Sylvia Namugenyi a shop owner in Kampala’s Kikuubo business hub was facing challenges keeping her business records in a book which often got lost or damaged. This was until a friend introduced her to Chap Chap which changed the story of bookkeeping and monitoring sales as well as tracking her stock.
Chap Chap, a Swahili word for ‘quick’, is a product of Chap Chap Africa, a fintech company that specialises in building information and technology solutions for underserved people.
When a merchant makes a sale, rather than record the sale in a book, they simply tap the sold product in the App on their mobile gadget. The record will be stored electronically and in a superfast time that will not delay the waiting customer.
Emmanuel Emodek the app developer says he got the idea in 2013 but back then it was not well thought out. “I was just thinking it could be done but I had no idea how it could be done. In 2015 I met one of the co-founders with whom I shared the idea and they agreed.”
Emodek adds that they spent two and half years researching and in September 2016 the prototype came on to the market. In January 2017, that is when we opened up to the public since we had understood what the public want,” he explains.
The Chap Chap merchant app has bold features, the first being digital services which Emodek says enhances businesses by increasing their revenue.
“Each time you resale a service, you are paid a commission which we actually share with the merchants who are having the app. This revenue is in addition to what they are doing because they are already running their businesses. We look at the revenue in two ways, first it enables businesses attract walking customers as well as the point of sale,” Emodek shares.
Explaining the point of sale, Emodek reveals that merchants faced a challenge of bookkeeping initially as they had to do it manually which delays the selling process while people want things done quickly.
He notes that the beauty of having records digitised is the shop owner will be able to evaluate their products thereby helping them to plan effectively.
“It also helps you to know your most and worst selling products to inform your product positioning,” says Emodek.
He importantly adds, “There is also a feature where the shop owner is able to manage the expenditure through the record kept.”
