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First Impressions of First Microsoft Store October 31, 2009

Posted by Kelly Brady in : Retail , trackback
Microsoft NOW OPEN banner in the food court at Fashion Square Mall Microsoft banner in the food court at Fashion Square Mall

Microsoft opened their first retail store yesterday, in the largest mall in Arizona, in the 12th largest metropolitan area in the US. Today I visited the store at Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, AZ. In a word: NICE. The staff seemed happy, excited and falling all over themselves to be helpful. The staff told me that sale’s yesterday were heavy; laptops, Windows 7 and a little of everything was selling briskly.

 
The store is visually stunning, with brilliant large screen displays running end-to-end down both sides of the entire store. A giant 109″ touch screen TV on the rear wall in the “Theater” area was displaying Microsoft Worldwide Telescope, an interactive celestial viewer that receives imagery from real telescopes worldwide. A glimpse into the store immediately conjures up images of your last visit to an Apple Store. Clearly, Apple has created the current design pattern for upscale, user-centric computer retailing. But I think Microsoft has clearly iterated the concept and tailored it to Windows PC users.
Inside the Microsoft Store Inside the Microsoft Store
Everything in the store is for sale: PC’s, software, Xbox, monitors, Zune & even Microsoft Surface units (more on that in a moment). PC’s brands for sale included HP, Dell, Alienware (now part of Dell), Toshiba and Lenovo. There were even a few Acer models.  Like the Apple Store there was a modest selection of peripherals, laptop bags, external drives, Bluetooth headsets and Microsoft mice – but not the full product line. I was pleased to see a number of unusual and creative product offerings and accessories; things I would not expect to find. And you can even buy some things that are NOT in the store….
 
Software on Demand
In the rear of the store, with little fanfare or signage sits an unimposing pedestal containing a fairly simple touchscreen kiosk. Enter a software title, and if available, you can purchase it and the disk is burned and manual printed while-you-wait. Common in Europe, this may be the first major retail outlet to offer such a service in the U.S. Currently there are about 300 Microsoft and non-Microsoft titles available, with plans to increase that number to 3,000.
 
Microsoft Answers Bar Microsoft Answers Bar
Answers
Comparable to Apple’s Genius Bar is the Microsoft Answers desk, centered deep in the store near the back. Here is how it works: At no charge, you can sign up for a 15 minute consultation with a Microsoft “Technical Advisor”. They can answer questions about your PC, Windows, Xbox and Zune, perform diagnostics and generally help you out. If 15 minutes isn’t enough, you can purchase flat-rate “Premium” support for $49 or $99 depending on the service needed.
 
Microsoft Store Services
In addition to Answers, Microsoft offers a number of other services, conveniently featured in a small booklet you can take. These services include:
Making A Purchase
There are no cash registers or check-out lines in the store. Some of the employees carry small portable registers and can ring up your sale anywhere in the store. Interestingly, these point of sale units are running Microsoft Dynamics software (Microsoft’s line of enterprise business CRM, ERP & POS solutions).  It is good to see that they are running the store with their own enterprise back office software. Of course, it was so busy in the store that I had to wait about 5 minutes to make my purchase while the staff ran around looking for an employee with an available terminal.
Microsoft Dynamics P.O.S. terminal Microsoft Dynamics P.O.S. terminal
There has been a lot of attention to detail, and focus on the customer shopping and purchasing experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft won a design aware for the shopping bag, a heavy laminated canvas bag with cloth handles and a button closure:
Microsoft Luxury Shopping Bag Microsoft Luxury Shopping Bag
 
Microsoft Surface
To me this is by far the most interesting, beautiful and expensive thing in the Microsoft Store. Surface is “multi-user, multi-touch” experience…similar to have an iPhone or iTouch, but the size of a coffee table. I’ve been watching the development of Microsoft Surface for several years, but have never gotten to play with it. There are 3 or 4 of these units in the store, with benches around them to allow you to sit and play.  I don’t know how to briefly describe it – you have to play with it yourself. The cool factor is WAY out there. The first commercial units sold can be found in Disney’s Tomorrowland exhibit, the Hard Rock Cafe and Rio iBar in Vegas and a few Sheraton hotel lobbies. The unit was featured on MSNBC during election coverage. The surface shimmers like a pool of water that reacts to your touch. Besides some of the games that run on it, working with photos is amazing. You physically size and organize them using your hands & fingers, sliding them around on an intelligent desktop. Did you see the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report? Surface is about as close as you can get to the hand-gesture system used in the movie to organize computer data & images.
 
Infinite Possibilities
 ”Possibilities” is one of my favorite words and concepts. At the front of the store, on the right wall is an eye-catching branding poster with a really cool tagline that deftly articulates Microsoft’s Windows positioning:
Infinite Possibilities Infinite Possibilities
I think this is going to be a win-win for Microsoft and users. Windows users have needed access to a consistent (and free/low cost) support channel for Windows PC’s, and may prefer this buying experience to the mass-market stores like Best Buy.
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