OshiCart Merchant Guide

OshiCart is a Namibian platform for selling online. You get a store link customers can open on their phone, orders arrive on WhatsApp, and customers pay you directly — OshiCart takes no commission on your sales.

You do not need a website, a domain, or a card machine. Your store link is your website.

The setup wizard takes about two minutes.

1. 1Sign up, then open the setup wizard. It starts automatically the first time.
2. 2Enter your store name — this is what customers see, so use your real trading name.
3. 3Enter your WhatsApp number. Orders and alerts come to this number, so use the phone you actually carry.
4. 4Pick your region and town. Customers filter by town when browsing, so this decides who finds you.
5. 5Choose your industry. It sets your store's layout and category icons — a bakery looks different from a hardware shop.
6. 6Save. Your store link is created immediately.

This is the step most new stores skip — and it is the one that decides whether anyone ever finds you.

1. 1Go to Products → Add product.
2. 2Give it a clear name and a price. Prices are in Namibian dollars.
3. 3Add a photo. Natural daylight, plain background, product filling the frame. Photos sell more than words do.
4. 4If it comes in sizes or colours, add variants so customers choose at checkout instead of messaging you.
5. 5Turn on stock tracking if you want the store to stop selling when you run out.
6. 6Save, then open your store link and check it looks right.

Your store will not appear in Browse Stores until it has at least one product. An empty shop is hidden on purpose — sending customers to a store with nothing to buy loses them for good.

Customers pay you directly. Choose the methods you actually use.

1. 1Go to Settings → Payments.
2. 2Tick the methods you accept: bank transfer (EFT), cash on delivery or collection, MTC Maris, eWallet, FNB Pay2Cell, or PayToday.
3. 3Enter the account or number for every method you tick. For EFT that means the bank and the account number.
4. 4Save.

A method with no details cannot be paid, so OshiCart hides it at checkout and will not let you save it. If none of your methods are complete, your checkout closes and buyers are told to message you instead — better than taking an order nobody can pay.

Decide how orders reach your customers.

1. 1Go to Settings → Delivery.
2. 2Turn on collection if customers can fetch orders from you, and add your pickup address.
3. 3Turn on your own delivery and set a flat fee if you deliver yourself.
4. 4Turn on Yango or inDrive if you want customers to order a courier. The buyer pays the driver directly.
5. 5Set delivery days and times if you only deliver on certain days.

Yango and inDrive only appear for stores in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, because that is where they operate. If your town isn't covered, use your own delivery or collection.

Your store link is your shop's address on the internet. Your QR code is a picture of that link.

1. 1Open Share store in the menu.
2. 2Tap Copy link and paste it into your WhatsApp Status, your bio, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.
3. 3Tap Share on WhatsApp to send it straight to a customer or a group.
4. 4Tap the QR code and download it. Print it on flyers, packaging, your shop door, or your market table — customers point their camera at it and your shop opens.

There is a ready-made message on the Share page you can copy if you are not sure what to write.

You can put OshiCart on your phone's home screen. No Play Store or App Store needed.

1. 1On Android: open your dashboard in Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu, then Install app.
2. 2On iPhone: open your dashboard in Safari (this does not work in Chrome on iPhone), tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
3. 3It installs as OshiCart Dashboard and opens straight on your orders.

Your customers can do the same from any store link — they get an OshiCart app that opens the store directory. Full instructions are at oshicart.com/app.

Every order moves through the same few steps, and the customer is told automatically at each one.

1. 1A new order arrives on WhatsApp and appears under Orders.
2. 2Awaiting payment — the customer has ordered but not paid yet.
3. 3Tap Confirm once you have the money or you are happy to go ahead.
4. 4Tap Record payment when the money arrives, with the amount and the date from your bank. Part-payments are fine — record each one. This is also what stops the payment reminders.
5. 5Tap Completed when the customer has it. That message carries their invoice.
6. 6Use Cancel if the order falls through. Cancelled orders do not count against your monthly order limit.

Two taps, and the customer is told at each step — three messages in all: ordered, confirmed, done. Only Cancel asks you to confirm, because it puts the stock back and tells the customer the order is off.

Need a Ready step as well? Takeaways and shops where "your order is ready for collection" is a real moment can turn the full flow back on under Settings — untick "Use the simple order flow".

Not paid? OshiCart sends two reminders, at 6 hours and the next morning, then cancels the order after about two days and puts the stock back. The moment you record a payment — or the customer uploads proof — the reminders stop.

For salons, barbers, and anyone who works by appointment: customers book a time from a calendar, and each time slot takes one booking.

1. 1Set your hours: open Settings and find Availability. Tick your working days, then use Generate — opening time, closing time, and how long a session lasts. 09:00 to 17:00 every hour gives you eight sessions, without typing each one.
2. 2When you add or edit a service, choose where it happens — at your place, at the client's place, or online. That is what makes checkout ask for a booking instead of a delivery.
3. 3Customers pick from a real calendar: days you are closed are greyed out, full days are struck through, and times already booked cannot be chosen. Two customers can never book the same slot — OshiCart refuses the second one automatically.
4. 4See who is coming: open Bookings in your dashboard. Each day shows how many bookings it has; tap a day to see the names and times.
5. 5Taking a day off? Tap the day and Block whole day. Need lunch free or a slot for walk-ins? Hold back single times instead. A time that is already booked cannot be blocked — cancel that order first.

Scheduled deliveries appear on the same calendar, so your whole day — appointments and drop-offs — is in one place.

Design, marketing, consulting, lessons — work with nothing to deliver and nobody to visit.

1. 1Add it like any other item, and where it asks where does this happen, choose Online.
2. 2Checkout then changes for that customer: no delivery, no collection, no courier, and no address. They only give their name and WhatsApp number.
3. 3If you work by appointment — a coaching call, a lesson — set your times under Settings → Availability and the customer picks a slot.
4. 4If your work is a project rather than an appointment — a logo, a website, a campaign — leave availability off. Checkout then tells the customer you will contact them on WhatsApp to get started, which is what really happens.

A store can mix them freely. A salon can sell in-chair haircuts, call-outs to a client's home, and online consultations side by side — each item carries its own setting.

Tents, tools, sound gear, dresses — anything customers borrow and bring back.

1. 1Add the item and choose For hire. Say how many you own, and the shortest and longest hire you allow.
2. 2Choose how it is charged: per day (tools, tents, dresses — first and last day both count: 3 days at N$150 is N$450) or per night (rooms and accommodation — check-in to check-out, and the check-out day is free, so a new guest can arrive that same day).
3. 3OshiCart counts what is already out. If you own two tents and both are hired for those dates, a third customer is told "only 0 available for those dates" and cannot book. Two people ordering at the same second cannot both take the last one.
4. 4Need time to clean or check the item between hires? Set days between hires and OshiCart keeps that gap free automatically. Leave it at 0 and back-to-back hires are allowed — a hire ending Monday and one starting Tuesday never clash, and a cancelled hire frees its dates immediately.
5. 5Ask for a refundable deposit if you want security on the item. It is added to what the customer pays — shown as its own line at checkout and on the invoice, never taxed — and you hand it back when the item returns in good shape.
6. 6Need the customer to bring something — a driver's licence, proof of address? Type it in Documents the customer must bring and it appears on the product, at checkout, and in the WhatsApp order, so nobody arrives empty-handed.
7. 7For higher-value hires you can also tick Ask for the hirer's ID number. The customer types it at checkout, you see it on the order, and it appears nowhere else — not on their invoice, not on their tracking page. When you record the return, OshiCart offers to delete it, because once the item is back the number is a risk to hold rather than a record worth keeping. Only ask for it when you genuinely need it.
8. 8On Orders, each hired line shows its dates — Hire · 3 days · 20 – 22 Aug — so you always know what is out and when it is due back.
9. 9When it comes back, tap Record return on the order: note which unit went out (registration, asset tag, room name), the date, and its condition. If it is late, OshiCart counts the days and suggests the late fee you set — hold it back by refunding a smaller deposit, and the credit note shows it automatically.

Hiring never touches your stock number. "How many you own" is how many can be out at the same time, not how many are left to sell.

Every order has a proper invoice you can print or send.

1. 1Open the order and tap View invoice.
2. 2Tap Print or save as PDF to give the customer a copy.

If you enter a VAT number in Settings, invoices become proper tax invoices showing VAT at 15% and your VAT number. Leave it blank and they stay plain invoices.

When you give money back, record it so your books and your bank still agree.

1. 1Open Orders and find the order. Record refund appears next to Record payment once the customer has paid something — you cannot refund money you never received.
2. 2Enter the amount, the date the money actually left your account, and how you sent it back. Refund part of an order or all of it.
3. 3A credit note is created automatically and appears on the order. Open it to print or save it as a PDF for the customer.
4. 4Your statement updates on its own: the refund shows under Refunded, and the order counts as owing again, so Outstanding stays honest.

A credit note is the document that cancels part of an invoice. If you are registered for VAT you may not simply delete an invoice you have issued — you issue a credit note against it, and the VAT is reversed on it too. OshiCart works this out for you.

Everyone who orders from you is saved automatically.

1. 1Open Customers.
2. 2See how many times each person has ordered and what they have spent.
3. 3Tap a customer to message them on WhatsApp directly.

Your customer list is yours alone. It is never shared with other merchants.

Send an offer or an update to your customers from your own WhatsApp.

1. 1Open Broadcast.
2. 2Choose who to send to: everyone, repeat customers, or recent customers.
3. 3Pick one of the sample messages or write your own. Sample messages already include your store link.
4. 4Send. Messages go from your own WhatsApp number, so customers recognise you.

Customers who actually bought from you can leave a rating.

1. 1Reviews appear on your storefront under your products.
2. 2Open Reviews to read them.

Only verified buyers can review, so a rating on OshiCart means someone really shopped with you. That is worth more to a new customer than anything you can write about yourself.

Run a promotion with a code customers enter at checkout.

1. 1Open Coupons.
2. 2Pick one of the four starter templates — welcome offer, spend-and-save, launch promo, or delivery-on-us — and the form fills in for you.
3. 3Change anything you want: the code, the amount, the minimum order, how many times it can be used, and when it expires.
4. 4Save. Nothing goes live until you press save.
5. 5Share the code in a broadcast, on your Status, or on a flyer.

If you have a long product list, you do not have to add them one by one.

1. 1Go to Products → Import.
2. 2Download the template spreadsheet so your columns are right.
3. 3Fill in your products, save as CSV, and upload it.
4. 4Check the preview, then confirm. Anything with a problem is listed so you can fix it.

When a customer fills in checkout but does not finish, OshiCart can send them a WhatsApp reminder.

1. 1Go to Settings and turn on cart recovery.
2. 2Reminders go out automatically. You do nothing else.

A monthly record of every order, for your accountant or your VAT return.

1. 1Open Statements.
2. 2Choose the month you need. On Oshi-Pro you can also pick Last 12 months to get a whole year in one document for your accountant.
3. 3You get totals for sales, VAT and delivery, a breakdown by order status and payment method, and every order listed.
4. 4Check Received against your bank. It shows what actually came in that month, what is still outstanding, and how many orders remain unpaid.
5. 5Tap Print or save as PDF for a paper copy, or Download spreadsheet to send to a bookkeeper.

Received counts payments dated in that month, whichever month the order was placed — that is the figure to compare with your bank. It is only as complete as your record-keeping, so mark payments as they come in.

See how your store is doing.

1. 1Open Analytics.
2. 2See store visits, orders, revenue, and which products people look at most.

Every plan includes a number of products and a number of orders per month.

1. 1Open Subscription to see your plan and what you have used.
2. 2Your order allowance resets every month on your billing date — the page tells you exactly when.
3. 3Cancelled orders do not count. Only real orders use your allowance.
4. 4Upgrade any time if you need more products, more orders, or the higher-tier features.

To keep OshiCart safe and trusted, some items may not be sold here.

These are prohibited: adult content, illegal drugs, counterfeit goods, fraud, and dangerous or restricted items. Stores that break the rules can be hidden or suspended.

Read the full list before you list: oshicart.com/prohibited-products.

If something is not working, talk to a real person.

1. 1WhatsApp support on +264 81 627 4823.
2. 2Call +264 81 238 4424.
3. 3Email info@octovianexus.com.

See also the help page, the app install guide, and the selling rules.