Amazon extends loan programme

Amazon is extending its business loan programme, Amazon Lending, to the UK, to assist small and medium-sized companies that trade goods via its Marketplace division.

The e-tailer launched Amazon Lending in 2012 and initially offered the service in the US and Japan, the programme will now be extended to include the UK, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy and Spain.

The service is on an invite-only basis and is not open to all sellers on Amazon’s platform, and the retailer confirmed that the three to six month loans will range from 1,000 pounds to “hundreds of thousands of pounds” and that it makes its money on the interest and a cut of all sales on its marketplace.

The online retailer hasn’t confirmed how much it is has offered in loans since 2012, just that it has been “hundreds of millions of dollars” and added that more than half of its sellers opted in for a repeat loan.

The loans are said to help vendors increase their inventory and accelerate their business plans, with Amazon claiming that a seller who takes out a loan expands their stock by 15 percent within three weeks.

Prospective businesses will be approached by Amazon Lending based on the e-tailers internal sales data, because all loan payments come out of the sales proceeds it pays sellers.