Getting started
Set up your business and find your way around Kivo.
Kivo runs your shop, online store and social sales from one place: the till, orders, products, customers, chats, payments and stock all share the same records, so a sale on WhatsApp and a sale at the counter show up in the same reports.
Setting up your business
Sign up with your name, email and a password of at least 8 characters (adding a capital letter and a symbol makes it stronger). After you verify your email, Kivo walks you through a short setup:
- Country. Where your business is based. This sets your currency, tax rate, phone format and the payment methods Kivo offers. Kivo supports Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.
- Your business. Name and phone number. These appear on your store, receipts and invoices.
- What you sell. Pick from 23 categories, such as Fashion & Clothing, Hair & Wigs, Phones & Gadgets, Groceries, Agriculture & Farm Produce or Digital Products. If none fits, pick Other and type what you sell in What do you sell? (for example "Solar panels"). Kivo uses this on your store, in how search engines describe it, and to personalise AI product descriptions and suggestions.
- Where you sell from. Your first location, such as a shop or warehouse. You can add more later under Settings → Locations.
- How customers pay you. Your main payment method. You can connect more under Integrations.
- Paperwork help (optional). Pick any registration, tax or banking help and a licensed partner will contact you after setup.
New businesses start on a free 14-day trial with no card needed.
Finding your way around
The first time you open Home, a short product tour points out the main parts of Kivo one by one. Use Next and Back (or the arrow keys) to move through it, or Skip tour to close it. It only starts on its own once, but you can replay it at any time from Product tour at the bottom of the sidebar or in the avatar menu.
The sidebar on the left (the menu button on a phone) groups everything Kivo does:
| Group | Pages |
|---|---|
| Core | Home, Sell / POS, Orders, Products, Customers |
| Channels | Online Store, Inbox, Reputation |
| Grow | Campaigns, Automate |
| Business | Money, Inventory, Insights |
| Platform | Trust, Integrations |
Settings and these help pages sit at the bottom of the sidebar. On a phone, a bar along the bottom of the screen gives one-tap access to Home, Orders, Sell and Products.
The top bar
- Search finds products, orders and customers by name, SKU, order number or phone. It also lists shortcuts such as New Sale or Add Product. Type at least two characters.
- + (Create) opens a new sale, order, product, customer or campaign.
- Exception inbox (the warning icon) counts things that need you, such as failed payments or low stock. See Ask and the exception inbox.
- Notifications (the bell) shows updates on orders, stock, payments and your team. Open View all for the full list, or Mark all as read. Choose which alerts you get under Settings → Notifications.
- Your avatar opens your account settings, help, the product tour, the business switcher and log out.
Kivo on your phone
Kivo works as an app on your phone, with no download from a store needed:
- Android: open kivohq.com in Chrome and tap Install app on the card at the bottom (or Add to Home screen in Chrome's menu).
- iPhone: open kivohq.com in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
Installed, Kivo opens full screen from its own icon, and long-pressing the icon gives shortcuts to a new sale, a new product and your orders. The till, home, orders and products pages still open when your signal drops, and sales you ring up offline sync when you are back online.
To get an alert on your phone when an order, payment or customer message comes in, open the bell and tap Turn on. On an iPhone this works once Kivo is on your Home Screen. Alerts are per device, and logging out turns them off on that device.
When adding a product on a phone, Take a photo opens the camera. Large photos are resized before upload, so they send quickly on mobile data.
Running more than one business
If you own or work in several businesses, open the business name at the top of the sidebar (or Switch Business in the avatar menu) to move between them or add a new one. Add business asks for the same name, category (with What do you sell? for Other), country and first location as the first setup. Each business has its own products, customers, team and settings.