Warbrands × StandBack — Commerce & Data System
STANDBACK MEDIA  ×  WARBRANDS
Commerce & data system · proposal

See every sale.
Then push the volume.

A selling and reporting system that bolts onto your operation, plus the ads to move more of every brand. Not a website. A new front door, a view of the sales you can't see, and a way to grow them.

Prepared for Cameron Waugh, Managing Director · August 2026
01
Today

The setup you've got.

Thirty years. Two warehouses, own fleet, 1,200 accounts. This bolts onto it. It doesn't replace anything.

30 yrs
FMCG distribution
1,200+
Trade customers
2
Owned warehouses · Harare & Bulawayo
Own
Fleet + 3PL
Live
CRM · route plans · principal reporting
Three additions: a new way to take orders, one place to see every sale, and ads that move volume.
02
The gap

One thing your numbers can't see today.

Formal orders are tracked to the last case. The cash sale at the counter and the single case off the van are not. That's real demand, invisible.

👁️ You see this
  • Formal trade orders through reps & CRM
  • Scheduled deliveries, fleet + 3PL
  • Monthly reporting to principals
🌑 You don't see this
  • Walk-in cash buyers at the warehouse counter
  • Single-case sales off convenience routes
  • EcoCash paid at the till, logged nowhere
Per-brand informal demand is exactly what your principals are blind to. Capture it and it stops being admin. It becomes a weapon.
03
The whole idea, one picture

Two front doors. One dashboard.

Front door 1

Trade ordering portal

Customers browse the catalogue and place orders online, settled on their existing terms.

FEEDS
Front door 2

Counter & route POS

The iPad at the till captures every cash and EcoCash sale, walk-in or off the van.

One dashboard

Every sale · every brand · every channel · cash or EcoCash · Harare & Bulawayo

04
How the till works · 1 of 3 · the kit

What actually sits on the counter.

No mystery hardware. An iPad running the free Shopify POS app is the till. Everything else just plugs into it.

📱

iPad + Shopify POS

The till itself. Tap products, take payment, print or skip the receipt.

THE BRAIN
🗄️

Cash drawer

Opens automatically when a cash sale is rung up.

OPTIONAL
🧾

Receipt printer

Prints a slip for the trader who wants one.

OPTIONAL
📲

Cashier's phone

Confirms the EcoCash payment came through, then logs it on the iPad.

ALREADY HAVE IT
No card machine. Shopify's own card readers don't work in Zimbabwe, so the till is built around cash and EcoCash from day one. That's a feature here, not a gap.
05
How the till works · 2 of 3 · one sale

One walk-in sale, start to finish.

Current sale Harare · Till 1
Shield Roll-On ×24$50.40
Supa Muma 2kg ×10$34.00
Knox Hydrate ×24$20.40
Total$104.80
1 · Ring it up

Cashier taps the products off the grid. No SKUs, no maths.

Take payment $104.80
Cash
EcoCash ✓ selected
OneMoney
Paynow

📲 Cashier checks EcoCash landed on their phone, then taps the button.

2 · Pick the payment

One tap says how they paid. The method is now captured.

Done 10 seconds
3 · Done & synced

Sale closed, receipt optional. It's on Cameron's dashboard instantly.

Same three taps whether it's one deodorant or a full case. The cashier learns it in an afternoon.
06
How the till works · 3 of 3 · behind the tap

Every tap does three things at once.

1 tap
on the iPad
📉

Stock drops

The item comes off the count automatically. No stock sheet.

🏷️

Brand tagged

The sale is filed under Shield, Knox, Ray-Ban and so on.

☁️

Dashboard live

It appears on the back-office view in seconds, anywhere.

Works when the line drops too. The till keeps ringing offline and catches up the moment it's back online. Nothing is lost at the counter.
07
One till, three places it lives

The same screen, everywhere it sells.

The exact same iPad till runs the Harare counter, the Bulawayo counter, and a rep's tablet on the convenience route. Same taps, same data, one system.

🏬

Harare counter

Fixed till. Walk-in traders paying cash and EcoCash.

🏭

Bulawayo counter

Second location, same setup, rolled up together.

🚚

Route tablet

Single-case sales off the van, captured on the road.

Every one of those taps answers the question no other distributor can: what actually sold, by brand, in the informal channel.
08
The money slide · one dashboard

Open your phone. See what sold today.

🔒 admin.shopify.com · Warbrands

Good afternoon, Cameron

Today · Harare + Bulawayo + Routes · Live
TOTAL SALES (USD)
$8,240
▲ 12% vs yest.
SALES
317
▲ 41 informal
COUNTER vs PORTAL
62 / 38
% split
CASH vs ECOCASH
55 / 45
% of till
Sales by brand — today USD
$2.1k
Shield
$1.6k
Supa Muma
$1.2k
Knox
$1.5k
L'Oréal
$0.9k
Kwikot
$0.9k
Ray-Ban
Where sales came from
Warehouse counter · 38%
Trade portal · 24%
Route / van · 26%
Direct online · 12%
Shield Roll-On ×24
Harare counter · 14:22
CASH $50.40
Supa Muma ×10
Route 4 · van · 14:05
ECOCASH $34.00
Ray-Ban Aviator ×1
Online · D2C · 13:48
PAYNOW $149.00

Dashboard is a recreation with illustrative numbers, to show the layout and the flow. Real figures come from real sales.

09
Blind spot → weapon

The report no other distributor can hand a principal.

Informal demand per brand, per month, per region. The number L'Oréal, Luxottica and the rest cannot get anywhere else. It's how you defend an agency, and win the next one.

Warbrands · Principal Report · Informal channel
Informal (walk-in + route) units — last 30 days illustrative
4,820
Shield
3,410
Supa Muma
2,950
Knox Hydrate
1,240
L'Oréal
620
Kwikot
This is the whole reason to do it. The POS pays for itself in admin. The data is what makes Warbrands hard for a principal to replace.
10
Front door 1 · trade ordering, reps included

Reps stay in. Ordering just gets easier.

Your CRM and your reps don't go anywhere. This is a second way for customers to order, not a replacement for the person they know.

🔒 order.warbrands.co.zw
WARBRANDS Trade
Logged in: Mai Chidzero Wholesalers · Acc #10428 · Rep: J. Moyo
Shield Roll-On (24)
$48.00 / case
Add to order
Knox Hydrate (24)
$19.20 / case
Add to order
Supa Muma (10)
$32.00 / case
Add to order
L'Oréal Shampoo (12)
$46.80 / case
Add to order
Order total $146.00 · your price list · rep looped in
Place order — settle on account
Reps and the CRM don't go anywhere. Customers still phone who they always phone. The website is a second way to order, with the rep still on the account, still credited, still in the loop. It hardens into per-customer pricing and self-serve as we go.
11
The side revenue engine

A new revenue line, on top of trade.

The same system opens a marketing engine that doesn't touch your trade base. Sell direct only on the products where you're already the retailer (eyewear, for example), and turn buyers into repeat customers you can reach.

🌐

Online presence

A real storefront for Ray-Ban and premium lines in Zim.

🛒

Direct sales

High-margin lines (eyewear, for example). No channel conflict, you're the retailer.

🎯

Retarget buyers

Every sale builds a customer list you can market to.

🔁

Repeat revenue

Second and third orders at near-zero cost.

This is the bridge to the next three slides: once you can sell online and see who's buying, paid ads become the lever that moves volume.
12
Moving volume · 1 of 3 · the audience

Your buyers are already on their phones.

Zimbabwe is a mobile-first market. Almost everyone has a phone, and the online audience is big enough to move real volume when you put brand in front of it.

15.2M
Mobile connections · 90.6% of people
6.45M
Internet users · 38.4% and climbing
2.10M
Reachable on Facebook
544k
Reachable on Instagram
Honest read: Facebook and WhatsApp are where the reach and volume sit. Instagram is smaller and urban, so we use it as a sharp tool for premium products (eyewear, for example), not the mass play.

Source: DataReportal, Digital 2025: Zimbabwe. Figures are advertising-reach estimates.

13
Moving volume · 2 of 3 · the two engines

Two platforms. Two different jobs.

📘
Meta · Facebook + Instagram

Create the demand

  • Mass reach, cheap. Put Shield, Knox, Supa Muma in front of millions for a few dollars a day.
  • WhatsApp click-to-chat. An ad becomes an order or a stockist enquiry in one tap.
  • Direct product sales. Instagram moves premium lines like eyewear to the urban buyer.
  • Retargeting. Chase the people who viewed but didn't buy.
🔍
Google · Search + Shopping

Capture the demand

  • Catch intent. Someone searching "Kwikot geyser Harare" or "Ray-Ban Zimbabwe" is ready to buy.
  • Shopping ads. Product, price and photo show right in the results.
  • Higher-consideration lines. Geysers, Rinnai, eyewear, the things people research first.
  • "Where to buy" traffic. Point local searches straight at Warbrands.
Meta creates want. Google catches it. Run both and you cover the buyer from "never heard of it" to "buying it now".
14
Moving volume · 3 of 3 · how it lifts trade

Ads move volume two ways.

Way 1 · pull through the shelf

Consumer demand becomes trade orders

Ad on phoneConsumer asks their local shopShop runs outShop reorders from Warbrands

You never sell that consumer directly. You make the brand move faster off shelves you already supply, so your trade customers buy more.

Way 2 · sell direct where you can

Direct sales with no channel conflict

Ad on phoneProduct storefrontSale + a new customer on your list

Only on lines where you're the retailer. High margin, and every buyer becomes data you own.

And it compounds, because the POS feeds the ads:
🧾

Sales data in

POS + online show who buys what, where.

🎯

Build audiences

Custom & lookalike lists from real buyers.

💸

Cheaper, sharper ads

Spend lands on people who actually convert.

📈

More volume

Which feeds more data, and round again.

Ad budgets are billed in USD, so we start small, watch the cost per sale, and scale only what pays back. No blank cheque.
15
Built for the ground it runs on

Made for Zimbabwe. Not bolted on.

📱

EcoCash & OneMoney

Logged at the till in one tap. No card machine needed.

💳

Paynow online

Handles cards, EcoCash and OneMoney for portal orders.

💵

USD, shown in ZiG

Price in dollars, display the ZiG amount at checkout.

📶

Works when the line drops

Counter-first. The till keeps ringing, syncs when it's back.

Straight fact: Shopify's own card readers don't work in Zimbabwe. So we build around EcoCash, Paynow and mobile-first ads from day one, not as an afterthought.
16
How it rolls out

Start where it's easiest. Prove it. Extend.

Phase 1

Counter POS

THE WEDGE
  • iPad till at Harare + Bulawayo
  • Cash + EcoCash captured
  • Live informal data, day one
  • Fast, low-risk, quotable
Phase 2

Portal + route

  • Trade ordering portal live
  • Route / van POS on tablets
  • Deeper stock & account tools
Phase 3

Sell & advertise

  • Product D2C storefront
  • Google + Meta ads switched on
  • Principal data reporting
Phase 1 is the cheapest, lowest-risk piece. Prove it at the counter first. Ads come once there's something to sell and data to aim them.
17
Investment

One price. Everything in.

No tiers, no add-ons to weigh up. One flat monthly retainer covers the lot.

EVERYTHING INCLUDED
Full management
Run it, grow it, report on it
R50,000 / month
  • POS + Shopify managed, both counters
  • Catalogue, stock & price upkeep
  • Google + Meta ads managed
  • Product D2C store (e.g. eyewear)
  • Informal-channel principal reporting
  • Weekly strategy meeting
  • Priority support
+ ad spend, billed separately (your media budget)

Flat monthly retainer, billed in ZAR, on a 12-month term. One-off setup scoped after the discovery session.

18
What we need from you

The answers that shape the build.

Run through these with us and we come back with a plan and a firm number. No guesswork, no padding.

🎯 Positioning
  • Trade-only, or sell direct on some brands? Which?
  • Which brands go live first?
  • Is Warbrands Zambia in scope now or later?
🗄️ Your systems
  • What holds stock & pricing today (the ERP)?
  • Can it sync or export, or is it manual?
  • What CRM runs the 1,200 accounts?
🏬 On the ground
  • Is "informal" walk-in, van, or both?
  • How many tills and locations day one?
  • Connectivity and devices at the counters?
💰 Money & sign-off
  • How do we invoice and get paid, cross-border?
  • Who signs off the budget?
  • What can we say in ads, per principal?
19
STANDBACK MEDIA  ×  WARBRANDS
Where we'd start

You run the distribution.
We'll build the lens, the front door,
and the engine that moves volume.

→  Next step: a 45-minute working session to answer the six, and lock Phase 1.
StandBack Media · paid media · brand · e-commerce growth · Cape Town
20
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