Microsoft has announced a major shift in its retail operations, with plans to close 83 of its physical outlets and switch to online sales only.
The company stated that It will keep its London; New York City; Sydney, Australia and Redmond, Washington locations, but they will be reimagined as “experience centers”.
The tech giant opened a bunch of locations in high-profile areas, such as Manhattan’s Fifth Ave. But during the pandemic, many of its stores have remained closed, and Microsoft (MSFT) is abandoning ship.
They will showcase Microsoft’s technology, such as Surface PCs, Xbox, “Minecraft,” Windows and Office, but they won’t necessarily sell anything.
Microsoft corporate Vice President, David Porter said, “This is a tough, but smart strategic decision for Nadella & Co. to make at this point”.
The physical stores generated negligible retail revenue for MSFT and ultimately everything was moving more and more towards the digital channels over the last few years.
Microsoft said that closing the stores will cost a pre-tax charge of about $450 million in taxes.
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