Ecommerce funding often starts by reaching into your finances, then maybe contacting friends and family, maybe crowdfunding, regular banks, or venture capitalists. It’s a seemingly endless process of pleading for support, when all you want to do is run your business.
Luckily, we’ve discovered a way to obtain continuous cashflow for your online store, without all the hassles. It’s called 8fig, and in this 8fig review, we explain what it all entails, along with information about the offerings, fees, and potential things to look out for.
What is 8fig?
8fig is a company that responded to the troubles that ecommerce store owners frequently encounter when seeking ongoing funds.
They found that there are several problems with ecommerce funding, primarily that:
- It’s difficult to maintain a consistent flow of funding to scale your business.
- More traditional funding sources lack flexibility in terms of cash flow and repayment.
Therefore, 8fig was born as a service to provide ecommerce brands the continuous funds they need, while also serving as a management and supply chain support solution that’s flexible with the needs of your business over time.
Top Features and Offerings
During our 8fig review, we checked into the overall signup process and which offerings you receive when considering 8fig for financial assistance.
Essentially, 8fig tries to answer this question: How much would you be able to sell if you had no problems with cashflow?
The idea is to ensure that ecommerce businesses never run out of money when they need it, and to even pull back on the funding when it’s not entirely necessary; hence the flexibility that comes with 8fig.
As such, 8fig offers a Growth plan for online store owners with the need for funding. In addition, there are special features and offerings, like a financial dashboard and the ability to work with 8fig with some of the top ecommerce platforms.
Here’s what to expect:
The Growth Plan
8fig makes funding simple by offering one plan to its customers, called the Growth plan. They designed this plan to support rapid scaling as your product demands rise. 8fig claims that you have “virtually unlimited” access to ongoing funds, but there’s even more to it.
The Growth plan provides:
- Nearly unlimited capital
- Operations and management support (considered CFO-level support)
- No need to give up equity like you would with a traditional investor
The main roadblock to obtaining this limitless capital is the application process. However, it appears that the requirements are reasonable, and they’re designed to help out brands with promising futures but struggles with cashflow.
Requirements for the Growth Plan include:
- You must have an ecommerce store
- Your store should run on a platform like Shopify or Wix, or one of the major marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, or Walmart
- Rrevenues greater than $100,000 over the past year, or monthly revenues higher than $8,500 over the last 3 months
As long as you meet those requirements, 8fig has a track record for assisting those types of businesses. So, you’ll have to prove those simple financial benchmarks, and we would imagine any other notable marks would help your cause as well.
Support for Top Ecommerce Platforms
8fig works with brands using the most popular ecommerce platforms and marketplaces because those particular places have bright futures. After all, it makes sense to partner with an ecommerce store on Amazon, considering it already has a wonderful infrastructure and isn’t going anywhere soon, and they also work with standalone shops on platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce. 8fig also has integrations with these platforms to check past revenues and potential sales.
So, you can rest easy knowing that 8fig works with wholesale and private label sellers on the following ecommerce platforms:
- Shopify
- Wix
And these marketplaces:
- Walmart
- Amazon
- eBay
8fig states that it actually supports other popular online marketplaces, so you may not get rejected for the Growth plan if you happen to utilize another system. Our best recommendation is to contact a representative from 8fig to explain the entirety of your business and see if you’re still able to gain access to capital with your current ecommerce platform or marketplace.
What’s also interesting about the 8fig partners is that they actually have integrations with systems like Shopify and Wix, allowing them to connect to your store data to see past sales and for forecasting your revenues into the future.
Ongoing Funds (Not Startup Capital)
You may notice that we keep using the terms “ongoing” or “continuous” funds, and that’s because 8fig doesn’t actually provide startup capital.
this allows them to safely provide “unlimited” funds to growing businesses because they only work with companies with proven track records.
So, if you have a wonderful idea, but you’ve yet to build an online store and accumulate some sales, 8fig isn’t for you until you can show that you meet some of the revenue requirements.
However, there is good news for younger online sellers. The Growth plan requirements only ask for 3 months of revenue history, so it’s definitely possible to launch your store, make money, and meet those requirements eventually.
Funding Based on Supply Chain Analysis
One unique part of 8fig is its funding process where they track supply chain “lines,” or all of the expenses that go into selling one batch of products, whether that’s 500 products or 10,000.
During your application, 8fig asks you to estimate the size of your next batch of items. After that, they assist you in establishing the overall expenses for that line as the costs progress through the supply chain.
Some examples of supply chain stages and expenses include:
- Deposit
- Balance
- Freight
- Logistics
- Marketing
In the 8fig dashboard, you’re able to construct a supply chain line for every product, and this helps to calculate the funding required to produce, market, and ship each batch.
For example, you can type in your own numbers and dates for deposits, balances, freight, logistics, and marketing. There’s even a button to create an entirely new stage in the line and mark it as “Other.”
8fig then runs a profitability check to ensure you’re actually going to make money with the current plan. If you find that it ends you up at a deficit, you must go back to the drawing board to either cut costs along the supply chain line or increase the sales price of the product. Sometimes, you’re able to hit the profitability mark by increasing sales, so it all depends on what’s possible, and what matters most to your online business.
As you can see, increasing the price of the product, and selling more units, brings us to a point of profitability. As mentioned, this profitability point gets generated by multiple metrics, so you can also tap into cost-cutting as a solution.
After completing a line for your product, 8fig compiles a plan with all lines for the next several years (2 years by default). It helps you visualize your budget and revenue requirements on a monthly basis, and offers options for adjusting what you see in the timeline.
You can then click on the Get An Offer button once your plan is ready for submission.
Before applying for funding, 8fig provides a simple comment box for you to include any extra information you may want to share in your application.
Exclusive Support for US Online Stores
You must have an active online store to apply for funding from 8fig. There’s no funding provided for businesses with physical locations. Hybrid operations will have a shot at funding—like if you run one physical retail shop and also sell over 100K per year online—so we encourage you to still apply if that’s the case. The assessment of the application will be made case-by-case; there's no clear cut metrics for combined volume of sales or how these are split between online and offline
Another thing to keep in mind is that 8fig mainly provides funding for businesses all over the world, as long as they have a volume of ecommerce sales in the US. So, it’s a wonderful opportunity if you run a store in the US, but, as of right now, there’s nothing offered for non-US stores.
Your Own Custom Funding Goals
What’s interesting about the 8fig Growth plan is that they don’t have preset packages that you apply for, or any particular funding qualifications that may put you into a higher bracket.
In fact, the entire process of obtaining funds from 8fig involves you, the store owner, explaining to 8fig how much money you need for the near future. Thereafter, 8fig expects to see information about what you intend to use the cash for, and how you plan to pay it back.
After your initial funding proposal, 8fig crunches the numbers to see how realistic your goals are. They then piece together a custom Growth Plan for your business—to ensure you never run out of money while scaling and, we would assume, so they don’t give you too much money based on wild predictions from store owners.
The following elements go into the final decision on how much to fund your ecommerce business:
- Projections
- Past and current revenue
- Past and current cash flow
User Interface
Throughout our 8fig review, we found ourselves very pleased with the user interface, considering it only takes a few steps to get started with an account, and they provide powerful tools for adding products, estimating future profits, and figuring out all expenses throughout the supply chain.
After the application process, you’re greeted with a clean, modern dashboard for managing:
- Notifications
- Funding requests
- Lines scheduled
- Products
- Your profile
- Bank account
- Remittance schedules
- Lines
And it’s always possible to start a new funding stage, or to add to your current lines and see them compiled together with other lines in the Line Lab.
8fig Review: Fees
As with all business funding sources, 8fig definitely has fees.
There’s not much to say about those fees in our 8fig review because they’re all customized to the Growth Plan you decide upon with 8fig, so the cost of capital is different from seller to seller.
In short, you should expect a set percentage-based fee after signing up for a Growth Plan. However, 8fig will explain the extent of your charges before you sign up.
8fig utilizes AI (artificial intelligence) to determine the overall cost of your Growth Plan based on the calculated risk of your online store.
To give you an idea of what you should expect to pay with 8fig, the company lists this estimate:
- Fees range from $6K to $10K for every $100K borrowed from 8fig.
So, that’s about 6-10% in fees for the opportunity to have close to unlimited cashflow as your company scales into the future.
In addition, 8fig eliminates the need for sellers to put up any collateral or personal guarantees. There’s also no credit check that could cost you with credit dings or by forcing up interest rates.
Customer Support
8fig lists an email address on its website (and the user dashboard) for you to reach out at any time with questions about their services or concerns about your existing account. There’s also a contact form, and 8fig states the support team is available 24/7.
There’s no phone number listed on the dashboard, but it is possible to follow the company on social media sites and potentially reach out for assistance there; on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
We also like that 8fig provides a simple chat box within your user dashboard for reaching out while working on lines and funding proposals.
For both email and the chatbox, we found the customer support from 8fig to be responsive and knowledgeable.
Online resources are somewhat limited, but that’s because they’re not selling a complicated software, but a type of loan service. Therefore, we’re satisfied with the documentation available; information is mainly shared via the FAQs page, where you can filter by four categories:
- General
- Requirements
- Costs
- Growth Plans
The answers are straightforward and transparent, sharing information about fees, how much funding you can get, and how to go about the application process.
Is 8fig Right for Your Business?
During our 8fig review, we discovered the flexibility, ease-of-use, and wonderful tools available for estimating needed funds for your ecommerce store, along with its reasonable fees throughout.
It’s apparent that 8fig doesn’t make sense for starting an ecommerce bsuiness, so if you haven’t started a store, it’s best to go through at least 3 months of selling before looking for funding from 8fig.
So, that still leaves you with the standard options of using your own money or reaching out to investors, but 8fig comes in strong once you’ve proven yourself a worthy seller. You should also only consider 8fig if you’re an online seller and based in the US.
After meeting requirements and going through the application, you can obtain ongoing cashflow for all your products, with a fee of around 6-10%, depending on your past revenues and funding amount. But 8fig only looks at your past performance and future potential, so there’s no need for credit checks or odd guarantees!
Therefore, we highly recommend that established online stores—those with cashflow needs—consider 8fig for ongoing funding.
If you require any clarification about our 8fig review, please let us know in the comments below!
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