TL;DR A route to market strategy is your plan for getting stock from the depot to every shop worth serving. It names the distributors and wholesalers you use, the dukas, kiosks and supermarkets you cover, who visits them and what each route costs. Route to market software runs that plan daily, with distributors, reps and retailers on one system.
In Lagos, Nairobi, Accra or Johannesburg, the plan usually breaks once the truck leaves the depot. Cartons go to a distributor, then a sub-wholesaler at Idumota or Gikomba, then kiosks your team has never seen. You know what you shipped. What sold, and at what price, gets decided without you.
Route to market meaning in Nigerian and Kenyan trade
Route to market is the path a product takes from your factory to the shopper: who sells, stocks, delivers and gives credit along the way. In Nigerian and Kenyan trade it passes through many hands, and each one holds stock, takes a margin and makes calls you cannot see.
Brands here run three kinds of route. With direct distribution, your own reps sell and deliver. In a distributor-led route, distributors, stockists and wholesalers buy from you and serve the shops. Most brands end up hybrid, with their own team on supermarket chains and distributors on general trade, which some call traditional trade. Hybrid works only when each outlet has one owner, as our multichannel route to market guide explains. For the channel models retail brands use, see our FMCG route to market guide.
Signs your route to market is leaking sales
Routes drift as kiosks open and distributors change hands. Each of these signs points to one of the four steps below.
| On the ground | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Busy dukas run dry while slow kiosks sit on cartons | Distributors reorder by habit instead of from what sold | Base stock norms on secondary sales so primary orders follow demand. The Order AI Agent proposes a basket for each shop from what it bought before. |
| Two distributors, your own team and a B2B app all cut prices for the same shops | Those shops have more than one owner | Hold one outlet list showing each shop's channel and who serves it, with schemes set per channel. |
| You see what left the depot, not what reached the shelf | Nothing gets recorded below the distributor | Capture distributor invoices, rep orders and shop orders in one place. |
| Fuel and rep costs climb faster than sales | Beats were drawn once and never redrawn | Redraw beats around your busiest shops and drop visits that seldom end in an order. |
How to build a route to market strategy in four steps
An RTM strategy comes down to four decisions, taken in order because each one feeds the next.
1. Start with an outlet census and three numbers
Most of these markets have no outlet database you can buy, and many shops have no street address. So the first job is a census: reps walk each territory and geo-tag every outlet they find. Then write down three numbers.
- The outlets you serve out of all you could serve.
- What each outlet type costs to reach on its current route, fuel and rep time included.
- How much of your sales you can see past the distributor.
Every later change gets judged against them.
2. Group outlets by channel, type and value
Sort the census by channel first: general trade, open markets, modern trade, B2B ordering apps and e-commerce. Then sort by outlet type, such as duka, kiosk, spaza, provision store, chemist, supermarket, or hotels, bars and restaurants.
Grade each one A, B or C on what it sells, since a busy kiosk can outsell a bigger shop.
3. Match each kind of outlet to one route
Decide who serves each group: your own team, a distributor, a wholesaler or a van. No one route suits every FMCG brand here, so pick the cheapest one that still wins the outlet. A supermarket chain that expects shelf checks needs your people in store. A kiosk taking a few cartons a week will rarely pay back a direct visit.
| Kind of outlet | Who usually serves it | BeatRoute module |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarket and pharmacy chains | Your key account team, plus merchandisers in store | SFA, retail audit, visual merchandising |
| Dukas, kiosks, spaza and provision stores | A distributor's reps on fixed beats, often booking orders for later delivery | DMS, SFA, route optimization |
| Rural shops and open-market traders | A van rep who sells from the truck, invoices and collects cash on the spot | Van sales software |
| Wholesalers and shops that reorder often | Orders the shop places itself, delivered by the distributor | Retailer app, B2B customer app |
Van sales suits remote, cash-heavy routes, and pre-sales, booked today and delivered later, suits dense city routes. On paper, van sales hides cash and stock gaps, so record each sale in an app as it happens.
Next, give every outlet one named owner, since channel conflict starts in shops two routes both serve. Open markets make it sharper: stock bought at Onitsha or Gikomba crosses any territory line you draw, so plan for them. In BeatRoute each outlet record shows its channel, distributor and beat, so reps see who owns a shop.
4. Agree distributor terms, then draw the beats
A distributor here is a business owner you win over, often a family trading house. Agree coverage, stock norms, margins, credit in naira, shillings or cedis, and how claims get paid. Settle claims on time. Review each distributor against those terms, then divide the outlets so each rep carries a fair load.
A beat, or journey plan, is the list of shops a rep visits on one day. The call cycle sets how often each shop gets a visit. Beats decide most of your cost to serve, so give A outlets the most visits.
Judge your route to market on what reaches the shelf
Primary sales can rise for a quarter while shelves run empty, because distributors sit on stock shoppers have not bought. Compare these with your census baseline, by territory and channel:
- Coverage:
outlets served out of every outlet in the census. The gap is your white space. - Numeric distribution and activation:
the share of shops that stock you, and how many of them keep reordering. - Cost to serve:
what selling to and delivering to each outlet type costs, against the margin it earns. - Rep productivity:
strike rate (visits that end in an order), lines per call and value per visit. - Distributor fill rate:
the share of each order a distributor delivers in full.
Sell-out at store level is the number that settles the argument. On the BeatRoute platform, AAVA Brands in Nigeria grew store-level sellouts by 25–30%. Read how in the AAVA Brands case study.
What route to market software does
Route to market software runs your distributors, reps and retailers in one place. A manager sees what each distributor holds and sells, what each rep did in each shop and what each shop ordered, and fixes gaps that week.
It joins five parts. A distributor management system holds primary orders, stock and claims, and SFA software holds visits and orders. Route optimization and visit planning set beats. Retail audit checks shelves and loyalty management runs schemes. All five share one list of outlets, products and prices.
Where to start follows from the signs above. If your blind spot is below the distributor, start with DMS, so every invoice to a shop is recorded. If the problem is visits that do not happen or end without an order, start with SFA.
When you compare tools, ask four things. Is each secondary sale counted once? Can reps book orders with no signal on a rural road? Do prices and schemes flow from your ERP? Will your distributors use it? BeatRoute's integrations sync masters with your ERP, and it can connect to a system a distributor already runs.
Where BeatRoute fits
BeatRoute suits brands that sell through many distributors and want to see their stock, sales and dues in one place; a distributor buying software for its own warehouse will be better served by a lighter billing tool. More than 200 enterprise brands use it across 20+ countries. BeatRoute is subscription software, priced per user and module on annual contracts, with no free trial. Book a demo to see how it would run your routes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between RTM and GTM?
Go-to-market (GTM) is the wider plan, covering positioning, pricing and the launch as well as distribution. RTM is the part that moves the product to the shelf: the channels, territories and field work.
Is route to market the same as a distribution strategy?
Not quite. A distribution strategy mostly covers logistics: depots, stock and trucks. Route to market also settles who sells to each duka, kiosk or supermarket, on what credit terms, and how often a rep calls there.
How long does it take to roll out route to market software?
BeatRoute SFA is live for most teams within 21 days. A rollout across many distributors and territories takes longer, so phase it: a few distributors and their reps first.
