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Success Story
From Market Stall to Online Empire: Umusambi Crafts Journey
Marie Uwase• Founder, Umusambi Crafts
January 15, 2025
• 5 min readBefore HUP
Order ProcessingManual tracking
Fulfillment Time2-3 days
Team CoordinationPhone calls & WhatsApp
Inventory UpdatesEnd of day only
After HUP
Order ProcessingAutomated system
Fulfillment TimeSame day (40% faster)
Team CoordinationReal-time sync
Inventory UpdatesLive tracking
Marie Uwase started Umusambi Crafts in 2019 with a small stall at Kimironko Market in Kigali, selling handmade baskets and traditional Rwandan crafts. What began as a passion project quickly grew into a thriving business, but with growth came challenges—especially in managing orders and coordinating with her team across multiple locations.
The Challenge: Growing Pains
By 2023, Umusambi Crafts had expanded to three locations: the original market stall, a pop-up shop in downtown Kigali, and a small workshop in Musanze where artisans created the products. Marie was spending hours each day manually tracking orders through a combination of notebooks, WhatsApp messages, and phone calls. 'I would wake up at 5 AM just to organize the day's orders and make sure everyone knew what to do,' Marie recalls. 'By the time I finished coordinating, it was already noon, and I hadn't even started on actual business tasks.' The manual system led to frequent errors—items being sent to wrong locations, inventory counts being off, and customers waiting 2-3 days for order confirmations.
Discovering HUP
Marie heard about HUP from a fellow entrepreneur at a small business workshop in Kigali. 'I was skeptical at first,' she admits. 'I thought it would be too complicated or expensive for a small business like mine.' But after seeing a demo and learning that HUP was designed specifically for Rwandan businesses with features like offline support and mobile-first design, she decided to give it a try. The onboarding process took just two days, and Marie was impressed by how intuitive the system was.
The Transformation
Within the first week of using HUP, Marie noticed immediate improvements. Orders were automatically synced across all locations, and her team could see real-time updates on their phones. 'The first time I saw an order come in, get assigned to the workshop, and marked as ready for pickup—all without me making a single phone call—I almost cried,' Marie says. The automated system freed up 3-4 hours of her day, which she could now spend on product development and customer relationships. Fulfillment time dropped from 2-3 days to same-day service for most orders, a 40% improvement that customers immediately noticed and appreciated.
Scaling with Confidence
With HUP handling the operational complexity, Marie felt confident expanding further. She added two more artisan partners in Huye and Rubavu, knowing the system could handle the coordination. 'Before HUP, I would have been terrified to add more locations,' she explains. 'Now, I know that no matter how many partners I work with, everyone stays in sync.' The business has grown from processing 20-30 orders per week to over 100, and Marie is planning to launch an international shipping option next quarter.
Advice for Other Entrepreneurs
When asked what advice she'd give to other small business owners, Marie is clear: 'Don't wait until you're drowning to get help. I wish I had found HUP sooner. The time and stress it saves is worth more than the cost.' She also emphasizes the importance of choosing tools built for the local context. 'HUP understands Rwanda—the connectivity challenges, the mobile-first reality, the way we do business. That makes all the difference.'
“The first time I saw an order come in, get assigned to the workshop, and marked as ready for pickup—all without me making a single phone call—I almost cried. HUP gave me my time back.”
Today, Umusambi Crafts is thriving with a streamlined operation that allows Marie to focus on what she loves most: working with artisans to create beautiful products and building relationships with customers. The 40% improvement in fulfillment speed has led to better reviews, more repeat customers, and steady growth. Marie's story is a testament to how the right tools can transform a small business from surviving to thriving.
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