#news EBay buys local shopping engine Milo

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- E-commerce giant eBay on Thursday announced that it has bought Milo, a local shopping engine that provides consumers with access to real-time local store inventory and pricing.

Ebay said it plans to integrate Milo's technology into the eBay. com platform and mobile offerings, believing the acquisition will strengthen its selection of products and help eBay sellers reach more shoppers.

Founded in 2007 and based in Palo Alto in the U.S. state of California, Milo currently tracks millions of products and maintains more than 140 merchant relationships, which account for about 50,000 stores across the United States.

It tracks real-time local availability and prices of the products and enables shoppers to research online and find the products in-stock at a local store.

An introduction posted on Milo's website stated that its mission is "to track every product on every shelf of every store in real-time."

"Local commerce companies like Milo are blurring the lines between in-store and online shopping," Mark Carges, senior vice president of eBay's marketplaces division, said in a statement.

"By making accurate, real-time, local store inventory and pricing available to online and mobile shoppers, we see a huge opportunity for local retailers, small businesses and eBay sellers to reach more buyers, and for consumers to make more informed buying decisions," Carges added.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. EBay said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in conjunction with its third quarter earnings release in October.

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