Image used with permission by copyright holderYou know the holiday season is just around the corner when companies start ramping up efforts to get in your face more, to let you know about all the goodies they have that will of course make perfect gifts for friends and family, and make everyone very happy indeed.

　　So Microsoft has just announced it’s opened a store on eBay. It already has an online store at the accurately named microsoftstore.com, but by landing on eBay it hopes to grab the attention of the hordes of online shoppers already rummaging around the e-commerce site hunting for everything from full-scale replicas of Stuart M3A1 tanks to novelty flashing ‘wild club’ mouth rave lights to Surface Pro tablets.

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　　“By working with eBay….even more customers can now purchase their favorite Microsoft first-party products including Surface and Xbox, as well as accessories,” Kevin Eagan, Microsoft’s vice president of online commerce, wrote in a blog post.

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　　Eagen added that shoppers “can expect the same safe online shopping experience, return policy and free shipping from the Microsoft Store on eBay that they’ve come to expect on microsoftstore.com.”

　　The number of visitors numbers hitting microsoftstore.com isn’t known, but with eBay claiming to have 124 million active users, it’s not hard to see why the computer giant has chosen to offer its products on the site.

　　Besides its two online stores, Microsoft also has 81 full line and specialty retail stores dotted around the US.

Holiday season preparations

　　Having this year launched a new handset, tablet, and Chromecast streaming device, Google, too, is doing what it can to grab the attention of shoppers, with six Winter Wonderlab showrooms set to open over the holiday season in cities across the US.

　　Of course, Intel and Google’s brick-and-mortar sites are temporary, whereas Microsoft’s eBay store will be around for a while yet – providing enough consumers shop there.