Sell online and get paid on time
This week I hosted a roundtable discussion with the UK’s major e-commerce platforms and payment providers to discuss payment terms and times for trusted sellers.
In the room we had marketplaces that collectively support more than 1 million side hustlers and full-time entrepreneurs to build and scale businesses, in the UK and overseas. They are significant enterprise enablers and important partners to government when it comes to ensuring the conditions are in place for trade and enterprise to flourish.
There is strong commitment from the sector to ensure sellers get paid on time and we are hopeful of joint work on a voluntary code of conduct that will set out standard principles for when seller accounts are put on hold in terms of communication with sellers, remedial actions that can be taken, and review process for when funds are held for certain time periods.
Attendees agreed to offer a point of contact within their organisation who will liaise with our casework team so, in the event of cases being raised, we can work together to get to a point of payment resolution.
We are working on a guide for marketplace sellers highlighting the prompt payment terms when trading online and how sales data can unlock working capital that comes at a preferential rate based on lenders having evidence of ability to re-pay.
The UK is a trading nation and we rely on these platforms to get products seen, bought, and delivered. It’s good to see we can also rely on them to ensure honest traders are paid on time.
Thank you to participation from:
- Amazon
- B&Q Marketplace
- eBay
- Etsy
- Faire.com
- Fruugo
- OnBuy
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Tesco Marketplace
- Vinted