Alternative Lending Network Expands Invoice-Factoring Product for Retailers

NEW YORK – November 26, 2025 Alternative Lending Network (ALN) today announced a nationwide expansion of its retailer-focused invoice-factoring product, doubling maximum advance amounts and cutting average funding time to four hours as merchants brace for a projected 8 % rise in supplier costs this holiday season.

The upgraded platform introduces dynamic credit lines that scale from $25 k to $5 million, automated remittance matching through Shopify, Magento, and NCR integrations, and a fee structure that starts at 0.85 % per 30 days—roughly 40 basis points below the industry mean reported by the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Small Business Credit Survey. ALN says the enhancements were engineered after analyzing 1.2 million retail invoices that showed median customer payment cycles stretching to 52 days, 11 days longer than pre-pandemic norms.

“Retailers are effectively financing their suppliers; we’re simply giving them back the clock,” said ALN Chief Executive Maya Patel. “By pairing real-time sales-ledger data with AI-driven risk engines, we can approve 91 % of qualified applicants in under 15 minutes without personal guarantees.” Patel added that early adopters—including apparel chain Urban Grace and outdoor-gear marketplace GearHead—have already leveraged $37 million in advances to secure seasonal inventory at 2 % early-pay discounts, translating into an estimated $740 k in preserved margin.

The global factoring market is expected to swell from $5.27 trillion in 2024 to $7.9 trillion by 2029, with retail and e-commerce segments accounting for the fastest acceleration, according to a September 2025 market outlook.

Government data show that 43 % of U.S. retail bankruptcies in 2024 cited cash-flow mismatches as the primary cause, underscoring demand for non-bank liquidity channels.

ALN’s retail expansion arrives as traditional lenders tighten standards; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency noted a fifth consecutive quarter of stricter term-loan underwriting in its latest risk report. Against that backdrop, invoice factoring has moved from “last resort” to “first resort” for many SMEs: the U.S. factoring-services sector alone grew 9.4 % year-over-year to $172 billion in 2024 and is on pace for a similar gain in 2025.

The company’s new program supports both domestic and cross-border receivables, leveraging Factors Chain International (FCI) rules to mitigate FX exposure. Non-recourse options are available for buyers rated BB or higher, while recourse plans carry prorated rebates if invoices settle early. ALN has also embedded supply-chain finance triggers that automatically re-price advances when retailers upload updated PO data, a feature analysts say could reduce manual reconciliations by 70 %.

“Cash flow is the oxygen of retail; our expanded factoring line acts like an on-demand ventilator,” Patel said. “Whether a merchant needs to lock in container space from Vietnam or ramp up Facebook ads on Black Friday, we turn open invoices into working capital before the coffee gets cold.”

Market data reinforce the urgency: the National Retail Federation forecasts holiday sales of $1.19 trillion, yet average payment terms from department stores and marketplaces remain stuck at Net 60. Every 10-day extension costs a typical $10-million-revenue retailer roughly $55 k in carry costs, ALN calculates, money that could instead fund additional inventory turns or omnichannel upgrades.

ALN projects its retail factoring portfolio will reach $500 million by Q-4 2026, supported by a $150 million credit facility syndicated by Jefferies and Square 1 Bank last month. The firm, which has funded $1.8 billion across 4,200 clients since 2019, also plans to roll out a green-incentive rebate next quarter that shaves an additional 5 bp off fees for suppliers that provide certified sustainable goods.

Alternative Lending Network is a fintech lender headquartered in New York with offices in Atlanta and Los Angeles. The company specializes in asset-based and invoice-based financing for retailers, wholesalers, and e-commerce sellers, offering credit lines from $25 k to $25 million through a proprietary data platform that syncs with more than 35 ERP, POS, and marketplace systems.