The 60-second answer
Platform-integrated capital is the cheapest, fastest, and most frictionless capital available to most ecommerce merchants — but only on the platform where you do the majority of your revenue. The economics get worse fast when you take capital from a secondary channel.
- Amazon Lending — cheapest of the three for Amazon-native sellers (effective factor 1.06–1.16), holdback typically 8–14% of marketplace settlement. Best for Amazon sellers with 12+ months of seller history and clean account health.
- Stripe Capital — effective factor 1.08–1.18, holdback 10–16% of Stripe revenue. Best for DTC brands that process >70% through Stripe and want fast, friction-free capital.
- Shopify Capital — effective factor 1.10–1.22, holdback 10–17% of Shopify Payments revenue (only available if using Shopify Payments). Best for Shopify-native brands with 12+ months of GMV history.
Amazon Lending — the data moat in action
Amazon Lending has the deepest data on individual seller performance of any small-business lender in the world. They know every unit sold, every refund, every dispute, every customer review score, every inventory turn. That underwriting depth lets them offer competitive rates to sellers who would be C-paper on the open MCA market.
Typical 2026 economics
- Loan size: $1,000 – $5,000,000 (most loans $5K–$500K)
- Effective factor: 1.06–1.20 (high-quality sellers at 1.06–1.10)
- Term: 3–12 months
- Repayment: percentage of weekly marketplace settlement, 8–14% holdback
- Funding speed: 5 business days typical
- Eligibility: 12+ months Amazon seller history, $10K+ monthly Amazon revenue
- Personal guarantee: yes
- Credit pull: rarely (typically soft only)
Where Amazon Lending pulls ahead
- Cheapest effective rate of the three for the strongest sellers
- Direct settlement recovery — no risk of missed ACH
- Will fund sellers in product categories that other lenders avoid (electronics, supplements)
- Renewal cycle is well-priced for performing sellers
Where Amazon Lending is weaker
- Only available to sellers Amazon proactively invites — no application path
- Loan use is restricted to inventory and Amazon-business expenses
- Accelerated balance if you stop selling on Amazon
Stripe Capital — the DTC platform play
Stripe Capital is Stripe's answer to the question: how do we lend to our merchants without taking the regulatory burden of being a bank? They built it on the same payment-processing data Stripe already collects and partnered with WebBank for the regulated lending side.
Typical 2026 economics
- Loan size: $1,000 – $500,000 (most loans $10K–$200K)
- Effective factor: 1.08–1.18
- Term: 6–18 months
- Repayment: percentage of Stripe revenue, 10–16% holdback
- Funding speed: 1–2 business days
- Eligibility: 6+ months Stripe history, $5K+ monthly Stripe revenue
- Personal guarantee: required
- Credit pull: occasionally on larger offers
Where Stripe Capital pulls ahead
- Fastest funding (1–2 days typical)
- Cleanest dashboard experience for managing the loan
- Will fund DTC brands at earlier stages than Amazon or Shopify
- Loan use is flexible (not restricted to Stripe-related spend)
Where Stripe Capital is weaker
- Holdback is higher than Amazon's typical
- Eligibility favors merchants with stable month-over-month Stripe volume
- Anti-switching language is strict
Shopify Capital — the GMV-based platform play
Shopify Capital is the longest-running of the three (launched 2016) and has lent over $5B to Shopify merchants. The product is purely automated — Shopify proactively offers capital based on the store's GMV trajectory.
Typical 2026 economics
- Loan size: $200 – $2,000,000 (most loans $5K–$300K)
- Effective factor: 1.10–1.22
- Term: 6–18 months (auto-calculated)
- Repayment: percentage of Shopify Payments revenue, 10–17% holdback (only available if using Shopify Payments)
- Funding speed: 2–5 business days
- Eligibility: 12+ months Shopify history, $5K+ monthly GMV
- Personal guarantee: required
- Credit pull: rare
Where Shopify Capital pulls ahead
- Most generous loan-size scaling for fast-growing brands
- No application — offer appears in the dashboard if eligible
- Will fund subscription DTC brands at very early stages because of recurring revenue visibility
- Loan use is flexible
Where Shopify Capital is weaker
- Highest effective factor of the three on equivalent risk profiles
- Only available if using Shopify Payments (not third-party gateways)
- Holdback applies only to Shopify Payments revenue, not total store revenue
Head-to-head: a $75K need for a $1M/year DTC brand
Brand: 3-year-old DTC, $1M ARR, 60% on Shopify, 30% on Amazon, 10% on direct/wholesale. Owner FICO 700, no open MCAs.
- Shopify Capital — offer ~$75K at 1.14 effective, $85,500 total payback, 13% holdback on Shopify Payments. APR-equivalent ~30%.
- Amazon Lending — offer ~$45K (capped to ~3 months of Amazon revenue) at 1.10 effective, $49,500 total payback, 12% holdback on Amazon settlement. APR-equivalent ~22%. (Note: offer is smaller because Amazon is the secondary channel.)
- Stripe Capital — offer ~$50K at 1.12 effective (Stripe processing ~$600K/year), $56,000 total payback, 12% holdback on Stripe revenue. APR-equivalent ~26%.
The right call here is Shopify Capital — it's the only platform that can size the offer to the full $75K need because Shopify is the dominant channel. Taking Amazon Lending would only fund $45K of the need and would crush Amazon margins for the next 9 months.
How multi-channel brands should think about this
- Take capital from the dominant channel. The platform with the largest revenue share is also the one that can size the largest offer and absorb the holdback with the least pain.
- Avoid stacking across platforms. The combined holdback compounds in ways the platforms don't model. Each platform thinks it's getting paid; collectively, the merchant runs out of cash.
- Don't take platform capital from a channel you plan to migrate. If you're testing a move from Shopify to a custom stack, don't take Shopify Capital — the acceleration clause will hit you mid-migration.
- Watch the holdback impact on growth investments. A 14% holdback on Shopify revenue means your marketing budget effectively shrinks by 14% during the payback period. Model the math before accepting.
When to refuse all three and go open-market MCA instead
- You need more capital than any single platform will offer. If you need $300K and the largest platform offer is $100K, the open MCA market can size to need.
- You plan to migrate platforms in the next 12 months. Don't trigger acceleration clauses.
- Your channel mix is too diversified for any single platform to underwrite well. A brand with 30% Amazon / 30% Shopify / 20% wholesale / 20% retail is hard for any platform to size correctly.
The watch-outs all three share
- Automatic renewal solicitations. All three offer renewals as soon as you hit 50% paid. Decline by default; only renew with a documented use of funds.
- Holdback compounds invisibly. Because the holdback happens at the platform level, the merchant never "feels" the daily withdrawal. That makes over-leverage easier than it should be.
- Acceleration on platform exit. All three accelerate if you stop processing on their platform. Plan migrations carefully.
- Personal guarantee always. Even on platform-integrated capital, the owner is personally on the hook.
Frequently asked questions
- Which platform offers the cheapest capital in 2026?
- Amazon Lending typically prices the lowest on Amazon-native sellers (1.06–1.16 effective factor on the strongest accounts) because they have the deepest data and can recover via marketplace settlement. Stripe Capital sits around 1.08–1.18 for high-quality DTC merchants. Shopify Capital is generally 1.10–1.22 depending on store maturity and category.
- Can I stack across all three platforms at once?
- Technically yes — none of them share underwriting — but the combined holdback can crush margins. A DTC brand on Amazon + Stripe + Shopify capital simultaneously is giving up 25–40% of platform revenue to repayment. Most stack-defaulters in ecommerce die in months 6–9.
- Do they pull personal credit?
- Amazon and Shopify: rarely. Stripe: occasionally on larger offers. All three lean almost entirely on platform-side data (GMV, fees, dispute rate, return rate, customer concentration).
- What happens if I leave the platform mid-payback?
- All three have anti-platform-switching language. Amazon and Stripe will accelerate the balance if you stop processing through them. Shopify is the most flexible — you can switch payment processors within Shopify, but if you migrate off Shopify entirely, the balance accelerates.
- Which one is best for a multi-channel brand?
- Take capital from the platform where you have the strongest cash generation. If 80% of revenue is on Shopify, take Shopify Capital. If Amazon is the main channel, take Amazon Lending. Avoid taking from a secondary channel — the holdback there will be disproportionate to the revenue.