Startup Milo had previously commanded one aspect of the online to offline shopping experience by highlighting local inventory at brick and mortar stores in online inventory search. But earlier this year, Google Product Search launched Blue Dot, on mobile search. Similar to Milo, Blue Dot allows users within search to see if a product is in-stock at nearby stores. However, Milo countered back then that Google doesn’t have the inventory reach that Milo has. This week, Google unleashed a new version of Product Search, with more inventory listings from 70 retail brands. And today, Milo is striking back by adding coupons to the mix.
For example, if you searched for a car part on Milo, you would see a coupon for $20 off a $50 purchase. Milo is offering two types of coupons—printed coupons (some offer mobile scanning as well) and buy online, pickup in-store coupons. These coupons are exclusively for using the online buy online, pickup in-store checkout on the retailer’s website.
Although Google is now the main competition, Milo co-founder and CEO Jack Abraham feels pretty confident. “We’re in good shape,” he says. Regardless, having Google as your main competitor is daunting. And Google could easily turn on a coupon feature as the search giant already offers coupons via Places.
But Milo is still offering a wide variety of inventory on its site, tracking the real-time availability and prices of more than 3 million products at over 50,000 stores across the U.S., including Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel and more. And as the “online research, offline buying” consumer market represents a $917 billion in consumer spending, there’s plenty of room for a few players in the space.