category · commerce
ExploringSoftware for small business
Traders and shop owners move the economy on a feature phone and a mental spreadsheet. Unglamorous, in demand, and repeatable — which is exactly why it is worth doing properly.
Photo: Kreuzschnabel on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
On our roadmap
We have not started here yet. The 3 subcategories below are on our roadmap, and we will take them on in time.
Pricing
Prices that cover cost and leave a margin.
Small traders often price by feel, and when costs rise the margin disappears without anyone noticing.
- Margin calculators
- Price tracking
- Inflation-proof pricing
Savings groups
Chilimba and other rotating savings, planned.
Chilimba and other rotating savings groups move large sums every month on trust and a notebook.
- Group records
- Mobile money links
- From savings to credit
Stock
What is on the shelf, and what is about to expire.
Shops lose money to items that run out, sit too long or expire on the shelf.
- Stock counts
- Expiry tracking
- Supplier ordering
What we'd build
Four ideas, in the order we would test them. None are built.
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01
Stock and expiry
What a shop actually has on the shelf, what is about to go off, and what to reorder before a customer asks for it. The most-requested thing in every interview so far.
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02
Pricing and margin
Cost, price, and the margin that survives a bad week — including the transport and credit costs people forget until they have already eaten them.
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03
Records a person can keep
Sales, credit and supplier debts in something simpler than a spreadsheet and more durable than a memory. No accountant required.
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04
A supplier directory
Who has what, where they are, and how to reach them — the part a new entrant actually gets stuck on.
Where it stands
Exploring
Interviews with traders and shop owners, in the markets rather than over a video call. No product exists yet.
The rule for this category: no build until the interviews agree on which single problem is worth building. Four plausible ideas is zero ideas — a tool that solves the wrong thing well is still the wrong thing.