Slow. Steadfast. Still Standing.

May was a slow month. But slow is not the same as stopped. You were here. You kept your shop open. You fulfilled orders. And in the middle of a world that was genuinely falling apart — that matters.

Let us be plain about what happened in May. The Iran-Israel-American conflict — a war being fought thousands of kilometres away — reached right into our pockets here in Nyeri. The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow strip of water so small you could compare the distance to Nyeri town to Mweiga, became the most consequential chokepoint in global trade. Oil supply stopped. Fertilizer shipments stalled. Nations scrambled.

Kenya felt it hard. Diesel shot past Ksh 240. Matatu operators downed their tools. Supply chains jammed. Schools delayed reopening. Business — our business — slowed to a crawl.

Through all of it, these merchants showed up and sold. Here are the top five on Ekshop this May.

Merchant	GMV	Orders	Product Lines
🥇 Kula Ushibe	KES 10,471	111	70
🥈 Mzit Supermarket	KES 8,208	64	58
🥉 Kevooh	KES 7,230	116	74
④ Wamti Wines & Spirits	KES 6,298	9	9
⑤ Wa Kiarie's	KES 3,700	20	18

Look at Kevooh — 116 orders and 74 product lines. That is a merchant who understands breadth. Look at Wamti Wines & Spirits — 9 orders, KES 6,298. That is a merchant with a high average order value doing quiet, consistent work. Different strategies. Same result: they showed up.

We wrapped Series 1 of the Seed of Power — Small Enterprise Growth Program with Powering House this May. Four sessions. Every Thursday. Virtual, 12pm to 1pm. And they delivered.

After that final session, something exciting happened. Four merchants signed up for personalised one-on-one training with Powering House:

Series 2 begins in June. Every Thursday. Same time. New topics — and bigger ones.

That first session — Achieving Predictable Business Routine — already happened on June 4th. If you were there, you know. If you were not, make sure you are there for the rest. We want to see you every Thursday. Not because we are asking for your time — but because this is the kind of knowledge that changes the trajectory of what you are building.

The world will always have its shocks. Our job is to build businesses that can take a punch, stay standing and come back stronger when the dust settles.
June is here. The students are back. The streets are filling up again.
Let's go.

April Was a Survival Month. And We Survived It Together.

Half the campus packed their bags and left. The streets around the gates got quieter. Some days felt long. But the students who stayed? They showed up. They ordered. They spent. And so did you.

April tested every one of us. The academic break pulled students away, the foot traffic thinned, and the familiar rhythm of the gates changed overnight. Yet here we are — at the end of the month — still standing, still selling, still pushing forward. That is not nothing. That is resilience in its most honest form.

This April, Ekshop merchants completed 232 orders and sold goods worth KES 66,925.

Now compare that to March — 245 orders, KES 61,298.

Something interesting happened. Fewer orders came in, but the value of each one went up. Customers were ordering less frequently but spending more when they did. In business language that is called a high Average Order Value — and it is a good sign. It means the people who ordered were serious buyers. Not window shoppers. Real customers with real needs.

We spoke to one of our merchants this month and they said it simply.

We are all waiting. Say it out loud — May 18th. It feels far but it is so close you can almost smell the business coming back. The campus will fill up again, the queues will return and the slow mornings will become a memory.

Hold on. It is almost time.

A new merchant who just joined Ekshop this April shared something sharp.

Juja. A whole town that grew around a university because the students never really left. That is not luck — that is what a predictable calendar does for a community.

We cannot control the timetable. But we can control how ready we are when the students come back. And for those already selling online — the calendar does not affect you the same way. Your shop was open even in April.

1. You do not need cash capital to expand your business. Read that again. The skills already in your hands — the way you handle a customer, the product knowledge in your head, the relationships built at your gate — that is capital.
2. Your skills are your biggest asset. Most of us are sitting on value we have not learned to use yet. The experience you have accumulated is worth more than any loan.
3. Focus on increasing sales — not new products, not a bigger space. Growth does not always mean expansion. Sometimes it means doing what you already do, but better, smarter, and more consistently.

The sessions are still running and the energy has been something else. Our last virtual session is coming in May. You do not want to miss it. Details will be shared soon — stay close.

May 18th is coming. Stack your products. Check your Ekshop listings. Make sure your shop is ready — because when that campus fills up, the only question will be whether your business was prepared to receive them.

We will be here.

This Market Is Ours — and Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

Operating in a student market is hard. This is not easy to admit, but it is the truth. For some of us, had we known exactly what this life looked like, we might have started somewhere else. And yet — here we are. Still standing.

The 5% — and the 95% Who Deserve Everything You Have

We have partnered with Powering House — and get that right, it is Powering— to bring something genuinely different to our community. Gachoka joins us with over 16 years of corporate experience, working for and with big companies, carrying the kind of knowledge that can help us stop thinking small about businesses that were never meant to stay small.