[ismaelbelk]

Hey, we are Ismael and Sophia, co-founders of Chari (https://www.chari.co/). Chari is an ecommerce and fintech app for proximity stores in North Africa. It allows them to order anything they resell in their store, get delivered in less than 24h and benefit from payment facilities.

80% of the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) consumption in North Africa, and in developing countries in general, goes through small mom and pop stores (Vs 20% in the modern trade, such as Supermarkets). We are husband and wife and have two kids. We live together and go to the same mom and pop shop next to our place. Many times, while we were buying our groceries, we were left waiting because the truck of Coca Cola (or any other supplier) came by and the shop owner needed to deal with the supplier instead of his clients. When we ask the shop to serve us first, he replies that he can't because the supplier vans companies can't wait. Indeed the streets are narrow in North Africa, the vans usually create traffic jams and they have to sell and unload very quickly while the cars waiting behind are horning.

With Chari, they don't need to let their clients wait. When they run out of stock of a specific SKU, they add it to the app during their spare time between two clients. At the end of the day, they have the list of the SKUs that are missing in their shop. They then make the order to be delivered the day after.

We launched 18 months ago in Casablanca Morocco and have been growing at a 40% monthly rate on average. Last month, we opened our second warehouse in Morocco and our first one in Tunisia. Here's a promotional video if you're curious: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HEZla3KvtWYM06PO94igppL95ea....

[coderintherye]

When you say "free delivery" do you mean the distributor is delivering the products to the merchant for free? Is there a minimum order size?

You note the idea of them ordering every day, are the goods moving that fast that it makes financial sense for daily orders? Normally these shops are ordering weekly or biweekly.

Do you work with the Principals at all (e.g. Coca Cola) or just directly with the Distributors?

Did the merchants already have smart phones and digital literacy to be able to easily download and leverage your app or was it a process of teaching them how to use it?

[ismaelbelk]

We are not a marketplace. We buy goods, stock them, and then deliver. So we are the ones delivering the goods, and we don’t charge for it .

We are using a transport management system to optimize our daily delivery routing. Shops are really close to each others , so it makes financial sense to daily deliver the same shops. There is no minimum order , however some elementary SKUs can’t be bought only by themselves .

We get our supplies from both the Principals and some exclusive distributors.

We start first by sending salesrep on the ground to train the users on how to use the app. Usually the first orders are made through our customer care team. It can take up to 3 months for a client to become autonomous and use the app by himself.

[ano88888]

Most FMCG companies have their distributor network. The distributors will also have sales team visiting mom & pop stores on a regular basis. So your selling price must be the same or cheaper than the distributor selling price to make a profit which seems difficult to achieve if you're not the distributor. What is your business model and where do you expect to make the money?

[coderintherye]

Ahh interesting model! Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat, we work with merchants and distributors in Southeast Asia, though different business model.

[vijaykiran]

FYI - For some reason clicking on England flag still redirects to French version.

[arunnanda]

Some people might interpret that as taking a stand in the politics of language.

[ismaelbelk]

Weird. Works for me. Could you plz retry. Thanks

[ganeshkrishnan]

same here. I think its the combination of ublock and default firefox settings thats blocking some files and causing this issue.

btw, congrats on the launch. I consulted for similar startups in india and everyone is trying to get into the "kirana" model