Verified 13 September 2026

Does your supermarket have a paybill number, or a till?

By Michael Mwangi · Kenyan supermarkets hub · paybillke is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Kenyan supermarkets.

A till, not a paybill, and not one till. Supermarkets take Lipa na M-PESA, Buy Goods, and the till number belongs to the branch, often to the individual lane. In most stores the cashier now sends an STK prompt to your phone and you simply approve it, so you never type a number at all.

Paybill and Buy Goods are different rails

Pay Bill is for billers who need to know which customer is paying, so it asks for an account number: your electricity account, your school admission number, your bank account. Buy Goods is for merchants selling across a counter, where the shop does not care who you are, only that the money arrived. A supermarket is the second kind, which is why it has a till and not a paybill, and why there is no account number to enter.

Why "the Naivas till number" is not a single number

This is the commonest search in the whole category and it contains a wrong assumption. A chain with a hundred-plus outlets does not run one till: each branch has its own, and busy stores run several so that lanes reconcile separately. So a number that worked at one branch may not be the number at another, and a number published in a directory may be a head-office or online till rather than the one at the checkout you are standing at.

What we publish, and how much weight to give it

paybillke does hold chain-level tills for several supermarkets, and you can see them on the records linked below. We publish them because a number with a caveat is more useful than a blank when you are trying to check that a till a cashier read out sounds right.

But treat them as a cross-check, not an instruction. The number displayed at your till beats ours, every time. Several of these records are flagged in our own data as caveated or needing review, precisely because per-branch tills are not the sort of thing a directory can keep current.

The two ways it actually works at the counter

The cashier sends a prompt (most common now). They enter the amount on the POS, an STK push arrives on your phone, you check the amount and the merchant name, enter your PIN and approve. Nothing is typed by you.
You enter it yourself. Choose Lipa na M-PESA, then Buy Goods and Services, enter the till number shown at that checkout, enter the amount, then your PIN. Show the cashier the confirmation.

Buy Goods is free for you

Paying a Buy Goods till costs the customer nothing. The merchant pays the transaction fee, which is the opposite of Pay Bill, where the customer usually carries it. So there is no cost reason to prefer cash at a supermarket till, and the receipt trail is better.

About this page

paybillke is an independent payments directory and is not affiliated with any supermarket. Checked 13 September 2026. Supermarket till numbers belong to individual branches and change, so the number shown at your checkout always beats a number from a directory, including ours.

How the major chains take payment

Chain	In store	Online
Naivas	Buy Goods till per branch, usually a POS prompt	naivas.online and the Naivas app, same-day in Nairobi
Carrefour	Buy Goods till per branch	Carrefour (MAF) app, express 60 to 90 minutes in parts of Nairobi, Mombasa and Diani
Quickmart	Buy Goods till per branch	quickmart.co.ke, paid by M-PESA
Cleanshelf	Buy Goods till per branch	cleanshelf.online
Chandarana Foodplus	Buy Goods till per branch	foodplus.co.ke
Greenspoon	Online-first, limited physical tills	greenspoon.co.ke, M-PESA, card or cash on delivery
Zucchini	Buy Goods till per branch	zucchini.co.ke

Frequently asked

Does Naivas have a paybill number?

No. Naivas takes Buy Goods at the till, and the till belongs to the branch rather than the chain. Most branches now send an STK prompt to your phone instead.

What is the Naivas till number?

There is no single one. Each branch has its own, and large stores run more than one. Use the number displayed at your checkout.

Does Carrefour have a paybill?

No. Carrefour is Buy Goods in store and in-app payment online.

Does it cost me anything to pay by till?

No. Buy Goods is free for the customer; the merchant pays the fee. Pay Bill is the one where you usually carry the charge.

Why does the cashier ask me to just approve a prompt?

Most supermarket POS systems now trigger an STK push, so the amount and merchant come pre-filled. Check both before you enter your PIN.