E-commerce and direct-to-consumer businesses carry working capital cycles that equity is an expensive way to fund. Zenith structures and places inventory, receivables and revenue-based facilities for online retailers and marketplaces, and builds the contribution-margin, cohort and channel reporting a lender or an acquirer will test before pricing anything.
The capital problem in this sector
Contribution margin, not blended gross margin
Blended gross margin hides the two things a lender cares about: which channels pay for themselves after fulfilment, returns and paid acquisition, and which are being subsidised by the rest of the book.
The reporting that gets a facility priced is contribution margin after all variable costs, cut by channel and by cohort, rebuilt from order-level data rather than asserted in a deck.
Returns and deferred revenue are diligence issues, not accounting details
Returns provisioning, gift cards and subscriptions sitting in deferred revenue are where e-commerce diligence findings cluster. A returns rate estimated rather than measured by cohort will be restated, and the restatement lands at the worst possible moment in a process.
Cleaning this up takes quarters, which is why it should start well before a raise or a sale is live.
Working capital facilities beat dilutive rounds for stock
Stock that turns predictably is financeable collateral. Where a business can evidence turns, sell-through and a stable returns profile, an inventory or receivables line funds growth at a fraction of the cost of equity.
The work is making the asset legible: a clean tape of SKUs, ageing, turns and marketplace settlement timing that a lender can advance against.
Where Zenith fits
Debt placement
Inventory and receivables facilities placed against a book that turns. The work is the SKU tape, the ageing and the settlement timing — the growth story is not the collateral.
Private credit
Flexible growth facilities from funds that will lend against contribution margin and cohort behaviour where a bank credit box will not.
Fractional CFO
Channel-level contribution margin, cohort retention and inventory reporting rebuilt from order data, on a monthly cadence.
Transaction advisory
Returns provisioning, deferred revenue and cohort quality of earnings prepared before a buyer's adviser finds them.
Questions we are asked
Can an e-commerce business raise debt without profitability?
Frequently, yes, where the collateral is legible. Inventory and receivables facilities are advanced against the asset and its turn, not against EBITDA, so the test is sell-through, ageing, returns behaviour and settlement timing from the marketplace or payment processor rather than a profit line.
What reporting does a lender want from a DTC brand?
Contribution margin after all variable costs by channel, cohort retention and repeat rates rebuilt from order-level data, inventory ageing and turns by SKU, and a measured returns rate by cohort. Blended gross margin and ROAS on their own do not get a facility priced.
How are marketplace receivables financed?
Against the settlement schedule of the platform, with an advance rate reflecting the platform's payment terms, chargeback and reserve behaviour. The concentration risk of a single marketplace is priced explicitly, so evidencing a second channel usually improves both advance rate and margin.
When should an e-commerce business bring in a fractional CFO?
Usually between USD 3m and USD 30m of revenue, and immediately where a raise, a facility or a sale sits inside eighteen months. Inventory and returns accounting is the most common source of repricing in e-commerce diligence and it cannot be fixed in the weeks before a process.
Last reviewed August 2026
Start with the structure, not the pitch.
Tell us the transaction and the timetable. If it is not something we should run, we will say so.