Industries
Give informal merchants, distributors and marketplaces a shared view of stock, sales, payments and demand, so they can restock sooner, get credit and serve customers better.
01How the work happens today
Much of African retail is informal. Shop owners and market traders keep records in notebooks or on phones. They buy from wholesalers and distributors on credit or for cash, often with a salesperson visiting. Customers pay by cash, mobile money and increasingly by card or QR. Formal retailers and marketplaces run POS and e-commerce systems, but their data stops at their own shelf or app. Fast moving goods companies depend on distributors for visibility into what sells.
Because stock and sales are not recorded in a shared way, merchants run out of popular items or hold dead stock. Distributors cannot see which outlets will reorder. Lenders have no sales history for a trader who is perfectly creditworthy. Brands guess demand by region from shipments, not from sales. Payment records exist at the wallet or bank but are not tied to what was sold. Price shocks from currency swings and supply disruption reach shelves before anyone plans for them.
02A starting model for the sector
13 core things
The nouns of the sector. Each object has an identity, properties and a history, and maps to records in the source systems.
8 core relationships
How the objects connect. Links turn separate tables into a graph that people and agents can walk.
6 governed actions
What people and approved agents may do. Each action has rules, an approver where needed and a log entry.
03What changes on the ground
Situation
A shop owner buys from a wholesale market once a week and runs out of fast sellers before the next trip. Notes on paper show only what was bought.
What it does
Sales captured by a simple app, POS or wallet records update stock estimates. The system suggests a restock list and sends it by WhatsApp, ready to forward to a distributor.
Human decides
The merchant decides what to buy and how much. Corrections to the stock estimate improve future suggestions.
04Sources to connect
We read from your existing systems first and write back only through approved actions. Every source has a named owner. Where connectivity is weak or records are on paper, we plan for queued sync and OCR with human review.
Free 30 minutes with an engineer.
05Laws that shape the design
| Country | Law | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | NDPA 2023 | Customer and merchant data need a lawful basis, and marketing messages require consent handling. |
| Kenya | Data Protection Act 2019 | Rules on direct marketing, profiling and data sharing with lenders apply. |
| South Africa | POPIA | Direct marketing and credit related processing have specific conditions. |
| Ghana | Data Protection Act 2012 | Controllers follow principles on purpose limitation and security for shopper and merchant data. |
| Egypt | Personal Data Protection Law 2020 | Consent and cross-border transfer rules can affect marketplace platforms. |
Payments licensing, consumer protection, tax and e-commerce rules vary by country. These examples are not legal advice. Confirm with counsel before sharing merchant data with lenders or brands. Examples only, not legal advice. Confirm with counsel.
06How each product serves this sector
Model plane
Models merchants, outlets, products, orders and payments, and provides the restock, credit and demand views for distributors, lenders and brands.
Trust plane
Controls what merchants, distributors, lenders and brands each see, so a brand sees aggregates and a lender sees only what the merchant allowed.
Control plane
Governs assistants for merchants and support teams, limiting data access, tone and actions such as refunds or credit offers.
Runtime plane
Hosts merchant and sales data privately, with lightweight models and WhatsApp-friendly messaging at low cost.
Observation plane
Logs how recommendations and credit offers were produced, supporting fairness reviews and dispute handling.
07
08
One governed view of customers, accounts, agents and transactions across core banking, mobile money and branch networks, so risk, fraud, credit and compliance teams work from the same facts.
Real-time visibility across ports, corridors, customs, fleets and warehouses, with one shipment record that carriers, forwarders, shippers and agencies can trust.
Trace crops and inputs from smallholder farms through cooperatives, processors and export, with the farm, finance and logistics data needed to plan, lend and prove origin.
Experience you can lean on
Immersed in technology and across many different verticals, so the people on your project have done this before.
Retail and commerce
Tell us the problem. An engineer, not a salesperson, answers.
Give informal merchants, distributors and marketplaces a shared view of stock, sales, payments and demand, so they can restock sooner, get credit and serve customers better.
