Ethiopia
A till that keeps working when the network doesn't
Ethiopia's retail runs on Telebirr and cash, and a POS that assumes a card terminal is solving somebody else's problem.
Connectivity is the harder constraint. Outages here are not the minutes you get elsewhere — a till that needs the internet to ring up a sale is a till that closes the shop.
And because so much stock is imported, landed cost moves. A price you set on last quarter's cost is a margin you no longer have.
What you get
How Ethiopia pays
Telebirr
The dominant wallet. Recorded against the sale so the statement and the day's takings describe the same trade.
Cash, with change
Still the majority of counter trade in most of the country, handled in birr at the till.
Bank transfer and CBE
For the wholesale and corporate buyers who settle through the bank, tied to the same invoice.
Card, where it is taken
Hotel, tour and Addis corporate trade, recorded in the same day's takings.
Records that survive a long outage
Ethiopian VAT-registered traders must issue receipts and keep records that stand up to review by the revenue authority. The practical difficulty is not the rule, it is keeping an unbroken record through infrastructure that goes down for long stretches.
sell.ke is offline-first rather than offline-tolerant: the till holds the full catalogue and price list locally and writes every sale to local storage first. Nothing waits on a round trip. When the connection returns, the backlog syncs in order and the day reconstructs itself completely.
That is the difference between a gap in your records and an inconvenient afternoon. sell.ke does not file on your behalf; it makes sure there is a complete, itemised record in birr to file from.
- Full catalogue and prices held on the device — no round trip to ring a sale
- Every sale written locally first, then synced in order on reconnect
- Line-level detail in ETB, tied to stock movements
- Period exports once the day has synced, with nothing missing
What you get
What that means for your shop in Ethiopia
Offline-first, not offline-tolerant
The distinction matters here. The till is designed to run disconnected for long stretches and reconcile cleanly afterwards.
Reprice when landed cost moves
Imported stock does not hold its cost. Update cost and price together, and see immediately which lines stopped making money.
Priced and reported in birr
ETB throughout — prices, stock valuation, margin and day-end totals.
Margins stay with the owner
Cashiers see prices and stock. Landed cost, supplier terms and margin stay with the owner and managers.
The features this leans on
Each one goes deeper than this page does — start with the first.
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Stock you can trust
Batch and expiry, serial numbers, reorder levels, stock takes and the formulas behind them.
Prices, price lists and promotions
Wholesale and retail off one product, quantity breaks, customer-specific lists, VAT-inclusive display.
Reports and real accounting
Double-entry books — trial balance, P&L, balance sheet — not a CSV export to somebody else's software.
Questions
Questions from Ethiopia
Will sell.ke work through Ethiopia's network outages?
That is what it is built for. The till holds your catalogue and prices locally and writes each sale to the device first, so it never waits on a connection to ring up a sale. When the line returns, the backlog syncs in order and the day reconstructs completely — no gap in the record.
Does sell.ke record Telebirr payments?
Yes — Telebirr is recorded against the sale at the counter alongside cash and bank transfer, so your wallet statement and your day's takings agree against one stock count.
Can it handle imported stock whose cost keeps moving?
Yes. Cost and price are tracked per product, so when landed cost moves you can reprice and immediately see which lines have stopped carrying their margin — rather than finding out a quarter later.
Does it run in birr?
Your shop runs entirely in ETB: prices, stock values, margins and reports. Subscription billing is quoted in KES; ask the team about settlement.
Do I need internet?
Not to keep selling. Offline mode lets the till take sales, print receipts and reserve stock while the connection is down, then syncs everything when it returns. You do need connectivity for the parts that are inherently online: an M-Pesa STK push, an eTIMS submission and the online shop all need a live link.
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.
Will it show me my profit?
Yes, and from a real ledger rather than a sales total. Every sale posts to a double-entry chart of accounts, so you get a trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow — not a CSV to hand your accountant. Margin is visible per product, per branch and per channel, because cost is tracked on the way in through purchase orders and goods-received notes.
Try it in your Ethiopia shop
Fourteen days, no card, no hardware to buy. Your prices, stock and reports all run in ETB.