With thecoronavirus pandemicforcing thousands of stores to close up shop for the foreseeable future, it seems the state of retail has significantly shifted in return. Not only have stores relied more on digital storefronts to market and sell their products, but, in many cases, they’ve also completely revolutionized how their businesses work to counteract the limitations imposed by quarantine.
It appears these limitations have changed a lot for one company in particular, withMicrosoftannouncing in a statement that it will be permanently closing nearly all of its physical locations in favor of shifting more heavily to online commerce. According toMicrosoft, this is due to the company pursuing a “new approach to retail,” with the company claiming the decision is a strategic one.
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In the statement, Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter tells customers: “Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location.” He continues, “We are grateful to ourMicrosoft Storecustomers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations.” Discussing the potential success of this new venture, the statement also reveals that Microsoft has helped thousands of small businesses digitally since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that this was mostly due to the ease of access of being online. “We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere,” Porter claims, continuing “The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months.”
The new direction for Microsoft’s retail will see all but four locations permanently shut, with the remaining stores being in London, Sydney,New York City, and Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. Seemingly, this will be a major shift for the company that will put a bigger emphasis on digital goods and remote support for the thousands of customers purchasing Microsoft products. Many will be annoyed that they can’t go and talk with a Microsoft representative face to face, however, with the company beginning to find such significant success online, physical locations seem like an unneeded expense.
The company is right to make this shift now, with several major new Microsoft products on the horizon. Namely, this year will see the launch of theXbox Series X, which will be the company’s first step into the next-generation of gaming, with the console boasting insane visual capabilities, a state of the art SSD, and much, much more.
