Store and Checkout Launch Kit

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An excerpt from Chapter 1: Why your store needs a real checkout

The hidden cost of "DM to order"

Most brands in Nairobi, Lagos and Accra started the same way. You post a product. People comment "how much?" You move them to WhatsApp, send the price, share your M-Pesa till number, wait for the confirmation message, check it, then ask for the delivery location. It works. It also has a ceiling.

Every order needs you. Every question costs you minutes. And every minute between "I want this" and "I've paid" is a chance for the buyer to get distracted, change their mind or find someone faster.

Example: Wanjiru sells handmade leather bags at KES 4,500. She gets about 200 DMs a month asking about price or stock. She replies within a few hours and closes about 1 in 4, so 50 orders, or KES 225,000. When she looked closer, she found that 60 of those DMs came in after 9pm, when she was asleep. By morning, most had gone quiet. If just 15 of those late-night buyers could have paid on a website, that is KES 67,500 more in the same month, with no extra ad spend.

The numbers are illustrative. The pattern is real for almost every brand we work with. Buyers are most ready to pay in the moment they see the product. A chat makes them wait. A website lets them act.

What a website checkout does that a chat cannot

• Takes payment 24 hours a day, including weekends and public holidays.
• Shows price, sizes, stock and delivery fees up front, so buyers do not have to ask.
• Captures the customer's name, phone, email and address in one clean record.
• Confirms the payment automatically. No checking codes or screenshots.

That is the promise. But a website on its own does not fix the problem. Many founders launch a store, share the link, and still watch buyers drop out at the last step. Usually it comes down to one of ten checkout leaks, and the most common one is hiding in plain sight on almost every Kenyan store we review...