land weeks later. Australian seasonal patterns make this sharper — Christmas stock ordered in August, winter ranges bought in autumn, and end-of-financial-year runs planned well in advance. Every one of those requires cash long before the sale.
Financing stock properly also creates buying power. Volume discounts, early settlement terms and opportunistic buys from a supplier clearing lines are often worth several points of margin, which can exceed the cost of the finance used to take them. The counterweight is inventory risk: stock that does not sell becomes a markdown, and the finance repayment continues regardless. Any facility should be sized against what you can realistically sell within the season, not against what the supplier would like to ship you.
The cash-flow pattern we plan around
Cash committed to inventory two to four months before the selling season, with proceeds arriving across the season itself and slow-moving lines tying up capital longer.
What stock and inventory finance typically fund
- Seasonal stock ahead of a peak trading period
- Supplier deposits and shipment balances on imports
- Volume buys to secure a better unit price
- Inventory for a new contract or product line
Documents lenders usually ask stock and inventory finance for
- ABN, GST registration and 6–12 months of bank statements
- Purchase orders or supplier proforma invoices
- Stock turn and sales history for the relevant lines
Finance options for stock and inventory finance
Trade finance for stock and inventory finance
Trade finance is purpose-built for imported stock. The facility pays the supplier at deposit and shipment and gives you a term of 90 to 150 days to receive, sell and collect, which covers the whole cycle for most importers.
Business line of credit for stock and inventory finance
For businesses reordering continuously rather than in one seasonal buy, a revolving limit fits better than a term loan. Draw as supplier invoices fall due, repay as stock sells, keep the headroom for the next order.
Unsecured business loan for stock and inventory finance
A term loan suits a single, defined seasonal buy: the Christmas order placed in August and repaid across December and January. You can size it precisely against your own forecast and see exactly what it costs.
Invoice finance for stock and inventory finance
Wholesalers and distributors selling on terms to retailers can fund the receivables side rather than the stock side, which often achieves the same result more cheaply. Each invoice is advanced when goods are dispatched, releasing the cash to buy the next inventory run.
Business overdraft for stock and inventory finance
An overdraft on the trading account is the least complicated way to fund fluctuating stock levels: the account simply goes below zero as inventory is bought and back up as it sells. Bank overdrafts are typically the cheapest revolving option, though slower to arrange and usually requiring security and full financials.
Merchant cash advance for stock and inventory finance
A merchant cash advance can fund a stock purchase for a card-based retailer, repaying as a percentage of daily takings so the repayment tracks how quickly the stock actually sells. That alignment is genuinely useful for a seasonal buy.
Lenders active in this space
Moneytech, ScotPac, Finstro, Prospa — among others on our panel of 18+. Your broker checks fit before anything is submitted.
Key terms
Inventory finance
Inventory finance is short-term funding used to purchase goods for resale, repaid as the stock sells, and sized against expected sell-through rather than against the total value a supplier is willing to ship.
Stock turn
Stock turn is how many times inventory is sold and replaced over a period, and it determines how long a finance facility must run before the goods it funded have generated the cash to repay it.