The first Orange retail store will begin trading on 26 June 2015, selling mobile gadgets and accessories from a location in Claremont.

“The opening of a physical store is a logical step for us,” said Orange Horizons CEO Sébastien Crozier.

Crozier said this is because the response to the Orange Online Store in South Africa exceeded their expectations, which led to a local warehouse being established to service the market.

“We therefore have sufficient stock levels to justify the opening of our first retail store in the country,” said Crozier.

Orange’s first retail store replaces the Nashua Mobile shop in Claremont, which closed after Nashua shut down its operations in South Africa during 2014.

The opening of the store has been a long time coming. Orange delayed the launch from the end of 2014 to January 2015, and then again to the end of Q2 2015.

Country manager for Orange Horizons SA Blake Levitan explained at the time that they delayed because they were unhappy with “the customer journey and the experience we wanted to deliver in store”.

Crozier said they wanted customers to be able to order products online and collect them in-store, and test devices in-store and then complete the order online.

Orange has confirmed that these click-and-collect facilities will be available at launch, in addition to the following:

A wide range of the latest gadgets and accessories

Drop-off point for repairs and returns

Point of sale for Orange’s Top-Up products

Provide customer service for Orange’s travel products

Crozier said the store will also act as a service point in the future for the brand’s Internet service provider, which will launch in South Africa soon.

He added that Orange is open to launching additional stores in the future.

“Further to the Orange Wi-Fi offering in South Africa, our plans to launch as an ISP in 2015 will be made easier by having a point of service and contact with our customers.”

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