2019 was a year of sombre realization for many people all around the world. The brooding sense of a whole new decade being just months/days ahead caused a lot of people to take some really introspective journeys. In sub-Saharan Africa, we just channel all of this nagging introspection as ammunition to facilitate the next change in government.
KudiGo’s StoreFront was created in a bid to solve this very common phenomenon. Preceded with careful consideration of the African retail ecosystem, it offers businesses a simple way to gain and maintain oversight over their business, thus lowering the risk of later introspective regret. Retailers can now do their bookkeeping, process non-cash forms of payment, record sales activities, assess detailed reports of their business activities over any time period, record and be reminded of credit sales transactions, keep track of their inventory, and integrate their online Storefront shop to their SageOne accounts. What KudiGo is offering retailers and businesses across the Sub-Saharan is a chance to catch up to the globe on a technological scale. StoreFront’s cloud servers provide the most secure storage for your business information.
In 2019, StoreFront by KudiGo expanded and grew into a more tailored and concise solution for Africa-based businesses. Several additions and deductions took place to make the solution what it is today. Daily user interaction and involvement with the system was tracked, in order to identify trends and patterns that would boost stakeholders of the African retail space (formal and informal). These findings, though not absolute, can help to fine-tune aspects of retail business action in the future.
One thing that became evident over the course of the year of 2019 for sales activities, across all the retail industries on StoreFront, was Monday; accounting for 15.4% of weekly sales averagely. The reasoning for this could be that people need to stock up for the rest of the week and would like to do their purchases in bulk, so as to make way for other time-costing avenues for the subsequent days. The hours between 6 pm and 7 pm recorded the most sales activities on average on StoreFront.
With our current operational bases being, Ghana and Nigeria, we have come to realize that retail in these countries is heavily cash-based. The language similarity (official languages) and the shared colonial history of these two nations often make them the ideal grounds for business penetration and Africa as a whole. According to our StoreFront stats for 2019, a whopping 95% of all sales activities on the system were cash transactions. This could be a testament to the relatively low concentration of e-cash transactions, as compared to the countries in the global north (Canada, USA, UK).
Total sales transactions for the year 2019 resulted in $ 2.6 million (monetary value). In the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2019, total sales orders on StoreFront were 21,845. This number, which rose steadily month after month, except a slight decline in November, reveals that the retail industry is gradually shifting to software solutions that are capable of handling their inventory, customer information, receipting and non-cash transactions whilst being accounting system integrated.
Pharmacies are one of the business type allocations on StoreFront. In 2019, it was recorded that 67% of all sales transactions on StoreFront were done by pharmacies. Boutiques, provision stores, supermarkets and cosmetic stores were also pretty high on average as some of the highest sales transacting businesses on StoreFront. We also recorded that Pharmacies transacted the most sales orders on average, on Sunday and Mondays, between the hours of 6 pm and 7 pm.
It is interesting to note that Vitamin C was the single most purchased pharmacy product. Ranging from 41 cents to $6, It recorded an average sales margin of 41% on StoreFront. This no doubt, make Vitamin C the most popular pharmacy product on StoreFront. We could chalk this up to the numerous health buffs on social media and on our broadcast channels hammering down on the necessity for good skin, good hair, good nails etc. We are here for it.
Vitamin C may have taken the vote for popularity, however, when it comes to the value of the product, Augmentin 625 was the most patronised pharmaceutical item on StoreFront. It grossed $194,000 with an average sales margin of 17%. Augmentin 625 is an antibiotic that is heavily recommended by doctors across Ghana and Nigeria.
StoreFront has recorded trackable growth with regards to the usage of our solutions in 2019. Achieving our current status as a consumer-centric retail solution has not been not a walk in the park and we strive to do better and increase the number in the coming years.
