[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Suplias (YC S21) - B2B inventory for mom ...
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Launch HN: Suplias (YC S21) - B2B inventory for mom and pop stores
in Africa
Hey HN, This is Sefa, Michael and Stephen of Suplias
(https://suplias.com/). Suplias is a B2B marketplace where mom and
pop stores in Africa buy inventory directly from manufacturers
using a mobile app. The retail market in Africa is informal and
fragmented with 13M independently owned mom and pop stores
contributing 90% of the market. To play in the $180B food and
beverages market, you have to reach each mom and pop store
separately. Meanwhile, mom and pop stores have to lock their
stores, travel up to 20 miles and visit multiple wholesalers to buy
inventory. This buying experience is stressful, takes hours, and
results in a 15% loss of revenue to the store owner. We are 3 co-
founders with experience in supply chain and e-commerce. Sefa led
GB Foods, as the Business Development Director in Nigeria, to build
a retail network of 130k retail stores. Michael was the Commercial
Director for Fashion of Jumia in Nigeria. While working with
Procter & Gamble, we (Sefa and Michael) saw how mom and pop stores
face barriers to getting inventory. We built a manual selling
operation to deliver products to mom and pop stores. The problem
was that we could only sell products manufactured by our employer,
a single manufacturer, while mom and pop stores owners kept asking
for product variety across various manufacturers. Sefa saw an ad
about Amazon Dash where individuals could just push a button and
home care products would be replenished by Amazon. This experience
kept Sefa awake all night wondering if such a concept will work for
mom and pop stores in Africa. Sefa called Stephen his friend who is
a software engineer and convinced him to build an Android app to
test if mom and pop stores will be willing to place orders via a
mobile app. In parallel, Sefa called Michael, who was in Stanford
GSB at the time and urged him to come back so they could transform
Africa with the "big idea" :) In 4 weeks, we spoke to 50 mom and
pop stores, 30 had smartphones out of which 20 agreed to place
their orders on the app. This experiment led us to quit our jobs
and focus on building Suplias. To use Suplias, mom and pop stores
sign up with their phone number on a progressive web app. (Since we
figure most of you probably don't have Nigerian phone numbers, we
made a demo so you can see how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Wpx2G6W_k.) They place orders for
products listed by manufacturers, and get the products delivered
within 24 hours. Manufacturers list products and ship physical
inventory to Suplias distribution center, where independent
delivery associates pick up orders and deliver to stores. We
differentiate ourselves by having the most variety for packaged
food and guaranteed next day delivery. Order delivery and
consistent availability of inventory are actually more important
than lower prices to mom and pop stores. We make money via
commissions from manufacturers and $1.25 delivery fees from mom and
pop stores. In Africa, mom and pop stores don't pay delivery fees
for orders from a single manufacturer. We are able to charge for
delivery because we deliver products from multiple manufacturers.
Beyond the market size, helping small businesses like mom and pop
stores thrive has an impact on the African economy in an inclusive
way. 70% of our customers are mothers who are the primary source of
income for their families. We believe using technology to solve the
problems mom and pop stores face is a step towards increasing the
standard of living of families in Africa. Thanks for reading. We
will be super excited to get your thoughts / feedback in the
comments below especially if you have experience in the marketpace,
Logistics or SMB space. Best regards Sefa, Michael, Stephen
Author : noahanee
Score : 50 points
Date : 2021-07-12 17:11 UTC (5 hours ago)
| pideaky wrote:
| Great Product, I love this solution and uderstand it well,
| because i come from Latin America, and we have similar problems
| here. Wish you success!
| noahanee wrote:
| Thanks
| bigsparky wrote:
| Hi guys
|
| Nice to see an african business on here. In east Africa we have a
| few in this space like sokowatch and copia. Are these fair
| comparisons?
| openthc wrote:
| Your link -- https://suplias.com/
|
| We also do B2B things in Africa, would love to connect but I
| don't see a way to contact you?
| dang wrote:
| (Just a side note - I've added the link above - didn't notice
| it was missing - thanks!)
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| Good luck! Hopefully this provides value for all involved.
| noahanee wrote:
| Thanks
| pplante wrote:
| FYI the hamburger menu doesn't work on Android chrome.
| wydfre wrote:
| Just out of curiosity, hopefully you have done some research into
| the area, but what is the average size of a business in Africa,
| headcount-wise? What percentage of the country's people are self-
| employed?
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| How do you guarantee next day delivery? Do you currently limit
| merchants to being located in certain areas or how does that work
| behind the scenes? Even 2 day shipping is a complicated feat to
| achieve requiring lots of forecasting, data, and personnel.
|
| It's a great idea, B2B connectors of businesses (esp. up-and-
| coming) to suppliers is a great space to be in.
|
| I wonder if you would consider opening up your manufacturers /
| suppliers list to countries outside of Africa? Like Alibaba /
| Indiamart but for West Africa.
|
| Good luck!
| noahanee wrote:
| We limit delivery to mom and pop stores within 1 hour reach
| from a warehouse within the city. All orders during a day are
| assigned to delivery associates that load the next morning and
| deliver to several stores based on proximity. Our business
| operations are local to enable next day delivery. As we expand,
| we will open up to manufacturers in countries outside Africa to
| launch their products into Africa using Suplias.
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(page generated 2021-07-12 23:01 UTC)