Milo, the free Web site that enables shoppers to research online and buy local, today marked its first anniversary with its one millionth unique user and its launch from beta. The launch introduces newly developed features that provide shoppers with the advantages of an Amazon-like experience and the ability to touch, feel and get products now at a local retailer.
New benefits and functionality include:
· In-Stock Search Filters: Shoppers now have the ability to view only in-stock products in the search results and, through an experience comparable to travel site kayak.com, know instantly whether the item they want is currently available at a store near them.
· Price Alerts: With budgeting on top of everyone’s minds, the new Price Alerts notify shoppers the moment a chosen product at a local store reaches a price they are willing to pay.
· Hottest Product List: For those who don’t have a specific gift or purchase in mind, Milo.com has highlighted the hottest holiday products on its homepage. A single click will help shoppers check the local availability and prices of the season’s hottest gifts for everyone on their list.
“Reaching one million unique monthly users just one year after launch is no small feat, and the steep growth trajectory of Milo.com speaks to our continued ability to find and solve more shopping problems for our users. We are extremely excited to surpass this major milestone and check off some final boxes on our product development list to bring the product out of beta,” said Jack Abraham, Milo.com founder and CEO. “Our newly developed features will help even more shoppers find local prices and availability for the products they want, which is particularly important this holiday season when money is tight and inventories are lower than normal at many retailers.”
Milo.com offers all the benefits of researching products online, but also provides shoppers the instant gratification of buying in-store. Shoppers avoid the wait for (and cost of) shipping, get to try products before buying them and enjoy easier returns. They also save time and money: since Milo.com searches the inventories of thousands of store shelves in real-time, shoppers don’t have to drive from store to store to find products and compare prices.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e-commerce currently accounts for less than 5 percent of U.S. retail sales, with the rest of sales still conducted offline. Milo.com’s accelerated growth reflects its unique position to own the research online/buy offline trend, which accounts for exponentially more sales than true e-commerce. By aggregating research, real-time availability and pricing on more than 1.5 million products in over 42,000 stores across the country, Milo.com makes it easy for shoppers to find the right product at the right price, and to buy the product at a local store now.
In addition to the benefits for shoppers, Milo.com also helps retailers turn the Internet into an asset rather than competitor by driving shoppers with intent to buy into their brick and mortar stores. According to Forrester Research, shoppers who research products online and purchase them in-store account for almost $400 billion of total retail sales. This burgeoning cross-channel shopping trend is expected to result in more than $1 trillion of store sales by 2011. Additionally, nearly half of “research online/buy offline” shoppers say they buy additional products once in the actual store, spending over $150 on average in incremental purchases.*
“The ability to accumulate local stores’ inventories and provide real-time prices and product availability makes Milo.com a win-win for both shoppers and retailers,” added Abraham. “We connect shoppers with the products they want, and retailers with the foot traffic they need. No other company can deliver the same value with the same breadth.”
To take advantage of Milo.com this holiday shopping season, please visit http://www.milo.com
*Forrester Research, June 1, 2007: The Web’s Impact On In-Store Sales: US Cross-Channel Sales Forecast, 2006 to 2012.
Source: Milo.com
Collecta,
This is exciting. It’s one of those deceptive ones, since it looks pretty plain and doesn’t peacock itself out to passersby. But you know what they say: Don’t judge a website by its graphics, or maybe I made that up. 
And, as a southerner would say, well Gahhhh-ly. I typed in “Innocents Abroad” and found many, many versions of this book. Basically, anything that is no longer copyrighted, like older books that you had to read in high school, you can find them here. So no, you can’t exactly go to the Gutenberg project and pick up J.K. Rowling’s 8th installment “Harry Potter Finally Sees a Shrink After Suffering PTSD From Way Too Many Near-Death Experiences,” or any of the other seven, but what you can do is look up Arthur Conan Doyle and start reading up on Sherlock Holmes. As far as I know, the Doyle estate can’t stop the Project.
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