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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tim Luke who wrote (70503)	11/5/1999 8:57:00 PM
From: Captain Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

Looks like Billy just flipped a finger at the judge,,, Nov 05, 1999 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Microsoft said Friday it will embrace a more directmodel to sell to consumers over microsoft.shop.com. The online store, which was launched just last spring, will scrap its current method of direct product order referrals to the four retailers on board: CDW, CompUSA, Insight Direct, and Beyond.com, and instead steer the consumer shopping cart directly to Microsoft's online cashiers. The move, made less than a year after its e-doors opened, confirms retailers' initial fears that Microsoft eventually will embrace a direct relationship with its online customers. "Order referral is going away," said Ken Schneider, adding Microsoft will instead offer a reseller referral tool on the main page of microsoft.shop.com that will allow consumers to surf better prices on their own. "It was costly for us to support [the program]," he said. Microsoft will fulfill all its online orders through a fulfillment house it would not name. Company officials denied its intent is to cut retailers out of the buying cycle, which was a chief concern among channel players when plans for the online selling program were first announced last year. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company said the referral system, which guided customers to retailers' websites after online shopping stints, did not prove to be a good consumer experience for shoppers. They would not specify why, except to say retailers will have better visibility with the reseller Web referral tool on the home page of the shop site. Schneider also said he does not think the Microsoft Online Licensing Program model will be similarly changed to cut corporate resellers out of the loop. Currently, that site steers small and midsized businesses to buy software licenses through a variety of big-name resellers. Microsoft's top retail executive downplayed the decision, saying the site does only "a very, very low volume" of business. "We just want to be where people want to shop," said Steve Schiro, vice president of sales for Microsoft's Home & Retail division. "But we'll be the high-priced model. It's not a price leader. There's a multichannel world."