Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

KukuStores is operated by Kukustores Enterprise, a business name registered with the Business Registration Service of Kenya ("we", "us", "our"). Our address is Nairobi, Kenya.

These terms apply to everything we provide under the KukuStores name: the KukuStores app on phones, tablets and computers, this website, the marketplace that connects shops with distributors and suppliers, payment features, and our support channels, including WhatsApp (together, the "Services").

When you create an account, you accept these terms on behalf of the business you are signing up, and you confirm that you are allowed to do so. "You" means that business and the people it lets use its account.

How we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

2. Your account

• You must be at least 18 years old and running a business to open an account.
• The details you give us - your name, business name, phone number, email address and location - must be true and kept up to date.
• You are responsible for everyone you add to your account as staff, for every device you pair with it, and for what they do in it. Give each person only the access they need.
• Keep your PINs, passwords, sign-in codes and paired devices secure. Do not share sign-in codes with anyone, including anyone claiming to be from us.
• Tell us straight away at +254 798 228 032 if you think someone has got into your account without permission.

3. Plans, billing and payment

Some features are free. Others need a paid plan. The plans, what each includes and their current prices are shown on our pricing page and in the app. Prices are in Kenya shillings.

Paid plans are prepaid: you pay for a period before it starts, through M-Pesa using the billing reference shown in your account. Your plan does not limit how many tills (paired devices used to sell) or staff you add.

If a paid period ends without payment, your account moves to the free plan. You keep your data and can still sign in, but features outside the free plan stop until you pay again.

Payments are not refundable once a period has started, except where Kenyan law requires a refund or we say otherwise in writing.

We may change our prices. We will give you at least 30 days' notice in the app or by email before a change affects you, and the change applies from your next paid period.

4. Your business data

Your products, prices, stock records, sales, customers, suppliers and other information you put into the Services ("Business Data") belong to you. You let us store, copy and process it only as needed to provide the Services to you, keep them secure and meet our legal obligations.

If you record information about your own customers or staff, you are responsible for having a lawful basis to do so under the Data Protection Act, 2019. For that information we act on your instructions, as explained in the Privacy Policy.

You can export your Business Data from the app while your account is open, and you can ask us for a copy when you close it.

5. Working offline

KukuStores is built to keep selling when there is no internet connection. Sales and other changes made offline are saved on the device and sent to our servers when it reconnects.

Until a device has synced, those records exist only on that device. Reconnect regularly, and sync before you uninstall the app, clear its data, reset or give away a device. We cannot recover records that were lost from a device before they reached us.

6. Records, receipts and tax

KukuStores helps you keep sales and stock records and issue receipts. It is not accounting, tax or legal advice, and it does not replace your own obligations to the Kenya Revenue Authority or any other authority.

KukuStores is not currently connected to KRA's electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS). Where eTIMS or any other tax requirement applies to your business, you remain responsible for meeting it.

7. Verifying who you are

Some features - such as buying on credit, and buying or selling on the marketplace - are only available to accounts that have been verified. For a shop, verification means sending a photo of the owner's national ID and a selfie. For a distributor, it means sending the business details and documents we ask for.

We check what you send and may approve, ask for more, refuse or later withdraw verification - for example if details turn out to be false or no longer match. Verification confirms identity; it is not an endorsement of your business.

8. The marketplace

The marketplace lets verified shops order from verified distributors and suppliers. KukuStores provides the platform; each sale is a contract between the buyer and the seller. We are not the seller of goods on the marketplace, and the seller is responsible for their quality, safety, description and delivery.

Any fees or commission for an order are shown before you place it.

Each seller sets the price of their goods and the price of delivery to the areas they deliver to. We do not set or change those prices. If a seller has not set a delivery price for your area, they send you one for your order before you pay, and you can then pay or cancel. You never pay for an order before you have seen its full price, including delivery.

Where we offer escrow for an order, the buyer pays through M-Pesa and we hold the payment until the buyer confirms delivery, or until the time allowed for raising a problem has passed. We then pay the seller, less any fees. If the buyer raises a problem in time, we review what both sides tell us and decide whether the payment goes to the seller, back to the buyer, or is split. Our decision on an escrow payment does not stop either side from pursuing their other legal rights against each other.

Payment features on the marketplace are introduced gradually and only where we are permitted to offer them. The terms shown when you place an order describe what applies to it.

9. Restock credit

We may offer eligible shops credit to buy stock on the marketplace. It is offered only where we are permitted by law to offer it, and not every shop will be offered it.

If we offer you credit, the amount, fees, repayment dates and what happens if you pay late will be shown to you before you accept, and those credit terms apply alongside these terms.

To decide whether to offer credit and how much, we look at your verified identity and the trading history recorded in KukuStores. Part of that assessment may be automated. You can ask for a person to review any decision about your credit, explain it and hear your view - see the Privacy Policy.

If credit you have used is not repaid on time, we may stop further credit, set off what is owed against money we hold for you, and take other steps the credit terms and the law allow.

10. Acceptable use

You must not use the Services to:

• break the law, including selling goods you are not allowed to sell;
• mislead or defraud anyone, including by entering false M-Pesa codes, prices or records;
• get into accounts, devices or data that are not yours, or test, probe or overload our systems;
• copy, resell, reverse-engineer or build a competing product from the Services;
• send spam, abuse or harass anyone, including through our support channels.

11. Other companies' services

Some features depend on services run by other companies - for example M-Pesa (Safaricom), Google sign-in and WhatsApp. Your use of those services is also governed by their own terms, and we are not responsible for them being unavailable.

12. Availability and changes to the Services

We work to keep the Services available and reliable, but we cannot promise they will always be available or free of errors. We may need to pause them for maintenance, and we will try to do that at quiet times.

We improve the Services over time, which can mean adding, changing or removing features. If we remove a paid feature you rely on, we will tell you in advance.

13. Our intellectual property

The KukuStores software, name, logo and content are owned by Kukustores Enterprise. We give you the right to use them only to run your business through the Services while your account is open. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything.

14. Closing or suspending an account

You can stop using the Services at any time. The owner can close the account in the app's settings, or contact us at +254 798 228 032 or [email protected] to close it. You do not need to close it to stop paying: an account without a paid plan stays on the free plan at no cost and keeps your records, as long as someone signs in to it at least once a year.

We close an account only once nothing is left open on it: marketplace orders still in progress, credit still owed, or money we still owe you must be settled first. When it closes, the account is locked straight away and no one can sign in or sell from it, and we email the owner a copy of the account's sales, stock and marketplace order records. For 30 days the owner can open it again by signing in, or ask us to. After that we archive it: sign-in is removed and identity photos are deleted, and we keep the business and payment records the law requires, as described in the Privacy Policy. While we still keep an archived account's records, we can restore it for its owner once we have confirmed who they are.

If no one has signed in to a free account for a year and nothing is left open on it, we may close it for inactivity. We email the owner at least 60 days before, and again two weeks before the date. Signing in before then keeps it open, and signing in during the 30 days after it closes opens it again. After that it is archived as described above. A distributor account no one has signed in to for six months stays open, but shops cannot see its listings until someone signs in again.

If we receive a report of fraud, counterfeit or prohibited goods, repeated failure to deliver, or refused refunds, we may pause your account's marketplace buying and selling and credit while we look into it. If we find the problem is serious, we may end that access permanently. Your till, staff and records keep working either way, and you can still settle orders and credit already in progress.

If we end an account's marketplace or credit access permanently, we keep a protected record of the owner's national ID number and phone number so that the same person cannot verify a new account to trade or borrow. You can ask us to review that decision.

We may also suspend or close an account if it breaks these terms, if we must by law, or if keeping it open would put other users or us at risk. Where it is reasonable, we will warn you first and give you a chance to put things right. An account we close for one of these reasons can only be reopened by us.

15. Our responsibility to you

We provide the Services with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and as far as the law allows, we provide them "as they are" without other promises.

As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for indirect losses, such as lost profits, lost business or lost records that never reached our servers, and our total responsibility for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have, or responsibility we have, that cannot be limited under Kenyan law, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2012.

You are responsible to us for losses we suffer because your business broke these terms or the law, or because of Business Data you put into the Services.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. For an important change, we will tell you at least 14 days before it takes effect, in the app or by email, and may ask you to accept the new terms to keep using the Services. The date at the top shows the version in force.

17. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya.

If you have a complaint, contact us first - most problems can be solved quickly. If we cannot resolve a dispute together within 30 days, either side may take it to the courts of Kenya.

These terms are published in English and Swahili. If the two differ, the English version applies.

18. Contact us

• Business: Kukustores Enterprise
• Phone and WhatsApp: +254 798 228 032
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Nairobi, Kenya