Microsoft Is Permanently Closing Its Stores

Microsoft is permanently closing its offline retail stores across the world except in four locations and will be focusing on improving their online stores, the company announced. Microsoft has 116 stores in 5 countries including US, UK, Canada, Australia and Puerto Rico. The four stores that will remain open will be redesigned. These stores are located in Fifth Avenue in New York City, Oxford Circus in London, Westfield Sydney in Sydney, and Redmond campus Washington. "As part of our business plan, we announced a strategic change in our retail operations, including closing Microsoft Store physical locations. Our retail team members will continue to serve customers working from Microsoft corporate facilities or remotely," David Porter, corporate vice president, Microsoft said. With more people buying electronics online, offline retail stores have lost customer footfalls as well as revenue in the last few years. Online shopping sales offering huge discounts on electronics and other goods have exacerbated things for offline retailers as they can't match the online prices. The recent lockdown brought on by Covid-19 has made things harder for offline stores, forcing many to re-evaluate their offline strategy.