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After Shafting Their PC Partners Microsoft Now Turns To Gouging Their Retail Partners

After Shafting Their PC Partners Microsoft Now Turns To Gouging Their Retail Partners

The big software Company has also said that their direct sell online store in Australia is “booming”.

According to Travis Walter Microsoft general manager of international retail stores, “Microsoft’s online business within Australia is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world for us,” he said.

“From a performance perspective it’s in the top five markets in the world, and it has the highest conversion rate of any of the websites.” he told a Fairfax journalist.

The Microsoft Australia online store only sells Microsoft branded products, they do not offer partners products that run Microsofts Windows OS or have links to Microsoft software. 

Travis admitted to the Financial Review that their new Pitt Street store in Sydney which opens on November 12 will be the first of “several” that Microsoft will open in Australia if the Pitt Street store is successful.

The stores that are specifically designed to strip business away from current retail partners such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi, and Dick Smith will look very similar to a new store that Microsoft opened yesterday in New York. 

Travis Walter, told The Australian Financial Review that Sydney had been on Microsoft’s radar for a few years because of a known appetite for tech products among Australians.

Currently Microsoft Australia is working with their PR Company to drum up interest in the new stores opening, unlike Apple who only have to announce a new store to get crowds queuing all night Microsoft has already moved to putting in place incentives and free gifts to attract consumers to their new retail store that will be 
multi-storey, have polished wooden floors, display screens covering the walls, interactive displays, a place for people to play Xbox, and a help desk for customers wanting support with their Microsoft products.

The concept is a copy of the highly successful Apple stores format. 

“If I was a business leader at Microsoft I’d have made sure the one thing we didn’t do was copy Apple, but there was so much about what was happening at Apple at the time the stores were designed . they couldn’t resist,” Eight Inc. chief executive Tim Kobe told the Financial Review.

The first 750 visitors to the store will also receive free tickets to a concert Microsoft is throwing that evening with Jessie J and The Voice Australia winner Ellie Drennan.