For many township residents, spaza shops are more than just convenient options to purchase everyday essentials. They are an important part of local communities and provide access to food and other household goods.
However, concerns around counterfeit, expired and potentially unsafe products have raised questions about trust and transparency within the informal retail sector.
It is this challenge that inspired the creation of SpazaSure, a South African startup seeking to use technology to improve transparency in township retail while helping spaza-shop owners strengthen their businesses.
The idea initially began with a different question: how could technology, particularly barcodes, be used to verify products?
As the team explored the problem, they realised that counterfeit products were not only an issue in the formal economy.
“We started unpacking the limitations of the existing system and asked ourselves a bigger question: if counterfeit products are a problem even in the formal economy, how much more vulnerable is the informal economy, particularly spaza shops?” Founder Bheka Mbonambi said.
This led SpazaSure to look beyond product verification and investigate some of the wider challenges affecting township retailers, including trust, supply, affordability and access.
Tackling a problem beyond counterfeit goods
Mbonambi said concerns were reinforced by cases involving counterfeit, expired and unsafe food products, some of which resulted in people becoming seriously ill.
He says their own market research also indicated that consumers had encountered products they believed were counterfeit, expired or out of date.
For SpazaSure, this highlighted a gap in consumer trust and product transparency.
Mbonambi says their focus is not on blaming spaza-shop owners, but on improving accountability across the entire supply chain.
“When a product is deliberately imitated, there is no guarantee that the same quality, hygiene, ingredients, manufacturing standards or safety controls have been followed,” he said.
“With food, that becomes much more serious because what looks like an ordinary product can potentially become a direct health risk.”
Rather than promising that technology will eliminate counterfeit products completely, SpazaSure is working towards creating a more transparent and traceable supply chain.
Using technology to improve transparency
The platform’s approach begins with understanding where products come from and who supplies them.
SpazaSure is working to onboard legitimate suppliers and capture information about products and their origins. Its longer-term vision is to use technology to allow consumers to access more information about a product and its journey through the value chain.
If a product appears suspicious, the system is intended to create a record that could support further investigation or reporting.
For the company, the goal is to turn uncertainty into information.
“We want to turn uncertainty into information and accountability.”
Supporting spaza-shop owners
While product verification is an important part of SpazaSure’s vision, the business is also focused on the financial and operational challenges faced by spaza-shop owners.
The company is developing an online platform through which retailers can order stock more conveniently and access bulk-buying opportunities at competitive prices.
This could reduce the amount of time shop owners spend travelling between suppliers in search of stock, allowing them to spend more time managing their businesses.
SpazaSure also sees an opportunity to help formalise purchasing and inventory data.
The company believes that, over time, this information could help demonstrate business activity when spaza-shop owners seek access to finance, municipal support or other opportunities.
“For us, technology should not only make a spaza shop more digital, it should help make the business stronger.”
From an idea to a market-tested business
SpazaSure is currently in its minimum viable product (MVP) and market-validation stage.
So far, six spaza shops have been onboarded, with 58 orders processed and more than 10 deliveries completed.
The company said repeat purchases have been an encouraging sign that the platform is providing value beyond the initial idea.
“For us, one of the biggest signs of impact is when a spaza-shop owner comes back and orders again,” Mbonambi said.
“It means the platform is not just something that sounds good on paper, it is becoming useful in their everyday business.”
For consumers, the company describes its solution as a “pause-and-assess mechanism” that encourages people to think more carefully about the products they purchase and consume.
Growing a business with limited resources
Like many early-stage businesses, SpazaSure has faced challenges in moving from an idea to a market-tested product.
One of its biggest challenges has been accessing the right resources and service providers.
Mbonambi said they are intentional about supporting Black-owned businesses and local entrepreneurs where possible, but finding service providers that can meet the quality, reliability and technical requirements of a growing technology startup has sometimes proved difficult.
With limited resources, the business has had to be strategic about where it invests its money.
“Every rand has to be used carefully.”
Instead of trying to build everything at once, the team has adopted a process of prioritising, testing, learning and improving.
The experience, he said, has helped the business become more deliberate about its resources and partnerships.
Looking ahead
Over the next five years, SpazaSure wants to become a trusted digital infrastructure for township retail.
Its vision extends beyond product verification to connecting spaza shops with legitimate suppliers, improving access to affordable stock, strengthening product traceability and giving consumers greater confidence in what they buy.
For the business, success will not simply be measured by the number of users on its platform.
It wants to see stronger township businesses, greater access to opportunities, improved transparency in the food value chain and safer communities.
Ultimately, SpazaSure hopes to create an ecosystem in which suppliers, spaza shops and consumers can trust one another and grow together.
