1. Overview & Positioning
Frontstore is **Conversational Commerce Infrastructure** built specifically for African merchants. In Africa, retail isn't purely transactional—it is personal, relational, and runs heavily inside chat threads. Traditional e-commerce setups force customers away from their native environments to checkout on rigid websites.
Frontstore bridges this gap by embedding the tools to catalog items, process payments, verify bank transfers, and run automated marketing broadcasts directly into **WhatsApp**.
Relational-First Commerce
Frontstore is designed around chat interactions. When customers click to buy, they are checking out in a frictionless mobile catalog and automatically sharing their order details on WhatsApp to close the deal naturally.
2. Account Registration & Personas
Creating your account takes under two minutes. During registration, you specify:
- Store Name: The customer-facing title of your shop.
- Store Link Name (Username): The path that defines your URL, yielding `frontstore.ng/yourname`.
- WhatsApp Phone Number: The linked business phone where WhatsApp order receipts and buyer notifications land.
Selecting a Business Persona
Frontstore uses presets to pre-configure appropriate default layouts, color variables, and terminology (e.g. replacing "Catalog" with "Menu" for restaurants or "Bookings" for stylists):
3. Frontstore Flow (Catalogs)
**Frontstore Flow** is our storefront catalog builder. From the merchant portal, you can structure categories and upload products or services easily.
Theme Templates
We provide professionally styled templates that alter the vibe of your store with one click:
- Luxe Market: Rich greens and cinematic headers, ideal for premium boutique brands.
- Editorial: Newspaper styling, story-focused layout suitable for luxury clothing and designs.
- Flash Sale: High-energy red and amber deals theme built for drops and promotional campaigns.
- WhatsApp Native: Matches WhatsApp's interface style to increase trust for chat-accustomed shoppers.
Make sure you select the correct type when uploading items. Physical goods require stock levels and shipping details, while services require booking durations and display dynamic appointment calendar controls on your storefront.
4. Frontstore Pay & Escrow
Frontstore handles payment collections inside your chat flows securely, integrating with top local gateways.
Paystack Integration
Accept local cards, mobile money networks (M-Pesa, MoMo), and temporary dedicated virtual bank accounts (DVAs). Virtual transfers auto-verify in seconds.
Stripe Connection
Connect Stripe directly to collect payments in international currencies (USD/GBP) from global credit cards.
The Escrow Protection Rule
Funds are held securely in the Frontstore Escrow and released to your settlement wallet when the buyer confirms delivery, or after the regional holding period (3–7 days depending on validation and account standing).
5. Frontstore Nina (WhatsApp AI)
**Frontstore Nina** is an AI sales agent that acts on your behalf 24/7 inside WhatsApp. By scanning QR verification or hooking up the API, Nina handles customer chats autonomously.
Key Capabilities
You configure Nina's bargaining thresholds in settings. You remain contractually responsible for the agreements and pricing guidelines dispatched by Nina in chats.
6. Frontstore Pulse (Analytics & CRM)
Monitor your sales metrics, view customer ratings, and analyze performance funnels. Example of what a dashboard looks like once your store has activity:
Review Responses: Replying to reviews in your dashboard publishes the replies beneath client comments, demonstrating responsive customer support.
7. Frontstore Reach (WhatsApp Campaigns)
Launch automated campaigns and follow-ups through **Frontstore Reach**. Retarget segments based on previous purchase histories:
- All Customers: Announce major product drops, discount seasons, or address changes.
- Repeat Buyers: Send dedicated discounts to loyal patrons to incentivize further orders.
- Unpaid Orders (Bargain Recovery): Reach back out to customers with pending carts or WhatsApp negotiations that did not finalize payment.