Suppliers Using Trade Credit Are Winning—Here’s Why with Lara Gilman

Why Trade Credit Is the Untapped Growth Lever in B2B eCommerce

In the world of B2B eCommerce, most conversations center around digital platforms, customer experience, or product data. But there’s one quiet lever that could reshape how we grow and serve our customers, trade credit.

On a recent episode of the B2B eCommerce Association Podcast, Lara Gilman of iwocaPay joined us to talk about something that sounds dry, but is anything but. Trade credit, she argues, isn’t just a back-office finance function. It’s a strategic sales and marketing tool, and most businesses are barely scratching the surface of what’s possible.

Trade Credit: Not Just Payment Terms

Ask five people what trade credit means and you’ll get five answers. Some think it’s just net-30 terms. Others think of it as invoice factoring. Some call it buy now, pay later. And they’re all kind of right.

But the heart of it? Trade credit is about extending payment flexibility to buyers so they can match their revenue cycles with their purchasing behavior. Lara puts it plainly: “It’s about helping your customers run a better business.”

And when you help customers run better businesses, they spend more with you.

Why It Matters for Digital Leaders

If you’re in eCommerce or digital, especially in B2B, your role isn’t just about enabling online transactions. It’s about driving adoption, and adoption hinges on value.

Here’s where trade credit becomes powerful:

• It simplifies onboarding for new customers by lowering the financial hurdle.
• It improves retention by aligning with your customer’s cash flow.
• It gives you a competitive edge in a crowded market, because not everyone is offering flexible payment options with minimal friction.

Traditional processes to open credit accounts can take weeks, include manual paperwork, and ultimately block conversion. Digital-native solutions like iwocaPay remove that friction entirely.

Trade Credit as a Customer Adoption Tool

One of the most overlooked drivers in customer adoption is financial flexibility. We often think of content, UI, or product detail pages, but credit terms can be just as influential.

Here’s what happens when you remove that barrier:

• A new buyer sees your digital branch not just as a catalog, but as a partner in their business.
• They are more likely to try a new product or supplier relationship.
• Repeat purchases increase as their business grows and you’ve embedded your value in their workflow.

In short, trade credit can support all the stages of the Customer Adoption Framework, ≥from initial discovery, to buy-and-try, to reward-and-repeat.

Final Thought

Finance doesn’t always get a seat at the digital strategy table, but it should. Especially when you realize trade credit can do more than support sales. It can accelerate adoption, increase conversion, and deepen customer loyalty.

It’s time we stop thinking of credit terms as just a checkbox, and start viewing them as a core part of our digital growth playbook.

Contact Lara | iwocaPay

Lara Gilman

iwocaPay

View report here: https://www.iwoca.co.uk/iwocapay/trade-credit-and-digitisation-report