At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, COO Kevin Turner says Microsoft is going to "build dozens more stores" and is "just getting started."

"Microsoft Stores are an incredible learning vehicle for us," Turner notes. A funny comment if you consider how well the company has automated its customer service to avoid human contact.

If Kinect is a hit in the gaming market…and if Windows Phone 7 devices pull as well as Windows 7 PCs… then these products could pull people inside Microsoft Stores.

To see how serious Microsoft is about retail, there's the Microsoft Retail Experience Center—an invitation-only, 20,000 sq.ft. interactive store environment located at Microsoft main campus.

A retail test lab, it could easily be mistaken for a real electronics superstore. The emphasis is on making the retail experience more connected— connecting stores with one another, with their employees, and with their customers.

Take the shopping cart, with integrated touchscreen. Or Microsoft Tag, a scanning technology that works with cell phone. cell phone. A Surface tabletop computer. RFID tags.

Go to the Microsoft Retail Experience Center

After Best Buy Europe's chief executive of branded operations Paul Antoniadis left, Best Buy Europe appointed Andrew Harrison as COO, reporting to CEO Scott Wheway.

Harrison, from The Carphone Warehouse, will continue to lead The Carphone Warehouse and The Phone House across nine European countries. And now he'll drive Best Buy Europe's Connected World strategy and customer proposition across all Best Buy Europe brands.

Harrison says, "The internet is evolving at a blistering pace and what really excites me is that we have only experienced a fraction of the connectivity products and services that have yet to come."

Go the original Connected World Team

DSGi dropped the Dixons retail brand in 2004 and went with "Currys."

That 2004 name-change also inspired the "DSGi" corporate moniker. Now it's back to the future and DSGI will re-brand the organization under Dixons Retail Plc.  With its first annual profit in three years, Dixons has transformed more than 200 stores across the group since 2008. Transforming the corporate name is probably just one more change that had to be made with Best Buy Europe breathing down its neck.

Reformatted stores perform well: average gross profit is up 20% versus the rest of the chains. And average gross profit up 50% in the megastores and 2-in-1s.

Pure internet sales (under Dixons name) hit 1.4 billion pounds, and 16% of total Group sales of 8.5 billion pounds (at fiscal year-end in May 2010).

Go DSGi Changes to Dixons Retail Plc

Lance Armstrong tries for a come-back, taking 3rd place on the winner's podium at the 2010 Tour of Luxembourg. Riding for Team Radio Shack, Lance is not the only one trying to make a come-back these days.

Radio Shack wants to sell out by end of summer. After an initial round of bids last week, U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group is one of the interested parties. Blackstone's portfolio includes The Weather Channel, Hilton, SeaWorld, Freescale, Nielsen, CentreParks and lots others including Merlin Entertainment that owns London Eye.

Radio Shack could net more than $3 billion. The granddaddy of electronics retailing, the new "Shack" is emphasizing mobile products these days.

Go "Shack" Commercial with Lance Armstrong