Photo by: Duane Daws
Phone company Orange is determined to take on established distribution channels in South Africa with its physical store which opens to the public on Friday.
The brick and mortar store in Claremont, Cape Town will complement Orange's online sales presence in South Africa. To date, Orange has been selling smartphones at low cost on its SA online store.
"The range of products that we’ve got; the way our products are priced and the way that we’re able to deliver them to market in the shortest possible time means that we have to be doing something right," Blake Levitan, who is Orange Horizons South Africa country manager, told Fin24.
The launch of the store was delayed by months. But by finally launching this week, Orange aims to target South African consumers who don't yet feel comfortable shopping online.
"We've followed a similar approach in store that will naturally plant the seed for the other stores to open and eventually you'll have a network of stores that customers are able to benefit from," said Levitan.
Partner brands
Orange plans to sell only selected brands in its store.
"Our approach for now as we've launched with what we've done in the European market is we've really stuck with brands we've got relationships with in multiple countries," Levitan explained.
Brands such as South Africa's Mobicel and Hisense, as well as fast rising Chinese brand Xiaomi are not available from the Orange shop yet.
"As we become more local… we continue to improve the amount of products from the existing brands and secondly to start adding more local brands which we currently don't have on the website," said Levitan.
As part of the physical store launch, Orange also has a number of promotions that it hopes will entice more South Africans to purchase from the platform.
The physical store in Claremont will further allow customers to pick up devices that they have bought online as well as providing access to computer terminals for people to make purchases.
"We pay attention to the feedback we receive from our customers and we listen to their needs and what they want and as a result we run our business that way," Levitan said.