In one corner of Microsoft Corp., the smaller the better is the order of the day for new customers. Microsoft’s latest retail push is focusing on the smallest of retailers, those with perhaps a single checkout lane and no more than nine stores.

Microsoft’s pitch is a fully bundled $3,000 package with software and just about all necessary hardware, either for brand-new retailers or for those contemplating major upgrades but wanting to avoid the piecemeal integration headaches.

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“The most important thing we’re doing is taking a lot of the cost and complexity out,” said Brendan O’Meara, Microsoft’s general manager of its Retail Management System. “The retailers will know that these pieces are all going to work together.”

O’Meara also argues that the $3,000 integrated price is attractive. At the typical volumes a small retailer can justify, “a single register install can be $4,500 to $6,500,” he said.

The software included—Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System 1.2—can automate inventory management, accelerate card transactions, create productivity reports and track customer purchase trends.

Hardware included is a POS computer, 15-inch LCD monitor, keyboard, receipt printer, cash drawer, bar-code scanner, magnetic stripe reader, mouse plus various cables and accessories.

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From the perspective of the world’s largest software company, the strategy makes sense for three reasons.