Glovo Kenya’s Future of Commerce Summit highlighted that adding a digital sales channel is only half the task; retailers must also connect the order‑taking front end to their internal systems.

Jaza Supermarket uses WhatsApp for order capture and M‑PESA prompts for payment, but it also runs a direct API link with Glovo to automatically transfer order details into its fulfilment workflow, reducing missed orders and cancellations.

The API integration ensures that once a customer presses send, the request is received, items are confirmed, payment is processed where needed, and the order is prepared for delivery, avoiding manual data entry.

Kuku Foods, which operates KFC outlets in Kenya, is linking its restaurant processes to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that consolidates stock, purchasing, sales and forecasting data, giving managers live visibility across the chain.

The company also uses Microsoft Copilot to query ERP data, but the benefit depends on the quality and structure of the underlying records, as outdated inventory information would limit the AI assistant’s usefulness.

Self‑service kiosks introduced by Kuku Foods can lift average basket values by 10‑30%, yet the back‑end still must align menu configuration, kitchen workflow and stock availability to fulfil those orders accurately.

Visa East Africa presented its Visa Accept and Visa Pay solutions, which enable app‑based payments for small merchants and support virtual cards, digital onboarding and cross‑border transactions, addressing the need for payment options that match multiple sales channels.

Visa noted that digital payment records can help banks assess a business’s sales activity when considering credit, though such records do not guarantee loan approval.

The summit speakers agreed that as AI‑assisted shopping grows, the payment layer must still securely authorise transactions and protect credentials, requiring coordination between the shopping interface, merchant systems and payment infrastructure.

Overall, the examples show that Kenyan retailers gain a competitive edge not merely by adopting more digital tools, but by ensuring those tools communicate reliably, shortening the gap between a customer’s purchase decision and the business’s ability to fulfil it.