informal trade route to market specialists

this is 5m2t

More than 6 years of providing ambitious businesses with accelerated access to and growth from the informal retail landscape in Southern Africa

Insight & Strategy

Smart route-to-market solutions based on bespoke research and one of the largest informal retail market databases in the FMCG category.

Sales & Distribution

Fit-for-purpose sales and distribution programmes to drive penetration and market share growth

Reporting & Analysis

Automated tracking and reporting to ensure complete transparency and used for optimisation and  efficiencies

Vehicles on the ground

Data points

unique informal trade clients

putting your product into the hands of mzansi’s biggest consumer market

OUR CLIENTS

We go where others can’t.

INDUSTRY NEWS & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Estimating SA’s informal economy – a hefty contribution

Using a small-area census approach, this article reports on changes in informal micro-enterprise activity in the Cape township of Delft between 2010 and 2015. The number of micro-enterprises has doubled (from 879 to 1798) in five years, with growth recorded in almost...

Migrant spaza shops: business lessons from Soweto

A survey on the operations of spaza shops in Soweto  revealed  migrants’  eccentric  business strategies and resilience dynamics. Trynos Gumbo and Simamkele Bokolo analyse the results. Almost all urban centres of the world are experiencing soaring informal economic...

The development of Spazas in South Africa

It is useful to understand how spaza shops have developed in South Africa. “‘Spaza’ means ‘hidden’ in Zulu.  The term arose during the apartheid era, when restrictions were placed on black people running businesses” (Bear, 2005). During the apartheid era, many of...