Amazon is a capital game. **To do $10m a year you have to be holding around $2m in inventory** — without it, the revenue is arithmetically impossible no matter how good the listings are.

Which means growth is usually limited by cash, not by demand.

**But you do not necessarily need more money. You need more money that is *free*.**

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-payterms-explainer-3dd1a52f.mp4)

*Prefer to watch? One hundred and fifty-five seconds on why growth is limited by cash rather than demand, the four arguments for supplier credit, and how to get Net 60 from a freight forwarder.*

## **Why the cycle strangles you**

Look at what happens to a dollar of inventory.

**You pay the supplier before production.** **Sea freight from Asia takes 45–75 days.** **Then Amazon holds your sales revenue roughly 30 more days after the sale.**

**So you are funding that unit for something like four months** before the money comes back. Every unit you want to sell more of extends that gap.

**The tactics below close it with supplier and freight credit rather than borrowing** — which is the point. A loan at 10% a year is a real cost. Payment terms are free.

## **Ask your existing suppliers for terms**

**This is where the serious credit is**, and it depends on relationship, volume, and how much your business matters to them. If you have worked with a supplier for years, the answer is usually yes.

**Negotiate on the messaging app they actually use, not email.** Terms are a relationship concession, and relationships are not built in an inbox.

### **The four arguments, in order of weight**

**1. Mutual growth.** Credit is not charity — it lets you order a larger quantity, which lets you spend more on marketing, which sells more units, which makes the next order bigger. Say that explicitly: *you are the constraint on my order size, and removing it grows your business too.*

**2. The payment cycle.** Explain the four-month gap above. Most suppliers do not know Amazon holds seller funds for a month, and it makes the request look structural rather than opportunistic.

**3. A yearly plan, not a purchase order.** Tell them how many units you intend to order across the coming 12 months. **The same request framed against an annual volume lands very differently from one framed against a single PO.**

**4. Social proof.** Mention that your other suppliers already work on these terms. Real, but the weakest of the four — lead with growth, not with comparison.

### **What to ask for**

**Open with 25% deposit, 45% on ready date, 30% at 60–90 days after shipment.**

**Then expand gradually as trust builds.** Terms are a ladder, not a switch.

**Long term, push toward 100% at delivery.** Some suppliers will agree once your reliability and volume are strong.

**And once you have real leverage, ask them to hold finished stock** — or at least raw materials — **and ship on demand without upfront payment.** That collapses your lead time and your cash gap in one move.

## **Then do the same with freight**

**Freight forwarding is a commodity.** Several providers offer effectively the same service at different prices, which is exactly the condition under which asking works.

**Get multiple quotes.** The first purpose is simply not to overpay.

**Then choose on terms, not only on price.** When two quotes are close, take the one with better payment terms and better communication. A slightly higher rate on Net 60 beats a slightly lower rate paid up front.

**After 3–4 months of consistent shipments, ask for Net 60** — paying 60 days after the shipment lands. Forwarders grant this far more readily than suppliers do, because the service is commoditised and they do not want to lose the volume.

## **Q4 is the easiest ask of the year**

**Ask for better terms on specific POs and specific shipments**, not as a permanent change.

**And be direct about why:** without the terms, you cannot place the order at that size.

**Both suppliers and forwarders expect this conversation in Q4**, because every one of their customers is trying to fund a peak. A request scoped to one season and one order usually goes through smoothly.

## **What this is worth**

**Work out your own number before you negotiate.** Take the order value, multiply by the extra days you are asking for, and you have the amount of free working capital the conversation is worth.

**Then decide what you would do with it.** Free cash flow only helps if it goes somewhere — more inventory on your best-performing products, a bigger advertising budget behind a launch, or simply the ability to take money out of the business.

**Sizing your inventory need is the input to all of this** — see [**Inventory Forecasting and Purchase Orders**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/inventory-forecasting).

![Sales and inventory, per product](/kb-assets/shot-prod-table-6c206b.png)

## **Common mistakes**

**Not asking.** The overwhelmingly most common failure. These terms are standard for sellers who requested them and absent for sellers who did not.

**Asking by email**, where a relationship request reads as a procurement demand.

**Framing the request around one purchase order** instead of an annual volume.

**Choosing a freight forwarder on price alone**, and giving up 60 days of free capital to save a small amount per shipment.

**Treating financing as the first move.** Supplier and freight terms cost nothing; borrowing costs interest. Exhaust the free credit first.

**Freeing up cash and then not deploying it.** Idle working capital earns you nothing.

## **Related**

- [**Inventory Forecasting and Purchase Orders**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/inventory-forecasting) — how much stock the terms need to fund.
- [**Where Your Margin Actually Goes**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/where-your-margin-actually-goes) — the cost side of the same problem.
- [**PPC Payments and Cash Flow**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/ppc-payments-and-cash-flow) — the other free credit line.