About Kahawa 1893 Coffee:

Kahawa 1893 Coffee is a specialty coffee brand sourcing premium beans from East Africa. As the business expanded across wholesale, Amazon, Shopify, and DTC channels, managing inventory became increasingly complex.

With inventory spread across warehouses, co-manufacturers, and fulfillment partners, the team struggled to understand what inventory they had, where it was located, and how quickly it needed to move.

The Challenge:

Kahawa Needed Clearer Inventory Control

Limited inventory visibility was creating significant business costs.

Expired coffee inventory was being discovered too late. Purchasing decisions were made without complete information, and orders occasionally had to be cancelled because products shown as available weren't actually in stock.

"We had a lot of loss because we weren't able to track inventory properly. We were finding inventory in the warehouse that had gone bad. We were over-ordering, under-ordering, and didn't have a clear picture of inventory age and location."

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

The impact went beyond inefficiency.

Kahawa needed a system that could support growing operational complexity with stronger lot tracking, replenishment planning, and visibility across every sales channel.

"We had lost sales because we thought we had product, but we didn't because the system wasn't accurate. Someone buys a product and then discovers it's not actually available. That's a bad customer experience." 

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

The Solution:

One System for Inventory, Sales & Profitability

Kaizntree gave Kahawa a unified view of its operations across wholesale, Amazon, Shopify, and DTC. For the first time, the team could see inventory movement, inventory value, purchasing activity, sales performance, and profitability in one place.

They gained:

• Lot-Level Control: Track inventory by lot, location, and expiration date

• Smarter Replenishment: Monitor inventory levels and forecast replenishment needs

• Financial Visibility: Understand inventory value, margins & unit economics in real time

• Cross-Channel Visibility: Maintain visibility across DTC, Amazon, Shopify & wholesale

"Being able to have all our lines of business together, DTC, Amazon, Shopify, and wholesale, has been a big upgrade for us."

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

As a specialty coffee company, traceability is central to Kahawa's mission. Farm-to-cup visibility helps the team maintain quality standards, validate product provenance, and quickly isolate issues if recalls or supplier concerns arise.

The Results:

Eliminated Losses & Unified Operations

The biggest outcome was the elimination of inventory losses. 

"Since switching to Kaizntree, we've eliminated our inventory losses entirely. We've been able to stay on top of what we have on hand and proactively deal with excess inventory before it becomes something that has to be disposed of."

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

Beyond eliminating inventory losses, Kahawa also achieved:

• Faster Time-to-Value: 2 years → 6 weeks to go live compared to their previous platform

• Unified Operations: One view across DTC, Amazon, Shopify, and wholesale

• End-to-End Traceability: Farm-to-cup visibility for quality control and recall readiness

"We've been pleasantly surprised that Kaizntree has lived up to everything that was discussed during the sales process. The team has been very helpful, guided us through the implementation, and continues to support us today. It feels like a very collaborative process."

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

The Takeaway:

Reliable Inventory Data Pays for Itself

Most founders evaluate inventory software based on subscription cost.

Kahawa learned that the real cost comes from operating without accurate inventory data: expired stock, cancelled orders, lost sales, and decisions made without confidence.

"I think a lot of people look at the price tag of software, but they don't look at the cost of the losses that happen when you have a very unreliable inventory system."

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)

Today, Kahawa has complete visibility into what inventory they have, where it is located, what it is worth, and when it needs to be replenished.

"I think of our prior provider as sort of like a 1.0, and this is the evolution—a more sophisticated system that we can confidently scale with as we grow." 

- Margaret Nyamumbo (Founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee)