Bring your shop closer to your customers
You already have the products, the customers who trust you, and perhaps a bodaboda rider you call for deliveries. Soko brings those parts together: a shop customers can browse, a clear order for your team, and delivery handled by people you choose.
For groceries, supermarkets, butcheries, pharmacies and cosmetics shops, that means customers can check your prices and available products before they contact you. You spend less of the conversation repeating a price list and more of it helping them buy.
What using Soko looks like in an ordinary shop
Imagine a customer sees your cooking oil on Instagram while at work. You send your store link. They choose the right bottle, add rice, enter their delivery address and place the order. Your employee checks it in Soko Store, packs the items and assigns the bodaboda you already work with. The rider sees the destination and records delivery.
You still decide what to stock, how to price it and who delivers. Soko gives the customer somewhere to order and your team a shared record to work from. For example, a butcher can make the cut and pack weight clear before the customer buys; a cosmetics shop can show the exact size and shade.
A few words you will see in this guide
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| Word | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Your business: the shop selling through Soko. |
| Vendor portal | The website with registration, login and app information. |
| Dashboard | The store’s working area after you sign in on the website. |
| Soko Store | The app the owner and authorised staff use to manage the shop. |
| Catalogue | Your list of products, with their prices, pictures and availability. |
| Cart or basket | The products a customer selects before placing an order. |
| Checkout | The step where the customer reviews delivery, payment and the total, then places the order. |
| COD | Cash on delivery: the unpaid amount is collected when the customer receives the goods. |
| Subscription | Payment for access to a package of Soko tools for the stated period. |
In these guides, Orders → open an order means first choose Orders, then select the order you want. Button names are in bold. The dashboard and app can use slightly different labels for the same task.
Keep the channels that already work
Keep welcoming walk-in customers. Keep posting on Instagram and answering WhatsApp. Add your Soko store link to those conversations so customers can choose their products, quantities and delivery location in one place.
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| Today’s conversation | What a Soko store adds |
|---|---|
| How much is this? | A product page with the current price and pack size. |
| What do you have today? | A catalogue you update as your stock changes. |
| Where exactly should we deliver? | The customer’s selected location, address and contact details on the order. |
| Can my usual bodaboda take it? | Add that rider to your store and assign the delivery. |
| Can I pay when it arrives? | Cash on delivery, with collection handled by your own delivery team. |
| Where can I use this offer? | A coupon customers apply when ordering from your store. |
A familiar lesson from Bolt
“Will people really order through an app when they can buy from the shop?” If that question is on your mind, think about transport in Tanzania. There were already taxis, daladala, bajaj and bodaboda. It would have been easy to ask: why would anyone need an app to find a ride?
Look at the income drivers and operators now earn through that channel. In May 2026, Bolt’s East Africa general manager reported that more than 30,000 active drivers in Tanzania were earning monthly income through the platform. According to The Citizen’s report, the figures he gave included:
- TSh 1.1 million a month in average earnings for car drivers.
- TSh 1.06 million a month for bajaj operators, on average.
- TSh 913,000 a month for bodaboda riders, on average.
- More than TSh 3.5 million a month for the top 500 drivers.
These are company-reported earnings; the article does not establish how much remains after operating costs. They describe Bolt drivers’ results, rather than an earnings estimate for Soko vendors.
For a shop owner, the people behind those figures are the useful comparison: drivers and operators earning from their own work through a digital platform. They provide the ride. You provide the groceries, household essentials, medicines or cosmetics. The opportunity is to make an existing business easier for customers to find and buy from.
Your shop could build an additional income stream online too. A customer at work, a parent at home or someone who cannot visit today may still want what you sell. With your products on Soko, they have a way to place that order without walking through your door.
You do not have to stop serving walk-in customers to explore that opportunity. Start with products you know people buy, share your store with existing customers and deliver reliably. Then judge online selling by the orders and profit it brings your shop—not only by the doubts you had before trying it. Take the first step and prepare your registration.
Understand what you are paying for
More ways to sell. No commission on your orders. With Soko, your subscription gives you the tools to take orders online, manage your shop and deliver with your own team. Soko takes 0% sales commission on every plan, helping you protect your margin as sales grow.
On a TSh 100,000 sale, the Soko sales commission is TSh 0. Your subscription pays for platform access, so more orders do not mean a bigger commission bill. You can put that saving towards your business—stock, service, a customer offer or money retained from the sale.
Even the starting plan includes unlimited products, unlimited orders, the POS system, Soko Store app, customer chat, ratings and reviews, and your own delivery management. You also get a store website on a Soko-provided subdomain. A small duka can start with a complete set of everyday tools, then choose more branch capacity and marketing features as the business grows.
Plans start at TSh 35,000 per month. Bronze suits a single shop; Silver and Gold add room for more locations and tools such as Reels, advertisements and a custom website address. Platinum supports an unlimited number of branches. Whether you run one neighbourhood shop or a chain across cities where Soko operates, each location can manage its own stock, orders and delivery team under your vendor account.
Start with the shop you have today, with room for the business you want to build. Compare the plans or visit the vendor portal to register.
Start with a manageable first week
- Register your store and complete the requested review and subscription steps.
- Add a useful selection of products with accurate prices, pack sizes, stock and photographs.
- Set opening hours and delivery charges. Add the rider you plan to use.
- Give one responsible person the job of watching incoming orders.
- Share your store link with existing customers, then review orders, delivery experience and earnings.
You can run the store through the vendor dashboard or the Soko Store app. Prepare your registration or visit the vendor portal for registration, downloads and login.