diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a3e395c1..6f35da1b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@ WEBPACK_LOADER = {
         'STATS_FILE': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'webpack-stats.json'),
         'POLL_INTERVAL': 0.1,
         'TIMEOUT': None,
-        'IGNORE': [r'.+\.hot-update.js', r'.+\.map']
+        'IGNORE': [r'.+\.hot-update.js', r'.+\.map'],
+        'LOADER_CLASS': 'webpack_loader.loader.WebpackLoader',
     }
 }
 ```
@@ -168,6 +169,40 @@ and your webpack config is located at `/home/src/webpack.config.js`, then the va
 
 <br>
 
+#### LOADER_CLASS
+
+`LOADER_CLASS` is the fully qualified name of a python class as a string that holds the custom webpack loader.
+This is where behavior can be customized as to how the stats file is loaded. Examples include loading the stats file
+from a database, cache, external url, etc. For convenience, `webpack_loader.loader.WebpackLoader` can be extended;
+The `load_assets` method is likely where custom behavior will be added. This should return the stats file as an object.
+
+Here's a simple example of loading from an external url:
+
+```py
+# in app.module
+import requests
+from webpack_loader.loader import WebpackLoader
+
+class ExternalWebpackLoader(WebpackLoader):
+
+  def load_assets(self):
+    url = self.config['STATS_URL']
+    return requests.get(url).json()
+
+
+# in app.settings
+WEBPACK_LOADER = {
+  'DEFAULT': {
+      'CACHE': False,
+      'BUNDLE_DIR_NAME': 'bundles/',
+      'LOADER_CLASS': 'app.module.ExternalWebpackLoader',
+      # Custom config setting made available in WebpackLoader's self.config
+      'STATS_URL': 'https://www.test.com/path/to/stats/',
+  }
+}
+```
+
+<br>
 
 ## Usage
 <br>
diff --git a/tests/app/tests/test_custom_loaders.py b/tests/app/tests/test_custom_loaders.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..83cb24b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/app/tests/test_custom_loaders.py
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+from imp import reload
+from django.test import TestCase
+from webpack_loader import utils, config, loader
+
+
+DEFAULT_CONFIG = 'DEFAULT'
+LOADER_PAYLOAD = {'status': 'done', 'chunks': []}
+
+
+class ValidCustomLoader(loader.WebpackLoader):
+
+    def load_assets(self):
+        return LOADER_PAYLOAD
+
+
+class CustomLoadersTestCase(TestCase):
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.reload_webpack()
+
+    def reload_webpack(self):
+        '''
+        Reloads webpack loader modules that have cached values to avoid polluting certain tests
+        '''
+        reload(utils)
+        reload(config)
+
+    def test_bad_custom_loader(self):
+        '''
+        Tests that a bad custom loader path will raise an error
+        '''
+        loader_class = 'app.tests.bad_loader_path.BadCustomLoader'
+        with self.settings(WEBPACK_LOADER={
+            'DEFAULT': {
+                'CACHE': False,
+                'BUNDLE_DIR_NAME': 'bundles/',
+                'LOADER_CLASS': loader_class
+            }
+        }):
+            self.reload_webpack()
+            try:
+                loader = utils.get_loader(DEFAULT_CONFIG)
+                self.fail('The loader should fail to load with a bad LOADER_CLASS')
+            except ImportError as e:
+                self.assertIn(
+                    '{} doesn\'t look like a valid module path'.format(loader_class),
+                    str(e)
+                )
+
+    def test_good_custom_loader(self):
+        '''
+        Tests that a good custom loader will return the correct assets
+        '''
+        loader_class = 'app.tests.test_custom_loaders.ValidCustomLoader'
+        with self.settings(WEBPACK_LOADER={
+            'DEFAULT': {
+                'CACHE': False,
+                'BUNDLE_DIR_NAME': 'bundles/',
+                'LOADER_CLASS': loader_class,
+            }
+        }):
+            self.reload_webpack()
+            assets = utils.get_loader(DEFAULT_CONFIG).load_assets()
+            self.assertEqual(assets, LOADER_PAYLOAD)
diff --git a/webpack_loader/__init__.py b/webpack_loader/__init__.py
index d8c6d476..539a6f7f 100644
--- a/webpack_loader/__init__.py
+++ b/webpack_loader/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 __author__ = 'Owais Lone'
-__version__ = '0.6.0'
+__version__ = '0.7.0'
 
 default_app_config = 'webpack_loader.apps.WebpackLoaderConfig'
diff --git a/webpack_loader/config.py b/webpack_loader/config.py
index 9f334b4a..213df350 100644
--- a/webpack_loader/config.py
+++ b/webpack_loader/config.py
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
         # FIXME: Explore usage of fsnotify
         'POLL_INTERVAL': 0.1,
         'TIMEOUT': None,
-        'IGNORE': [r'.+\.hot-update.js', r'.+\.map']
+        'IGNORE': ['.+\.hot-update.js', '.+\.map'],
+        'LOADER_CLASS': 'webpack_loader.loader.WebpackLoader',
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/webpack_loader/loader.py b/webpack_loader/loader.py
index b366dc3a..de76e721 100644
--- a/webpack_loader/loader.py
+++ b/webpack_loader/loader.py
@@ -11,17 +11,16 @@
     WebpackLoaderTimeoutError,
     WebpackBundleLookupError
 )
-from .config import load_config
 
 
 class WebpackLoader(object):
     _assets = {}
 
-    def __init__(self, name='DEFAULT'):
+    def __init__(self, name, config):
         self.name = name
-        self.config = load_config(self.name)
+        self.config = config
 
-    def _load_assets(self):
+    def load_assets(self):
         try:
             with open(self.config['STATS_FILE'], encoding="utf-8") as f:
                 return json.load(f)
@@ -34,9 +33,9 @@ def _load_assets(self):
     def get_assets(self):
         if self.config['CACHE']:
             if self.name not in self._assets:
-                self._assets[self.name] = self._load_assets()
+                self._assets[self.name] = self.load_assets()
             return self._assets[self.name]
-        return self._load_assets()
+        return self.load_assets()
 
     def filter_chunks(self, chunks):
         for chunk in chunks:
diff --git a/webpack_loader/utils.py b/webpack_loader/utils.py
index e7b7b2f3..c501cc63 100644
--- a/webpack_loader/utils.py
+++ b/webpack_loader/utils.py
@@ -1,14 +1,31 @@
+from importlib import import_module
 from django.conf import settings
-
-from .loader import WebpackLoader
+from .config import load_config
 
 
 _loaders = {}
 
 
+def import_string(dotted_path):
+    '''
+    This is a rough copy of django's import_string, which wasn't introduced until Django 1.7
+
+    Once this package's support for Django 1.6 has been removed, this can be safely replaced with
+    `from django.utils.module_loading import import_string`
+    '''
+    try:
+        module_path, class_name = dotted_path.rsplit('.', 1)
+        module = import_module(module_path)
+        return getattr(module, class_name)
+    except (ValueError, AttributeError, ImportError):
+        raise ImportError('%s doesn\'t look like a valid module path' % dotted_path)
+
+
 def get_loader(config_name):
     if config_name not in _loaders:
-        _loaders[config_name] = WebpackLoader(config_name)
+        config = load_config(config_name)
+        loader_class = import_string(config['LOADER_CLASS'])
+        _loaders[config_name] = loader_class(config_name, config)
     return _loaders[config_name]