Empty shelves on opening day are almost never a stocking problem. they’re a supplier onboarding problem that started weeks earlier, when a contract wasn’t signed, a delivery schedule wasn’t confirmed, or a product wasn’t listed in the point-of-sale system in time. Getting suppliers fully onboarded before launch is one of the highest-leverage steps in any supermarket opening.
Here’s what a complete supplier onboarding process should cover before a new supermarket opens its doors.
Required Documents for supplier onboarding
Every supplier relationship should be backed by verified documentation before the first delivery: a KRA PIN certificate, a valid business registration, and for food and beverage suppliers — KEBS certification confirming their products meet Kenyan quality standards.. Collecting these upfront protects the store from compliance issues that surface later, when a product is already on the shelf.
Contract Management for Supplier onboarding
A signed agreement should exist before a supplier is treated as active, not after the first delivery arrives informally. At minimum, contracts should specify pricing, payment terms, delivery frequency, minimum order quantities, and what happens when a delivery is late, short, or damaged. Verbal agreements are the single most common source of disputes once a store is trading.
Product Listing
Every product a supplier delivers needs to exist in your point-of-sale and inventory system before it reaches the shelf — correct pricing, barcode, category, and supplier reference all matched. A product that arrives without being listed either sits in the back room or gets sold at the wrong price, and either outcome costs money.
Compliance
Beyond the initial documentation check, compliance is ongoing: confirming food handling and storage conditions meet public health standards, that packaging and labelling meet KEBS requirements, and that any specialized categories — dairy, meat, alcohol carry the specific licenses those categories require. Building this into onboarding, rather than discovering a gap during a health inspection, is what keeps a new store out of avoidable trouble in its first months.
Payment Terms
Payment terms should be agreed and documented before the relationship goes live, not negotiated mid-dispute. Standard practice is to fix payment windows (for example, 30 days from invoice), agree early-payment or bulk discounts where relevant, and confirm which party absorbs the cost of returns or unsold stock. Clear terms upfront protect the store’s cash flow and the supplier’s confidence in the relationship.
Delivery Scheduling
Delivery schedules should be set against your store’s actual receiving capacity loading bay availability, cold-chain storage limits, and staff rostered to receive stock — not against what’s convenient for the supplier. A schedule that isn’t matched to receiving capacity creates bottlenecks that show up as stockouts on the shelf, even when the warehouse has product.
Why Onboarding Discipline Matters at Launch
A new supermarket typically onboards dozens of suppliers simultaneously in the weeks before opening, and it’s easy for a handful to fall through the cracks — a missing contract here, an unlisted product there. Each gap is small individually, but on opening day they surface all at once, as empty sections on an otherwise full shop floor.
This is one of the workstreams Brina Solutions manages as part of a full retail launch — tracking every supplier against the same project timeline as construction, staffing, and merchandising, so nothing is left informal by opening day.
Bringing suppliers on board for a new store launch? Talk to Brina Solutions today and get the process managed end-to-end.
