A "Higgs factory", an electron-positron collider with center-of-mass energyof about 250 GeV, will measure the cross section of the Higgsstrahlung process,$e^+e^-\rightarrow hZ$, with sub-percent precision. This measurement issensitive to a variety of new physics scenarios. In this paper, we study twoexamples. First, we compute corrections to the $e^+e^-\rightarrow hZ$differential cross section in the effective field theory (EFT) approach,including the complete set of dimension-6 operators contributing to thisprocess. These results are applicable to any model where the new physics massscale is significantly above the weak scale. Second, we present a completeone-loop calculation of the effect of third-generation squarks, with arbitrarysoft masses and mixing, on this cross section. This is expected to be theleading correction in natural supersymmetric models. We demonstrate theagreement between the full one-loop calculation and the EFT result in the limitof large stop masses. Finally, we estimate the discovery reach of the$e^+e^-\rightarrow hZ$ cross section measurement in the two models.