Microsoft is going to get back in the physical retail store arena once again. The company announced on Tuesday, its plan of selling its product at the Experience Centres in London, NYC, and Sydney, starting next month. The tech giant made it clear that only a selected few products will be made available for sale as of now.
The cause of the limited product sale is the global chip shortage. Owing to this, the Xbox Series X / S consoles won’t be available initially until stocks of these devices improve to meet demand. Microsoft’s Surface devices and Office 365 subscriptions will be available. Other Xbox-related products will also be available.
Travis Walter, Microsoft’s head of retail stores, in a statement to The Verge, said “Our Microsoft Experience Centers were created to provide customers a way to experience our products in person. We use these spaces to test and experiment, and continue to evolve the experience based on customer feedback. Starting July 1st, customers will be able to purchase select Microsoft products at the New York, London, and Sydney locations.”
Microsoft’s retail stores shut down completely last year, quickly after the pandemic started. The employees of the Experience Centres have been reallocated to areas that help sell to, train, and support Microsoft’s commercial enterprise customers.
However, this does not necessarily confirm that the company will definitely return to the physical retail stores.
