One video. A few hundred thousand views. Your Shopify app pinging all night. By morning, the “sold out” badge is on every variant and your inbox is full of “when are you restocking??”
Congratulations, genuinely. Now comes the awkward bit nobody posts about: your next batch costs money you don’t have in the bank yet, and the attention has a shelf life. Here’s how Kiwi online sellers pay for a viral restock without wrecking their cash flow or breaking consumer law along the way.
First 48 hours: what should you do before spending a cent?
Hype is loud. Data is quieter but much more useful. Before you message your supplier with a huge order, spend a day or two getting your numbers straight.
- Put up a waitlist, not a “buy now” button. A back-in-stock email form captures demand without taking money you can’t yet back up. More on why that matters below.
- Count real intent. Unfulfilled orders, waitlist sign-ups, abandoned carts and DMs asking to buy. Views and likes don’t pay invoices.
- Call your supplier. Ask three things: can they make another batch, how long will it take, and what do they need upfront?
- Price the landed cost. Product, freight, insurance, broker fees, border levies and any GST or duty. Our guide to importing stock, deposits and freight timing walks through each line.
- Check your margin still works. If you’re also boosting the viral post with paid ads, run the numbers in know your unit economics before you borrow for ads.
You’ll come out of those 48 hours with a single figure: how much cash you need, and when you need it.
Can you take pre-orders while you wait?
Yes, but this is where plenty of new sellers slip up without realising it.
The Fair Trading Act stops businesses taking payment without reasonable grounds to believe they can supply. Consumer Protection sums it up as a ban on “taking payment without intending to supply” (Consumer Protection: Fair Trading Act). The Commerce Commission’s guidance for online sellers adds that you need to give customers clear, accurate information about availability and when they can expect their order, and that your delivery terms should be clear and “can be met” (Commerce Commission: selling online).
And under the Consumer Guarantees Act, goods have to arrive on time, or within a reasonable time if you didn’t promise a date. If they arrive very late, customers can reject them and ask for a refund (Consumer Protection: delivery issues).
So in practice:
- Don’t open pre-orders until your supplier has confirmed a date in writing.
- Show an honest dispatch window on the product page and at checkout, with some buffer for shipping delays.
- Email pre-order customers early if anything slips, and offer a refund straight away.
- Keep enough cash aside to refund everyone if the batch fails.
That last point is the one that changes the funding maths.
Why pre-order money isn’t really restock money
It’s tempting to see 400 pre-orders as 400 customers funding your next batch. Plenty of brands do use it that way. But until those parcels ship, that money is closer to a debt than income. If your factory slips three weeks, a chunk of those buyers will want their money back, and you’ll need to pay them at the exact moment your cash is tied up in stock on a ship.
The safer setup is to fund most of the restock from your own cash, supplier terms or a facility, and treat pre-order money as a cushion you don’t touch until orders go out. It’s less exciting. It’s also how you avoid a refund wave turning a viral win into a cash crisis.
Where can the restock money come from?
Most sellers end up combining two or three of these.
| Option | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Cash in the business | Smaller batches, quick turnaround | Leaving nothing for GST, wages or ads |
| Supplier terms (smaller deposit, balance later) | Suppliers you’ve paid reliably before | New suppliers often want most of it upfront |
| Pre-orders | Testing demand, partial cushion | Refund risk if the timeline slips |
| Line of credit | Repeat restocks, payout gaps | Needs around six months’ trading |
| Short-term business loan | One big order with a clear sell-through plan | Repayments start before all stock sells |
| Property-secured loan | New stores, or bigger orders | Uses equity in NZ property as security |
If you’ve been trading a while, an online seller line of credit is often the neat fit. You draw it for the deposit, draw again for freight, then pay it down as sales land. When the next spike hits, the limit is still there.
If your supplier is overseas, import order funding is built for the deposit-balance-freight rhythm.
Want a quick read on which lane fits your store? Start a 60-second enquiry and a real person will tell you straight.
Don’t forget the costs that arrive with the container
The supplier invoice is only part of it. NZ Customs says duty and GST generally aren’t collected on goods valued at $1,000 or less, but most restock orders are well above that, so expect GST at the border. Customs and MPI goods levies also apply to imports unless exempt, and your broker or freight forwarder may pass them on (NZ Customs: duty and GST FAQs).
If you’re GST-registered you can usually claim the import GST back, but only after the cash has gone out. That timing gap catches a lot of first-time importers.
A worked example: the bucket hat that blew up
This is an illustrative example, not a real business.
Aroha runs a small online brand from Wellington selling linen bucket hats at $55. In early October, a creator wears one in a summer-outfits video and it takes off. She sells out in three days, and 900 people join her waitlist.
Her supplier can make 1,500 hats in five weeks, with sea freight taking roughly four more. The numbers:
- Product: 1,500 hats at $11 each = $16,500
- Freight, insurance, broker, levies and border GST: about $7,500
- Total landed cost: $24,000, or $16 a hat
- Supplier wants a 30% deposit ($4,950) now and the balance ($11,550) before shipping
- Cash in the business after setting aside her next GST payment: $9,000
Her gap is roughly $15,000, spread over about two months. If the hats sell through at full price, that’s about $71,700 in sales before GST. Even if a third of the waitlist doesn’t convert, the batch still covers itself comfortably.
Aroha’s been trading for 14 months with steady payouts into a business account, so she’s a fit for an unsecured line of credit. She opens pre-orders for 300 hats only after her supplier confirms a ship date, shows “dispatching late November” at checkout, and parks the pre-order money untouched. Her line covers the deposit and balance; sales clear it by January.
Two more things she checks: the spike pushes her expected turnover over the $60,000 GST threshold, so she registers (our GST threshold guide covers the test). And she orders a smaller second batch rather than doubling the first, in case the trend fades.
How do you avoid over-ordering on hype?
Viral demand has a half-life. Some brands turn one video into a lasting customer base; others sell out once and spend summer with a garage full of stock. A few habits keep you in the first group:
- Clear the backlog first. Order enough to fill unfulfilled orders and a realistic slice of the waitlist, plus a few weeks of normal sales.
- Stage it. Two medium orders beat one giant one. Ask your supplier whether a quick top-up batch is possible.
- Watch repeat purchase. Second orders from the same customers are a far better signal than new views.
- Keep posting. The restock itself is content. “Back in stock Friday” posts often outperform the original video.
- Mind the calendar. An October spike rolls straight into Black Friday and Christmas. If that’s you, our peak season plan is worth ten minutes.
For a wider look at handling payout timing alongside all this, see cash flow for online stores.
What lenders want to see after a viral spike
A huge month is great, but lenders look at the pattern, not just the peak. Expect them to ask:
- how long you’ve been trading (around six months or more for unsecured funding);
- what your bank statements show in normal months, as well as the spike;
- what the money is for, and when the stock will sell;
- whether your GST and tax are up to date.
Have your supplier quote, the waitlist numbers and your expected ship date ready. It makes the conversation faster. If you sell through Shopify, Shopify store funding explains how payout-based lending works.
Ready to turn the sell-out into a restock?
Going viral is the bit everyone dreams about. Being able to restock while people still care is what turns a lucky week into a real brand. And the sellers who manage it usually sorted the funding before the hype faded.
That’s exactly what we help with. Stores trading around six months or more can often access unsecured funding or a line of credit, sometimes with a same-day decision. Newer stores that blew up early can look at $20,000 to $1m secured on NZ property.
Here’s how it works with us:
- The enquiry takes about 60 seconds, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire.
- Your details don’t get blasted out to a pile of lenders. No spray and pray, and no phone melting with calls from strangers.
- A real person looks at your store, your supplier timeline and your numbers, then calls you to talk it through.
- Please fill the form in accurately, with real turnover and how long you’ve been trading, so we can match the right option first time and get your restock moving.