Natural-goods brands often fund production, packaging, freight, and inventory weeks or months before collecting wholesale invoices, creating working capital pressure that can lock emerging brands out of retail distribution. Mable Wholesale states that brands are paid on Net 30 for fulfilled marketplace orders, changing the timing of cash flow for brands scaling into independent retail. For brands looking to offer similar net terms to their own wholesale buyers, understanding how these payment structures work and the platforms that enable them becomes essential for sustainable growth.
Net payment terms define when buyers must pay for goods after receiving an invoice. In B2B transactions, Net 30 is common, meaning the full invoice amount is due within 30 days. However, large retailers frequently request Net 60 or Net 90 terms, using suppliers as a source of working capital financing.
For natural-goods brands, these extended payment cycles create cash flow challenges:
The timing becomes challenging quickly. Production spending, inventory, freight, promotional activity, and unpaid receivables can overlap, requiring brands to maintain significant cash reserves or credit lines.
Many profitable brands face cash constraints not from lack of demand but from timing mismatches between when they pay suppliers and when retailers pay them. A brand can have strong gross margins and still experience cash shortages if retailers pay significantly later than suppliers require payment.
This creates a barrier for emerging brands. Traditional bank financing requires collateral and credit history that newer companies may not have, and equity financing comes with ownership dilution that founders may want to avoid.
Before negotiating payment terms with retailers or distributors, brands benefit from credible financial positioning:
A PAYDEX score is one indicator associated with business payment behavior, but it should not be treated as the only measure of creditworthiness.
Large retailers and distributors often use standardized payment policies, so individual brands may have limited ability to change the required due date. However, several approaches can improve positioning:
Volume commitments: Retailers may consider adjusted terms for guaranteed minimum orders or exclusivity arrangements.
Early payment incentives: Offering discounts for faster payment can accelerate cash flow for some buyers.
Consignment arrangements: While carrying risk, consignment eliminates upfront payment requirements from retailers.
Platform intermediaries: Marketplaces handle payment timing, removing the negotiation entirely.
Mable operates as a B2B marketplace connecting emerging natural food and beverage brands with independent retailers across all 50 states. The platform's approach focuses on marketplace payment handling.
Mable states that brands are paid within 30 days for fulfilled marketplace orders. This marketplace workflow provides:
Brands should confirm how damaged, disputed, or incorrectly fulfilled orders are handled within the marketplace workflow.
Understanding marketplace value requires examining what brands typically fund through traditional distribution channels.
Natural-goods brands often allocate significant resources to wholesale expenses, including:
These costs can hit weeks or months before products generate revenue. Combined with extended payment terms, brands may fund promotional costs in one month, ship products in another, see shelf placement later, and receive payment even later, creating a multi-month capital deployment cycle.
A product with strong gross manufacturing margin can face significantly lower contribution margin after accounting for:
This compression makes payment term advantages important to overall viability, not just operational convenience.
Brands selling directly to retailers outside marketplace platforms need their own net terms infrastructure. This creates both challenges and opportunities.
Implementing traditional net terms requires capabilities most emerging brands must build or access through platforms:
Without proper credit risk management, brands face exposure to late payments and defaults. The U.S. Small Business Administration notes that even profitable businesses can struggle when cash is not managed properly, particularly when preparing for growth.
Even with good credit evaluation, collections consume significant resources:
For brands without dedicated AR staff, these tasks compete with product development, sales, and marketing for founder attention.
Modern B2B payment platforms can handle net terms without building internal infrastructure:
Embedded credit decisioning: Systems evaluate buyer creditworthiness through data analysis, eliminating manual trade reference calls.
Non-recourse financing: Platforms may provide advances on eligible invoices while assuming qualifying credit risk.
Automated collections: Multi-channel follow-up reduces manual intervention.
Payment reconciliation: Systems match payments to invoices automatically, reducing accounting burden.
These solutions enable brands to offer competitive payment terms while maintaining predictable cash flow.
Mable's integrations with distributors create pathways beyond independent retail.
Mable's connection to US Foods Direct provides an ecommerce channel serving foodservice customers. However, this pathway requires:
Brands must evaluate whether their products translate to foodservice or require reformulation.
Distributor programs provide entry to natural and specialty retail distribution. Eligibility, onboarding, fulfillment, product-data, and payment requirements vary by program. Brands should obtain detailed terms before committing to expansion.
For brands with established retailer relationships, direct distribution supported by payment infrastructure may work well:
The tradeoff is operational complexity and capital requirements for funding receivables.
For brands expanding wholesale operations or selling direct to retailers, Resolve Pay provides payment infrastructure to offer competitive net terms without traditional working capital constraints.
Resolve's platform addresses the core challenges natural-goods brands face when expanding wholesale:
Non-recourse net terms financing: Resolve Pay may provide a non-recourse advance on an eligible invoice from an approved buyer. Brands can receive funds quickly while customers pay on agreed terms. Non-recourse protection applies to qualifying covered credit defaults under the merchant agreement, though disputes, returns, fraud, invalid invoices, fulfillment problems, and other exclusions may remain the seller's responsibility.
Business credit evaluation: The platform combines business information, behavioral signals, data analysis, and credit expertise to evaluate buyer creditworthiness. Some qualified applications may receive rapid decisions, while other applications require additional information or review. This eliminates manual trade reference calls and spreadsheet tracking.
Automated accounts receivable management: Resolve's accounts receivable platform handles invoice generation, payment reminders, buyer communications, collection workflows, payment processing, reconciliation, and reporting. Brands gain visibility into their AR without dedicated accounting staff.
Seamless integrations: Resolve Pay supports integrations with accounting, ERP, and ecommerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, QuickBooks, and NetSuite, plus APIs for custom workflows. Implementation and available synchronization depend on the connected system and merchant configuration. The platform helps reduce manual data entry and reconciliation work.
For natural-goods brands using Mable for selected marketplace relationships, Resolve Pay provides infrastructure for separately managed direct wholesale accounts. This approach allows brands to maintain flexibility across different distribution channels while accessing payment and credit tools suited to direct wholesale operations.
Resolve Pay's platform is designed to address these concerns for brands that have moved beyond early-stage marketplace selling and are building direct wholesale channel relationships.
Natural-goods brands commonly see Net 30, Net 60, or Net 90 payment terms depending on buyer size and channel. Larger retailers often request extended terms, while independent stores may pay more quickly. Brands fund production, packaging, freight, and inventory before collecting payment, creating working capital requirements that vary by channel and customer mix.
Resolve Pay combines business credit evaluation, non-recourse invoice advances for qualifying transactions, automated payment reminders and collections workflows, payment processing, and reconciliation. The platform integrates with accounting and ecommerce systems to reduce manual work. Brands can offer competitive payment terms while receiving funds based on approved buyer creditworthiness.
Non-recourse means the financing provider assumes credit risk for qualifying covered defaults under the merchant agreement. If an approved buyer fails to pay a covered invoice, the seller is not required to repay the advance. However, disputes, returns, fraud, invalid invoices, fulfillment problems, and other exclusions may remain the seller's responsibility per the agreement.
Resolve Pay's accounts receivable platform handles invoice generation, delivery, payment reminders, buyer communications, collection workflows, payment processing, reconciliation, and reporting. The system tracks invoice status, sends automated reminders, processes payments, and provides dashboards showing aging, collection rates, and cash flow projections. This reduces manual AR work significantly.
Resolve Pay supports integrations with accounting platforms like QuickBooks and NetSuite, ecommerce systems including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento, and offers APIs for custom workflows. Implementation and available synchronization depend on the connected system and merchant configuration. These integrations help automate invoice creation, order synchronization, payment matching, and financial reporting.
This post is to be used for informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal, business, or tax advice. Each person should consult his or her own attorney, business advisor, or tax advisor with respect to matters referenced in this post. Resolve assumes no liability for actions taken in reliance upon the information contained herein.