There is always a supermarket next to a filling station, and it seems a filling station cannot be considered complete without a supermarket. This is the story of an oil company in Ghana, which has more than 15 branches of filling stations across the country and decided to complement them with supermarkets. Today they run a powerful business model and use Loyverse to manage their supermarket chain. Mr. Owusu shares with us how he found Loyverse and the features that simplified the sales process and inventory management in their supermarkets.  

Can you briefly describe your business?

We are a supermarket chain. Initially, we have around 15 filling stations across the country. We decided to open supermarkets in each of these filling stations. We sell items such as soft drinks, alcohol, food items, and certain beauty items such as soups and deodorants spray, etc. We have some branches in Kumasi, Accra, central region, basically, we have branches all over the country. Because we had many branches, we had difficulties distributing the goods between them. We were using software that was not cloud-based. If we wanted to update the stock in any of the stores, we had to go there and update the stock locally. We were looking for a system to register the transfer orders and accept them in the same place and update the stock automatically in both locations. When we started with Loyverse, there was learning chaos, but we got the hand of it in 2-4 weeks and have been using Loyverse for 3 years. It has been a very very good experience so far. 

How did you first learn about Loyverse?

I found Loyverse myself. I am an IT person. My boss threw a challenge at me. He said that he needed software which could be used to manage all of our stores in one place. I started searching online. There was a person that came from the US, and he was using one of the most popular POS there. He bought one of their machines and asked me to go and set it up. That is when I found out that there are POS that can be installed on Android and iOS devices which were amazing. The problem with this POS that my friend was using was that you could use them only with their hardware, so this did not work for us. I continued my research and found Loyverse. I decided to give it a try. When I downloaded it and decided to learn how to use it and how it operates, I fell in love with it and its simplicity and user-friendly interface. 

What features of Loyverse did you find most useful for your business?

Advanced Inventory is a very powerful tool. We use it a lot. We update the inventory in one location, so when we have the goods, we update and send the goods to the store. It is very good that we have past information, meaning that since we start making the Purchase Order, the document will remain in the system. This means that if later I need to see this document, I can find it easily in the system. We use  Employee Management as well. Being able to manage the access rights of employees is extremely important for us and Loyverse made this possible. 

Did you use the premium version since the moment you started using Loyverse?

As I remember, we have always used the paid version because when you activate the Advanced Inventory, it gives you a 14 days free trial first and we used this trial. When the free trial finished, we immediately activated the subscription, and we have been using it until now. 

What devices are you using with Loyverse POS device? 

We are using Android-based terminals. When we started, we were using tablets. We had a router and connected a printer and the cash drawer to the tablet. Right now, we are using POS systems, an all-in-one Android POS system.

We have installed Loyverse Dashboard as well. Loyverse Dashboard is a fantastic app. We have given access to the employees to the Dashboard app, so that in the morning, when they are closing the shift, they have to count most of the items so that another employee can take over. We have installed the Dashboard app on their phone, so they can check their sales for the shift and also check what items are low in stock and inform the management to supply their branch. 

What are your plans for the future?

There are some locations of our filling stations that are not businessy advisable to open supermarkets. These locations are not in the city or are in remote areas. But we are opening new stations every 6 months, and with the increase of the fueling stations, the number of supermarkets will increase. We are currently working in 5 more fuel stations which will have supermarkets as well. 

What message do you want to give to young entrepreneurs?

If you want to open a supermarket or any type of business, a recommend you to try Loyverse. The Loyverse app is an amazing tool for your business, it is easy to use and yet very powerful. It will help you manage your inventory and set different levels of access rights for your employees. I highly recommend Loyverse to anyone who wants to open a business.