Microsoft yesterday announced the grand opening of its first online store. It will enable users in the U.S. to buy its products from one of four resellers or directly from Microsoft.
Future versions of the online store, located at http://shop.microsoft.com/, will be localized for specific countries and resellers, starting with Canada, according to a Microsoft statement. The Canadian site is expected to launch during the first quarter of next year, a spokeswoman for Microsoft's public relations firm said. She also said it was too early to say which other countries would follow or when.
Customers can purchase Microsoft merchandise from Beyond.com, CDW, CompUSA and Insight. Additional resellers will be added over the next few months, Microsoft said.
When customers have selected the products they want to buy and are ready to order they choose a reseller to buy from and their "shopping basket" is transferred to that reseller's Web site for processing. Customers also can buy directly from Microsoft at the estimated retail price, which is generally 10% to 25% higher than the "street price" offered by resellers, Microsoft said.
Microsoft joins a growing list of computer companies that have expanded their sales to the Internet, such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Gateway 2000, and Dell, who was an early leader in direct sales.
Microsoft's online store was built using Windows NT Server operating system, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, Commerce Server, Site Server and Internet Information Server.
Those who visit the Web site between March 8 and May 31 can enter a daily sweepstakes that provides the winner with $500 towards the purchase of any Microsoft products.
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