You check your M-Pesa balance every day. But do you know whether your business actually made profit last week? Most Kenyan retailers do not — and it is not because they are careless. Nobody ever taught them which numbers to look at.

Running a duka without tracking metrics is like driving in Nairobi traffic with your eyes closed. You might survive a while, but eventually you will hit something expensive.

Here are the five numbers every Kenyan retailer needs to track — whether you sell from Westlands or Mombasa Road.

1. Your Daily Sales Total (Not Just M-Pesa Incoming)

Every evening, write down how much you sold that day. All of it — cash, M-Pesa, Till, Paybill. Do not mix this up with your personal M-Pesa balance. Your sales total is different from your pocket money.

A good habit: at the end of every day, screenshot your M-Pesa transactions and add them up. Do this for one week and you will see a pattern — which days are busy, which are dead.

Once you see the pattern, you can plan your stock buying around it. No more overbuying on slow weeks and running out on your best days.

2. Your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

This is how much you spent to buy the goods you sold. It is not your total inventory — it is the cost of what left your shelf.

For example: You bought 100 packets of cooking fat at KES 200 each = KES 20,000 total. If you sold 60 packets at KES 250 each, your COGS for that week is 60 × 200 = KES 12,000.

Why this matters: Profit = Selling Price − COGS. Without knowing COGS you cannot know if you are making money or just moving air.

3. Your Gross Profit Margin

Once you know COGS, calculating your margin is straightforward. Take your total sales, subtract COGS, then divide by total sales and multiply by 100.

For a Kenyan duka, a healthy gross margin is typically 20–35% depending on what you sell. Fashion sellers often run 40–60%. Electronics are tighter, usually 10–20%.

If your margin is below 15%, you are working hard for very little. Either raise your prices or find cheaper suppliers — or both.

4. Your Stock Turnover Rate

How fast does your inventory sell? This tells you whether your money is tied up in slow-moving goods.

Calculate it like this: Cost of Goods Sold ÷ Average Inventory Value = Stock Turnover Ratio. Higher is better — it means your money is not sitting on a shelf gathering dust.

If a particular item has not moved in three weeks and you have 20 units sitting there, that is KES 4,000+ in dead capital you could have used to restock something that sells.

Run this check once a month. It takes 10 minutes and it will change how you buy.

5. Your Cash Conversion Cycle

This sounds complex but it is simple: how many days does it take from when you pay for stock to when the money lands in your account?

Example: You buy goods on credit today. You sell them over the next two weeks. You get paid. That gap — buy today, collect today — is your cash cycle.

The shorter it is, the less working capital you need. If you are always broke in the middle of the month, your cash cycle is probably too long. Look at your credit terms — can you negotiate net-30 from your supplier instead of net-15?

How to Start Tracking (Even Without Software)

You do not need a computer. A simple exercise book works fine. Every evening spend 5 minutes writing:

• Today's total sales
• Cost of what you sold
• Biggest sale of the day
• Anything that did not sell

Do this for 30 days and you will know more about your business than 80% of Kenyan retailers. That knowledge is the difference between guessing and knowing — and it compounds over time.