Milo.com Illustrates the Power of Brick and Mortar: Bulk of Spending Stays In-Store

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- While researchers predict e-commerce will experience double-digit growth over the next five years*, the bulk of purchases across segments will still take place in brick and mortar stores. Milo.com (http://milo.com), the Web site that enables shoppers to research online and buy local, today published a look at how online and offline retail sales stack up in the U.S.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100310/SF68127)

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, less than five percent of retail sales are actually done online. However, research shows that an increasingly large percentage of shoppers use the Internet to influence their offline purchases. By aggregating real-time local availability and pricing on more than 2 million products in nearly 50,000 stores across the country, Milo.com is uniquely positioned to own this "research online/buy offline" trend and make it easy for shoppers to find the right product at the right price at a local store.

"It's no surprise that the Internet plays a pivotal role in the retail sector, especially when it provides detailed product information and user-generated reviews. However, the fear that e-commerce would kill brick and mortar stores just isn't playing out," said Jack Abraham, Milo.com founder and CEO. "Many retailers realize that their physical stores offer what the Web never could – immediate access, the ability to touch and feel, fast returns – but they struggle on how to provide the best of both online and offline worlds to their customers. We help retailers develop a seamless cross-channel shopping experience, while also enabling smarter shopping for our users through detailed product descriptions, price comparisons and a recently launched sales feature, which displays over 100,000 local sale prices each day."

The newly released infographic, which can found on the Milo.com blog (http://milo.com/blog/), provides the sales breakdown between e-commerce and retail across a variety of shopping categories:

• Motor Vehicles – Not surprisingly, an overwhelming amount of auto deals still takes place in-person, representing 97.4 percent (or $906,923 million) of total motor vehicle sales.
• Food & Beverage – Local grocery trips remain popular, with 99.8 percent (or $559,625 million) of total food and beverage sales occurring in neighborhood grocery stores.
• Clothing & Accessories – Americans prefer to try on clothing and accessories before they buy, with 99.1 percent (or $221,097 million) of total sales still taking place in actual stores.
• Electronics – While gadget geeks may look online to research their next buy, 98.9 percent (or $111,893 million) of total electronics sales take place in big-box retailers and local malls.
• Hobbies – 98.1 percent (or $86,906 million) of total sales for hobby items such as model cars and comic books occur in neighborhood shops.
• Furniture – Given the typical bulk of furniture pieces, it's no surprise that 99.3 percent (or $115,349 million) of total sales take place in furniture showrooms across the country.

To see how Milo.com can help find products that are available at a store near you, please visit http://milo.com.

*Forrester Research, March 8, 2010: U.S. Online Retail Forecast, 2009 to 2014.

About Milo.com (http://milo.com)

Milo.com enables shoppers to research products online and buy local. The leader in the local product search space, Milo.com tracks the real-time availability and prices of more than 2 million products at nearly 50,000 stores across the U.S. By combining the detailed product information and user reviews available online with the immediate and tangible benefits of shopping in local stores, Milo.com provides the best of both worlds and makes it easy for shoppers to research the best products, find the right prices and check where products are available near them. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Milo.com boasts leadership from comScore and Google, and is backed by True Ventures and prominent Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs from Mint.com, PayPal, Yelp, YouTube, and others. For more information, please visit http://milo.com.

SOURCE Milo.com