The Covid-19 pandemic has caused rearrangements in many businesses, including Microsoft. According to sources from The Verge website, the technology giant plans to permanently close all of its retail stores across the globe.

Excluded are four flagship stores in New York (Fifth Avenue), London (Oxford Plaza), Sydney (Westfield) and Redmond Park which will remain open and continue to operate normally.

During the lockdown, the physical stores of Microsoft, most of which are located within shopping centers, remained closed according to state guidelines. Many of these shopping centers have not yet opened since they continue to take preventative measures against further spread of the new coronavirus.

Microsoft has thus decided to close its physical stores and focus its attention on its digital stores, which are constantly developing. Indicatively, the digital stores of Microsoft.com, Xbox, and Windows operate in 190 markets worldwide and have 1.2 billion customers on a monthly basis. It is therefore more than apparent that the company does not really need the maintenance of its physical stores. The company hasn’t clarified yet whether it plans to layoff staff from these stores or absorb them into the completion of its development plan.