Mwangi's Duka
James Mwangi, Owner · Eastlands, Nairobi
The challenge
James ran his duka from a cash tin and an exercise book. Every evening he spent over an hour trying to reconcile cash and M-Pesa against handwritten notes, and the totals rarely matched. He restocked from memory, so bestsellers ran out while slow items gathered dust.
What SawaPOS changed
SawaPOS was set up on the tablet James already owned — no new hardware. Products were quick-added in an afternoon. Every sale is recorded by payment method, so cash and M-Pesa reconcile separately at close of day, and reorder points now flag fast movers before they run out. Offline mode keeps the shop selling when the network drops.
Measured results
- End-of-day reconciliation cut from 90 minutes to about 2
- Cash discrepancies identified daily instead of never
- Stock-outs on top sellers largely eliminated
- Zero hardware spend — runs on an existing tablet
“I used to lose an hour every night to the exercise book, and I still didn't trust the number. Now the shop balances itself and I go home.”