Gome Electrical Appliances, a major appliances and electronics retailer, signed a strategic alliance deal with Microsoft on Thursday, in a bid to boost its branding.

　　Under the deal, more than 70 percent of computers and laptops in Gome stores in China will have legal Windows software.

　　"After installing legal Microsoft software, our sales have seen a significant increase," said Li Juntao, Gome's senior vice-president.

　　Industry experts said the move may help Microsoft to have more users in the promising Chinese market, and may bring huge sales and benefit to Gome's branding efforts.

　　Li said that in addition to providing free software, Gome will introduce more services to customers, such as offering free wi-fi in all its stores, and an improved online platform.

　　The company has more than 1,700 shops in around 400 Chinese cities.

　　At the end of last year, Gome combined two of the company's shopping sites, Gome.com.cn and Coo8.com.

　　The home appliance giant, which is backed by Bain Capital, said the integration will enable the sharing of information systems and members' information, the pooling of the merchandizing and logistics systems, as well as unifying information services. After the integration, the new platform will be called Gome Online.

　　The Hong Kong-listed company said that Gome Online is expected to have a sales target of 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) by the end of 2015.