eBay.com has added a new feature which allows shoppers to check products available at local retailers through eBay search. This is the first Milo integration which now gives access to millions of products from approximately 50,000 stores across all 50 US states.
To make it easy for retailers to upload products eBay is providing retailers who use QuickBooks a way to easily upload their inventory onto Milo and eBay through a new inventory management plug-in.
By opting in to the eBay local search beta, eBay users can access a new local shopping tab to check a product’s local, or in-store. Product pages for MP3 players and GPS devices now also include a local shopping tab.
Milo covers over 140 retailers with 50,000 locations across the US and new retailers can sign up at Milo.com.
In recent years eBay have strived to encourage retailers to place all of their inventory onto the site with mixed results. A large number of retailers do list products on eBay, but very few if any list their entire inventory. With the Milo Local Search integration it sidesteps the listing process and adds millions of products with no additional input from the retailers.
From eBay’s perspective, if the site becomes the venue for both online and off-line buying then buyers who can’t find an item locally should be able to find the products online. However this isn’t a development which is likely to please many eBay sellers. Every time eBay drives traffic off the site sellers wonder just how much value there is in the fees that they pay.
