If you've ever used a SokoHub store as a customer, you know how frictionless the checkout experience is. You click Pay with M-Pesa, type your phone number, and within seconds your phone vibrates with a payment prompt. You enter your PIN, tap OK, and the payment is confirmed — instantly.
No screenshots. No sending money and waiting for someone to confirm. No "nimekupeleka — please check." Just seamless, automatic payment.
How does that work? Let's break it down.
What Is STK Push?
STK stands for SIM Toolkit — the technology embedded in every Safaricom SIM card that allows apps to communicate directly with your phone's SIM. When SokoHub initiates an STK Push, it sends a request to Safaricom's servers, which then push a payment prompt directly to the customer's SIM card.
This is different from Lipa Na M-Pesa manual — where customers open their M-Pesa menu, choose Pay Bill, type a business number, account number, and amount. STK Push skips all of that. The customer just approves a pre-filled prompt.
What Happens Step by Step
- 1Customer adds items to cart and proceeds to checkout
- 2Customer selects "Pay with M-Pesa" and enters their phone number
- 3SokoHub sends an STK Push request to Safaricom's API with the exact amount
- 4Safaricom's servers push a payment prompt to the customer's phone
- 5Customer sees the prompt: amount, merchant name, and their SokoHub store name
- 6Customer enters their M-Pesa PIN and taps OK
- 7Safaricom confirms payment to SokoHub's system within 30 seconds
- 8Order is automatically marked as "Paid" in your dashboard
- 9Customer receives an order confirmation
- 10You (the seller) receive a notification
The entire process takes under 60 seconds for most customers. And — crucially — you never have to check, confirm, or chase anything. The system handles all of it.
"Before SokoHub, I wasted an hour every day confirming payments. Now I wake up and just see a list of confirmed orders. That hour got spent growing my business instead."
What About Failed Payments?
Sometimes payments fail — the customer has insufficient funds, they dismiss the prompt, or their phone is off. When that happens, SokoHub automatically holds the order as "Pending" and prompts the customer to retry. The order is never confirmed unless payment succeeds. Zero risk of shipping unpaid orders.