EBay Inc. said on Thursday that it bought a local shopping engine that lets consumers search online for products available at stores near them.
The company plans to add results from Milo to those that eBay users already get when they search the company's website and mobile apps.
Milo tracks inventory ranging from laptops to body jewelry at about 50,000 stores in the US in real time. Visitors can search for products that are usually carried by those stories and learn whether they are in stock. Once users find the product they want, Milo can also send them to Google Maps for directions.
Milo, which is based in Palo Alto, has more than 140 retail partners, more than half of them small and medium-sized companies. Larger retailers include Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Barnes & Noble Inc. EBay buys shopping engine Milo
