• This week iKhokha opened its eighth retail store in the country as a way to interact with local merchants.
• Each of the retail is responsible for their own marketing activities, and pursue engagement with merchants in the immediate area.
• iKhokha is planning to open a store in Thembisa next week, bringing its number of Gauteng locations to four.

Local SME payments facilitator iKhokha has this week opened a new retail store. It marks the eighth such retail store opening in the country, where iKhokha likes to sell its point-of-sale devices.

Crucially the retail locations are seen as a way for the company to more effectively engage with merchants, with it making access to support available, along with networking opportunities and other business enhancement tools.

“As part of their growth strategy, iKhokha embarked on a journey to learn more about what their merchants in communities really needed as added support and convenience. What they found was the need for an on-the-ground presence, which led to the opening of physical stores in various locations, as a way to extend the brand, increase sales and provide much needed support,” the company shared in a release with Hypertext.

At the time of writing, iKhokha has locations in Phoenix, Isipingo, Umlazi, and central Durban to service merchants in KwaZulu-Natal. It has also opened locations in Daveyton, Soweto, and Hillbrow for the Gauteng region.

In terms of upcoming openings, a store in Thembisa is opening in next week, Pietermaritzburg store arrives this month, and June will see stores being rolled out in East London and Umtata, the company confirmed.

“Having already sold their devices predominantly online and at retailers such as Makro, Masscash and Cellucity, this move to include location-based retail stores sees iKhokha able to support more existing merchants,  increase their market access and foster more economic growth,” it highlighted.

“Our expansion into retail stores has largely focused on putting the community first. This includes the employment and training of people within the community to work in the stores. An experienced store manager has been hired at each store, joined by five youth from the Youth Employment Service (YES), a private sector led initiative that addresses the country’s youth unemployment crisis by empowering businesses to create jobs for South Africa’s many unemployed youth,” added Ramsay Daly, co-founder of iKhokha.

Whether this plan will indeed result in a greater number of merchants moving to iKhokha remains to be seen, but it is at least pleasing to see the company focus on its local physical presence.

[Image – Provided]