BusinessHub

Client type and problem

Retail and services · SMEs

A pharmacy, a restaurant or a hardware store in Kinshasa lives on word of mouth and the phone. Customers must travel to know what is in stock. The manager writes orders in a notebook and does not know which product sells.

Foreign platforms cost dollars per month, need a stable connection and do not accept mobile money.

What we built

• Brochure site and product catalogue, editable by the manager without code
• Ordering via WhatsApp or direct payment with M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money
• Dashboard: today's orders, customers, invoices, best-selling products
• SMS confirmation to the customer, no e-mail needed
• Three ready templates: pharmacy, restaurant, hardware store

How it holds up in the DRC

• Every page under 300 KB: readable on 3G in under three seconds
• The dashboard works offline and syncs when the network returns
• French interface, Lingala labels possible
• Prices shown in USD and CDF

Deployment

• Hosted in Kinshasa, Cloudflare in front for caching and protection
• Docker containers, zero-downtime release, one-command rollback
• Encrypted nightly backup, off-country copy, restore tested

Monitoring

• Availability probe every 60 seconds, published on the status page
• Error and response-time tracking
• WhatsApp and SMS alert to our team on outage
• Monthly report: availability, incidents, fixes made

Timeline and price

3 to 6 weeks · from 900 USD · 40 to 80 USD / month

Tech stack