Sokowatch

Sokowatch is an on-demand delivery network for informal retail shops in developing countries. Sokowatch already supplies thousands of small shops across Kenya and Tanzania through an innovative SMS ordering system and agents that distribute everything from soap to condoms with free same-day delivery.

Sokowatch is an on-demand delivery service for informal shops in urban areas of the developing world. Currently there are approxiamtely 10 million small informal shops across urban Sub-Saharan Africa alone, that collectively supply more than 90% of consumer goods to the general population. These small shops are typically forced to source their own inventory, which requires them to physically leave their stores and travel to wholesalers to buy and return with products. This adds significant cost and wasted time to the shopkeepers operations, while also reducing availability of key products to the consumers they serve.

Sokowatch allows shopkeepers to restock on the products they need at any time just by sending an order through a toll-free SMS. Sokowatch's system processes these orders and then automatically notifies the nearest delivery agent within its network to make a delivery to the shop, on average within two hours. These deliveries are made free of charge, with the prices of products matching what shopkeepers would otherwise receive at wholesalers. Sokowatch is able to make money to sustain its operations through the manufacturers of the goods distributed, who pay a commission for all products ordered and sold through the Sokowatch platform.

We believe that Sokowatch has the ability to directly improve the availability of key products within low-income communities that make up the majority of the population in the growing cities of the developing world. From our current operations in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania we are planning to scale and launch our model across the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa to increase availability of goods.

There are approximately 10 million small informal retail shops across urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa that supply everyday goods to people at the base of the pyramid. These shops are typically forced to source their own inventory, physically leaving their stores multiple times per week to source goods from wholesalers all over their cities. This results in frequent stockouts and increased prices for individual consumers in these communities.

Sokowatch believes it has the capacity to increase availability of everyday goods in informal markets through its existing traction and rate of growth. Since launching in Nairobi, Kenya in Spring 2016, Sokowatch has already grown to supply over 5000 small retail shops serving an estimated 580,000+ people in low income and informal settlement areas across the city. Beyond Nairobi, Sokowatch launched a pilot operation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in March 2017, where it has already grown to supplying over 1000 shops and proved the replicability of Sokowatch's model to serve low-income urban communities across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The impact of Sokowatch is that we ensure greater availability of essential everyday goods at lower prices to low-income communities in the developing world. Sokowatch directly benefits the small informal shopkeepers who supply goods to 90%+ of the market, while increasing availability of goods to the population at large. Sokowatch increases its base of customers through through a team of field agents who register and inform shopkeepers about Sokowatch.

Track number of unique shops ordering on a monthly basis - 15,000 shops in Nairobi use our system

Measure sales of products supplied by Sokowatch to a sample of customers on a periodic basis - Supply at least 50% of stores' inventory

Survey availability of Sokowatch-supplied products within a sample cohort of customers as compared to a control cohort of non-customers - Reduce stockouts of Sokowatch-supplied goods by 90%

Sokowatch is an innovative solution for informal communities in developing countries through its combination of on-demand delivery with an SMS ordering system that can be used on any phone. Given that the status quo within these communities requires shopkeepers to physically travel to source goods themselves, just using SMS to order goods that are then delivered to their shop on average within two hours is a vast improvement that makes a huge positive difference in the business operations of the shopkeeper.

Sokowatch's technology is human-centered and appropriate for its target population because it relies on technology its users already have, mainly the mobile phone. While smartphone ownership is growing rapidly in emerging markets, among Sokowatch's informal shopkeepers smartphone ownership is only around 32%, while 100% of them own a phone that can SMS (no smartphone or app required). SMS technology is widely used and available for consumers, and therefore presents the easiest medium through which facilitate ordering for Sokowatch's on-demand model.

Sokowatch grows its community of informal shopkeepers through recruiting agents who works directly with shops in their local areas. By hiring local agents with experience working in retail (Sokowatch primarily hires former field marketing agents for this role), we're able to ensure that agents understand the lifestyle and challenges of being an informal shopkeeper. These agents are paid on a commission model for new shops recruited, and the cost of acquisition for each of these shops is on average covered within the first two orders completed.

Sokowatch makes money through a sales commission paid by the manufacturers of the products ordered and sold through our network. These manufacturers include local producers of products such as rice and flour all the way to multinational companies including Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline.

Currently, Sokowatch is limited to the two biggest markets in urban East Africa (Nairobi and Dar es Salaam). We are however actively planning out how Sokowatch can scale and expand to the hundreds of other urban markets across Sub-Saharan Africa. The greatest challenges we see for this process is around developing standardized processes that can simply be replicated in new markets along with talented staff to implement them.

https://sokowatch.com/

http://disrupt-africa.com/2017/06/kenyas-sokowatch-hits-1000-retailer-mark-in-tanzania/

https://www.facebook.com/SokowatchKenya/

We believe Sokowatch is an ideal fit for Solve because our whole company has been built around the principle of using readily available and context appropriate technology to solve a problem in urban areas of the developing world, for which we have established an initial product-market fit but now are looking for the support to help scale out across the African continent (and potentially beyond). To this end, we hope Solve's community can help us connect with experienced operations mentors in scaling logistics and emerging markets technology to help us reach the potential we believe we can achieve. 

Currently Sokowatch partners with a variety of multinational consumer goods manufacturers including Unilever, Nestle, and GlaxoSmithKline along with regional East African manufacturers to help increase access to goods to informal retailers.

Sokowatch does not have any direct competitors in its current markets.