Launch HN: Suplias (YC S21) – B2B inventory for mom and pop stores in Africa

[noahanee]

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

[pideaky]

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]

Thanks

[notsureaboutpg]

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]

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.

[openthc]

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]

(Just a side note - I've added the link above - didn't notice it was missing - thanks!)

[bigsparky]

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?

[noahanee]

Broadly speaking? Yes.

[rashidujang]

Love this idea. I hail from a South East Asian country and can definitely see something similar being popular in my country.

A question I have on the logistics, how do you govern the delivery associates and do you partner with any local logistic companies to provide delivery associates?

Again, this is a great idea and good luck to you and your team!

[noahanee]

Yes. We partner with logistics companies and independent van drivers but we influence the KPIs and compensations of the delivery associates

[wydfre]

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?

[wydfre]

Oops, meant 'continent', not so much me being an idiot as rampant tip-of-the-tongue.

[fernly]

What's in it for the "delivery associates"? Do they get a split of the $1.25 delivery fee?

Also just for curiosity, what kind of vehicle does the typical associate use? Are we talking bikes or what?

[noahanee]

The delivery associates use vans and mini vans. They are paid based on deliveries done in a month

[pplante]

FYI the hamburger menu doesn't work on Android chrome.

[stephen_i]

Thank you! Stephen, co-founder here. We will address that.

[devoutsalsa]

Good luck! Hopefully this provides value for all involved.

[noahanee]

Thanks

[akdav]

The menu seems to be broken in mobile.

[stephen_i]

Thanks! Stephen, co-founder here. We will address that!

[true_religion]

Do you work in Ghana?

[noahanee]

Not yet