FMCG Route to Market in Kenya and Nigeria: A Guide for Retail Brands
Your stock leaves the depot, and from there distributors, sub-distributors and open-market wholesalers decide what reaches the duka. Keep each hop profitable, or the volume stalls before the shelf.
By Nikhil Chaudhary, VP of Marketing
What route to market means for an FMCG brand in Africa
Route to market (RTM) is the chain that carries your stock from the depot to the shelf, and the choices you make along it: who sells, who stocks, who delivers and who gets what margin. An RTM strategy settles six things: channels, distribution model, coverage, field team, trade terms and data.
Most of your volume moves through general trade, so the chain is long. In Lagos, a carton of noodles can go from your depot to a distributor, then to an open-market wholesaler, then to a kiosk or provision store. Up-country in Kenya, a sub-distributor often sits between the distributor and the duka. Every hop takes a margin and holds stock, and you see none of it without shared data. More in our route-to-market strategy guide.
Who serves your dukas and kiosks: your team, a distributor or a van
Decide this for each channel and area, not once for the country. It sets most of your cost to serve.
| Model | How it runs | Where it fits | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own team, direct | Your reps sell and your trucks deliver | Supermarket chains, big wholesalers, dense parts of Nairobi and Lagos, short-life products | Fixed cost stays high when outlets are small and far apart |
| Distributor, with sub-distributors for remote towns | The distributor buys from you, holds stock, delivers and gives credit; a sub-distributor stocks the far towns | Wide general trade reach, up-country towns, long roads | Sales below the distributor go dark unless you share one system |
| Hybrid | You serve chains and key accounts; distributors serve general trade | Brands that sell through chains and dukas together | Price and outlet fights, until it is written down who serves whom |
| Van sales or pre-sell | Van sales: sell and deliver in one visit. Pre-sell: take the order, deliver the next day | Van sales for small cash kiosks; pre-sell for bigger baskets and a wider range | A van holds a narrow range and carries cash; pre-sell fails when delivery is late. See van sales software |
Watch the edges where models meet. If you serve a distant town direct because one big wholesaler sits there, your team ends up calling on every kiosk around it at direct cost. A sub-distributor holding stock nearby often costs less than a weekly truck over a bad road.
Channels to cover, from the open market to the supermarket
General trade and modern trade never share a beat. A duka owner wants a short visit, a suggested order and credit they can trust. A supermarket wants shelf checks and a merchandiser.
| Channel | Outlets | Who serves it | What wins it |
|---|---|---|---|
| General trade | Dukas, spaza shops, kiosks, provision stores, open-market stalls and the wholesalers that supply them | Distributor salespeople on fixed beats, with your reps agreeing the range and order | Reach, the right range for each outlet, credit that is fair, a visit that comes when promised |
| Modern trade | Supermarket and convenience chains | Key account team, with merchandisers in store | Stock on the shelf, planogram compliance, promotions agreed with the chain |
| WhatsApp and app ordering | Retailers in the big cities who order from a wholesale app or a WhatsApp message | Direct from your warehouse, or passed to the outlet's own distributor | One clear price and scheme at the moment of ordering, so no platform undercuts your distributors |
| Out of home | Hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and caterers | Food-service distributors | Pack sizes, service and steady delivery. See HoReCa sales |
See also general trade vs modern trade and multichannel route to market.
Coverage and cost to serve: which outlets earn a visit
Coverage is where route-to-market money is most easily wasted. Sort outlets into tiers: high-volume stores get a weekly visit, steady ones every two weeks. Small or new outlets can order by phone, WhatsApp or app in between.
Then test each outlet on cost to serve. Count rep time, fuel for each drop and the credit you give, and set that against what the outlet buys in a month at your margin. If cost keeps beating margin month after month, move it down a tier: fewer visits, a van route, WhatsApp ordering or a wholesaler. Many dukas and stalls have no street address, so the first job is often one live outlet list. Our beat planning guide shows how to draw beats for each tier, and FMCG market coverage shows how to find the gaps.
In Nigeria, AAVA Brands grew store-level sellouts 25–30% on the BeatRoute platform. Read the AAVA Brands case study.
Five steps to build or repair your route to market
Use these for a new country, a new category or a market that has gone flat:
- 1. Find where volume and margin come from. Split sales by channel, area, distributor and outlet type. Mark the outlets that cost more than they earn and the towns where you are not on any shelf. In a new country, begin with an outlet census and a short list of distributors.
- 2. Choose the model for each tier and area. Put outlets in tiers. Give each tier a direct team, a distributor, a sub-distributor or a van, and write down who owns it so nobody competes for the same outlet.
- 3. Pick distributors and agree their terms. Look at reach, cash, trucks and willingness to share data. Then work out what each one earns on your line after delivery and credit. Distributors judge you on cash, so late claims cost you orders.
- 4. Size the field team and draw the beats. For each area, multiply outlets in a tier by visits a month and minutes per visit, including travel between outlets, then divide by one rep's selling minutes a month. That gives headcount; beats follow the tiers.
- 5. Pilot in one territory, then roll out. Run the new model with two or three distributors for a full ordering cycle. Weekly, check numeric distribution (the share of target outlets that stock you) and weighted distribution (the share of category sales those outlets carry). Also watch productive calls, lines per call, repeat orders and distributor fill rate. Roll out only what worked.
Three places an African FMCG route to market loses money
A sound plan still leaks.
The rep writes down whatever the shopkeeper asks for. Left alone, a shopkeeper orders less than the outlet can sell. Brief the rep before the visit on what the duka should stock and which scheme applies. BeatRoute's Order AI Agent suggests the basket for each outlet inside the sales force automation app, which works with no signal and syncs when the network returns.
The scheme pays out after the order is gone. A credit note next month cannot change this month's order. Show the qualifying scheme on the order screen, so the distributor sees what one more case is worth, and pay claims on time. Where cash is tight, a distributor waiting on money cuts the next order first. BeatRoute's Distributor Management System keeps ordering, schemes, stock and claims together, so you read secondary sales without waiting for month-end files.
A new outlet is counted once, then forgotten. Reps are paid for opening outlets, but growth comes from the ones that keep ordering. Judge reps on second and third orders. If a rep misses a beat day, the TeleOrder AI Agent can phone the retailer and take the order. The Retailer App lets retailers reorder on their own between visits.
Choosing route-to-market software for a distributor-led business
Software runs a good plan daily and cannot fix a weak one. Ask for the demo on your own distributors and outlets, and set it three jobs.
First, pick one distributor and ask to see what it sold to each duka on the day it was billed. If that waits for a month-end spreadsheet, you are still guessing at secondary sales.
Next, put a rep's phone in flight mode, take an order with the scheme on screen, and watch it sync when the network returns. Beats outside the big cities depend on it.
Last, follow one distributor invoice into your accounting or ERP system and check it is entered once, not typed in again at month-end.
BeatRoute suits brands whose reps sell to many retailers through distributors and want distributor management on the same platform. It is used by 200+ enterprise brands across 20+ countries, and most teams go live on sales force automation in 21 days.
Trusted by leading FMCG & CPG brands worldwide
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between go-to-market and route to market?+
Go-to-market answers why a shopper should buy: product, price, pack and message. Route to market answers how the product gets to the shelf: channels, distributors, coverage and field work. A good brand on a weak route has demand it cannot fill.
What is the best route to market for an FMCG brand in Kenya or Nigeria?+
No model wins everywhere. Most brands run a hybrid: their own team for chains and large accounts, distributors for dukas and kiosks, sub-distributors or vans for distant towns. In an area both could serve, compare your team's cost with the margin a distributor keeps.
Who owns an RTM strategy, and when should it change?+
The head of sales or distribution usually owns it. Review it when you enter a new area, change a distributor or launch a category.
How do I see what distributors sell below them?+
Have distributors order and bill through a distributor management system you provide, or link to the accounting software they already use. Either way you see outlet sales as they are billed.