Setting up your shop profile

Logo, bio, location, social links — the first impression that decides whether buyers stay or scroll past.

This is what buyers see first

Your shop profile is the page a buyer lands on when they tap your shop name from a video, a product, or a search result. It loads in about a second. They look at it for maybe 5 seconds before deciding whether to follow, browse your products, or scroll past.

A good profile keeps them. An empty one loses them.

This guide walks through every field on the Edit Shop Profile screen, what each one does, and what makes a strong choice.

Where to find the editor

In the Seller Hub:

1. Tap the Edit tab.
2. Scroll through the sections.

Each section saves as you tap Save at the bottom — you don't have to do everything in one sitting.

The pieces of a profile

1. Logo

The little square image next to your shop name everywhere it appears. Size: about 200 × 200 pixels (square).

What works:

• Your face, smiling, looking at the camera. Builds personal trust.
• Your storefront, in good daylight. Builds physical-shop trust.
• A simple icon on a clean colour — say, a pineapple on yellow for a fruit shop.
• Your business logo if you have one.

What doesn't work:

• A blurry photo.
• A photo with 5 people in it (buyers don't know who you are).
• A meme or random internet image.
• A photo of a celebrity that's not you.

Tip: square crop. If you upload a rectangle, the app crops the middle. Make sure the middle is where the important stuff is.

To upload: Edit → tap the logo placeholder → pick a photo from your gallery or take a new one with the camera.

2. Cover photo (optional)

The wide banner across the top of your shop page. Size: about 1200 × 400 pixels (3:1 ratio).

This is your storefront billboard. Good options:

• A wide shot of your physical shop / studio.
• A flat-lay photo of your products arranged nicely.
• A photo of you holding a product.

Not every shop has a cover photo and that's fine — the app uses a gradient based on your logo colour as a fallback.

3. Shop bio

Up to 160 characters (about two sentences). This is your elevator pitch.

Good bios:

• "Handmade kitenge bags. Fast Kampala delivery. Custom orders welcome."
• "Boda spares + tune-ups. Bukoto stage. Open daily 8am-7pm."
• "Pickled mangoes, fresh weekly. Vegan, no preservatives, only Ugandan mangoes."

Things that work in a bio:

• What you sell (in plain words).
• Where you are (district name).
• Something distinctive (one short phrase about what makes you different).
• Hours if you have a physical location.

Things to avoid:

• Hashtags (they don't link to anything in the bio).
• "Best shop in Kampala" (every shop says that; buyers tune it out).
• Generic phrases ("Quality products at affordable prices").

4. Location

Tap Location and pick from the dropdown. You're picking the district (and optionally the specific area / town).

Why location matters even if you ship anywhere:

• Local buyers prefer to buy from local sellers (faster delivery, cheaper, can pick up).
• The algorithm shows your videos more often to buyers in your area.
• Buyers searching by location find you only if you've set one.

If you're a fully-online shop with no physical location, pick Kampala (or wherever you mostly receive deliveries from suppliers or store inventory). Don't leave this blank.

5. Phone (for WhatsApp)

This is the number buyers tap to message you on WhatsApp. By default it's the number you signed up with — keep it that way unless you have a real reason to switch.

If you want a separate "business" WhatsApp number:

• Set up the new number on WhatsApp (install WhatsApp on a second SIM or use WhatsApp Business with a different number).
• Edit → Phone → change to the new number.
• Verify the new number with a code.

Whatever number you use here, make sure it's on WhatsApp. If it's not, buyers tap the WhatsApp button and nothing happens — they leave.

6. Social links (optional)

You can add:

• Instagram handle — useful for cross-promoting between platforms.
• TikTok handle — same reason.

These show up as small icons on your shop page. Tapping them takes the buyer to your other profile. Useful if you've already built a following on those platforms.

Don't add social links to accounts you don't actually use — if a buyer clicks and finds an empty profile, it looks bad.

7. Delivery mode (the default for your shop)

This sets the default delivery option that applies to most of your products. You can override per-product later, but a sensible default saves time.

Three modes:

• Prepaid — buyer pays for the item + delivery up front through the app. You ship via a rider, KampalaSnap escrow holds the money until delivery confirmation. Recommended for most shops.
• COD (cash on delivery) — buyer pays for the item in escrow, but pays the delivery fee in cash directly to the rider. Useful if you can't predict the delivery fee at checkout time.
• Pickup — no delivery; buyer comes to a pickup point you set. Useful if you have a physical shop.

Pick the one that fits how you actually operate. You can change it later in Edit → Delivery.

There's a separate guide on this: Setting up delivery.

8. Pickup locations (if using pickup mode)

If you set delivery mode to Pickup (or you offer pickup as an option alongside delivery), you need to define where buyers come to collect.

Tap Pickup locations → Add. For each location:

• A short label ("Main shop," "Bukoto branch").
• The address or landmark.
• Your hours.
• Optionally a photo.

You can have multiple pickup locations — buyers pick the closest one at checkout.

Save and preview

After you've filled in the basics, tap Save at the bottom of each section.

Then tap the Preview tab in the Seller Hub. This shows you exactly what a buyer sees when they visit your shop page. Look at it with fresh eyes:

• Does the logo look clear?
• Does the bio explain what you sell?
• Is your location visible?
• Does the WhatsApp button work? (Tap it — it should open WhatsApp with a "Hi" message ready to send.)

If anything looks off, go back to Edit and fix it.

What NOT to put on your profile

A few things buyers and our admin team flag as concerning:

• Your home address in the bio or location, if you live alone. Use the district name only, or a pickup point that's not your bedroom.
• Your bank account number or MoMo number. No legitimate shop asks buyers to send money directly via MoMo — escrow is the whole point.
• Promises you can't keep — "100% genuine," "guaranteed next-day," "money-back guarantee" — unless you mean them precisely. Buyers will hold you to your words.
• Other sellers' shop names — naming competitors looks unprofessional and can get flagged.

A 5-minute profile makeover

If you've been running an unfinished profile for a while and want a quick refresh:

1. Replace the placeholder logo with a real photo.
2. Rewrite the bio in 12 words max.
3. Add or update the cover photo to a recent product shot.
4. Check your location is set.
5. Tap the WhatsApp button in preview mode to make sure it works.

Five minutes. Most shops never do this and miss out.

Common questions

My logo looks pixelated.

You uploaded a low-resolution image. Upload a square photo at least 500 × 500 pixels — bigger is fine, the app resizes.

Can I add a tagline AND a bio?

The bio field is the only short-text field. You can use the first line of the bio as a tagline ("Handmade kitenge bags.") and the rest as more detail.

How often should I update my profile?

The logo and bio: only when something real changes (new product line, moved location, new branch).

The cover photo and pinned video can rotate more often — say, every 2-3 months as you have new things to show.

Profile updates don't get pushed as notifications to your followers, so feel free to tweak whenever.

My WhatsApp button isn't working.

Three things to check:

1. Is the phone number you set on WhatsApp? Install WhatsApp on that SIM, register, send one message to a friend.
2. Did you save after changing the number? Edit → Phone → Save.
3. Is the buyer's phone allowed to open WhatsApp? (Some old phones block deep links.)

If your number is on WhatsApp and the button still doesn't work for buyers, email us — that's a bug worth looking at.

Can I have a shop page in a language other than English?

The interface is in English, but your bio and product descriptions can be in any language. Most successful shops use a mix: shop name in English, product descriptions in English + the local term ("Kitenge dress (omugongo wear)").

What's next

• Adding your first product — your first real listing.
• Setting up delivery — get the delivery options right.