Turkish ecommerce platform Hepsiburada was highly commended by judges for an innovative merchant financing programme that also made deft use of multi-bank auction technology to strengthen its supplier relationships.
Transparent and easy to use
Hepsiburada is highly reliant on the resilience and financial strength of the more than 100,000 mostly SME merchants that sell directly to consumers on its site. So it is no surprise that the merchant financing programme it developed with Turkish fintech Faturalab was designed with their needs in mind
The solution – which is fully automated and embedded in Hepsiburada’s supplier portal for ease of use – enables merchants to receive payments as early as the same day they make a sale. Whenever a merchant wants to request financing for some or all of its receivables, up to four banks simultaneously offer real-time quotes. This provides transparency and choice for the merchants and helps ensure financing costs are low.
Hepsiburada can also offer dynamic discounting finance at a competitive rate if for some reason no bank is able to finance a merchant’s receivables. Merchants receive all finance into the bank of their choice, so do not need to open an account with the funding bank.
Faturalab’s technology also helps Hepsiburada avoid the risk of fraudulent double discounting, because all invoices are electronic and stored in a central registry.
A win-win solution
Putting suppliers first has paid off for Hepsiburada. To date, over $1.8 billion of invoices have been uploaded and financed through the programme. And many of the 6,000 suppliers onboarded so far have benefited to the extent that they have reduced their selling prices on the ecommerce site. This has helped Hepsiburada generate double-digit sales growth and protect its large market share in an increasingly competitive market.