Feature · Delivery
Delivery zones and fees, priced per trip
Most Kenyan shops that start delivering lose money on it for about six months before they notice. The reason is almost always the same: one flat fee. KES 300 covers a boda to Kilimani and nowhere near covers a matatu parcel to Nakuru, so every distant order quietly subsidises itself out of your margin.
sell.ke prices delivery by zone. You define the areas you actually serve and what each one costs to reach, the storefront quotes that rate at checkout, and the fee lands on the order as its own line — visible in reports, separate from the goods. Amina can set a zone rate for you if you would rather describe the area than configure it.
What this actually does
Zones with their own rates
CBD, Westlands, Rongai, upcountry — each with the fee that trip genuinely costs, not an average that flatters the near ones.
Quoted at checkout
The customer sees the delivery fee for their area before they pay, which removes the argument at the door.
A separate line on the order
Delivery revenue is not mixed into goods revenue, so you can see whether the service pays for itself.
Amina sets the zone rate
Describe the area and the fee in plain English or Swahili and she creates the zone rather than walking you through a settings screen.
Works on counter orders too
A walk-in customer buying a fridge gets the same zone pricing as a web order. It is one order type, not two systems.
Deposits on made-to-order goods
Take part payment now and the balance on delivery, with the outstanding amount tracked against the customer.
Why a flat fee is a slow leak
Work it through with real numbers. Say a boda to a nearby estate costs you KES 200 and a cross-town run costs KES 600, and you charge KES 350 flat because that felt fair. Half your orders are near, half are far. You make KES 150 on the near ones and lose KES 250 on the far ones — an average loss of KES 50 per delivery, on a service you introduced to grow revenue.
It gets worse as you succeed, because the far orders are the new customers. Zone pricing fixes it without a spreadsheet: the near customer pays KES 200, the far one pays KES 600, and neither is subsidising the other. Your delivery line stops being a cost centre you cannot explain.
Bulky goods and the second conversation
For furniture, appliances and building materials the delivery fee is not a rounding error — it is a material part of the price, and it is the thing the customer wants to negotiate. Having the zone rate quoted on the order, rather than agreed verbally, means the figure the customer accepted is the figure on the record.
It also lets you take a deposit against a lead time. A made-to-order sofa can sit as a part-paid order with the balance outstanding, so the workshop knows it is real and the books know what you are owed.
- →Zone rate quoted on the order, not agreed verbally
- →Deposit now, balance on delivery, outstanding tracked
- →Delivery revenue reported separately from goods
Where this decides the sale
The trades this matters most to, and what they need from it.
Delivery zones and fees, priced per trip — questions
Can I charge different delivery fees for different areas?
Yes — that is what zones are for. You define the areas you serve and set a rate for each, and the fee is quoted from the customer's zone at checkout. A Kilimani order and a Nakuru order do not pay the same figure unless you decide they should.
Does the delivery fee show separately in reports?
Yes. Delivery lands as its own line on the order rather than being folded into goods revenue, so you can see what the service earns against what it costs and decide whether the rates need moving.
Can I take a deposit and collect the balance later?
Yes. Part-pay the order now and the remainder is tracked as outstanding against the customer, which is how made-to-order furniture and appliance sales usually work. The balance is collectible at delivery on any tender.
Do web orders and counter orders use the same delivery rates?
They do. There is one order type and one set of zones, so a walk-in customer having a fridge delivered is quoted from the same table as a customer checking out on the website.
How long does setup take?
A single-counter duka is usually selling the same day. The work is the product list, not the software: import a CSV or let Amina create products from a supplier invoice or a photo of your price list. A multi-branch business with thousands of SKUs, opening stock counts and an eTIMS enrolment should plan a week and run the old system in parallel for a fortnight.
Can I sell online with the same system?
That is the point of it. The storefront reads the same products, the same branch stock and the same price lists as the till — there is no sync job and no separate ecommerce subscription. A web order and a counter sale move the same stock and land in the same report, tagged by channel so you can see which one is actually growing.
What does it cost?
Plans run from KES 1,499/month for a single-branch till to KES 14,999/month for unlimited scale, with the online shop, M-Pesa checkout and KRA eTIMS receipts included from KES 2,999/month. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card. There is no hardware to buy — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
Read next
An online shop off the same stock
A branded storefront on your own domain, reading the same products, stock and prices as the till.
Prices, price lists and promotions
Wholesale and retail off one product, quantity breaks, customer-specific lists, VAT-inclusive display.
Customers and loyalty
Credit accounts that do not go missing, loyalty that returns, and a debtor list you can actually chase.
See it on your own products
Fourteen days, no card. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list, and run it alongside whatever you use now.