The program, open to eligible Amazon sellers in the U.S., is designed to offer these merchants access to working capital directly through their seller accounts, Slope said in a news release Tuesday (Dec. 16).
“Independent sellers now account for more than half of Amazon’s sales,” the release said. “At the same time, access to affordable financing remains one of the biggest concerns for small business owners. The new program introduces a new generation of embedded credit infrastructure that helps sellers bridge inventory cycles, expand product lines, and reinvest in their businesses, without the friction or opacity of traditional lending.”
According to the release, the program uses Slope’s artificial intelligence (AI) credit infrastructure, a proprietary system that turns “messy transaction and cash flow data” into a “structured, auditable understanding” of a business’s health.
Slope’s credit program is supported by a credit facility from J.P. Morgan Chase. The banking giant’s payments arm made an investment in Slope last year, with the company also joining the J.P. Morgan Payments Partner Network.
“Working with Slope, our team at J.P. Morgan Payments can help meet client demand by providing access to a financing solution that integrates directly into the point-of-sale, translating into higher conversion rates,” James Fraser, global head of trade and working capital at J.P. Morgan Payments, said at the time.
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The company’s partnership with Amazon comes at a time when many smaller businesses are wrestling with working capital woes.
As PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have traditionally been underserved by the institutional-scale lenders financing their larger peers.
These smaller businesses increasingly see personal and business credit as separate but complementary financial tools. Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that SMBs tend to use business credit cards for planned purchases, while turning to personal cards to cover unexpected expenses.
“This “two-track” credit model isn’t just emergent. It’s an unintended workaround that reveals both the creativity and the constraints inherent in the way SMBs manage cash flow,” PYMNTS wrote. “And it may be creating a pressure point for issuers, who have built most business credit products for stability and predictability, not improvisation.”
