Milo, the anti-Amazon, spurns online shopping

Comparison site reminds the world that 95% of retail purchases are still made in stores.

Technology trends and news by Matt Bowman
March 10, 2010 | Comments (4)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/e4e

Shopping online is usually lame for two reasons. You can’t inspect what you buy before you shell out cash, and you have to wait days to get your stuff.

That’s why roughly 95% of all retail sails are still made in brick-and-mortar buildings—a point that online price comparison site Milo.com is making with an infographic published today.

The company’s mission is to enable shoppers to “research online and buy local.” I can actually see this being one of the most useful startups I’ve reviewed in a long time. The company claims to have deep information on millions of products (“just like Amazon”), real-time inventory and sales information at nearly 50,000 stores, aggregated customer reviews and deals on shipping if you do decide to buy online.

So I gave it a test run. I still haven’t bought a blue tooth headset because of a sneaking suspicion I would be overpaying at the nearby Staples, and have been relying instead on the iPhone’s craptastic loudspeaker when in the car. I haven’t bought one online because I just can’t bring myself to shell out $5 shipping for a $30 product.

On Milo.com’s homepage, I entered “Bluetooth headset” and my zipcode, and my suspicions were confirmed—the Staples has a $20 Motorola, but exactly 4.9 miles away, Sears carries one for $14.99. Interestingly, the BestBuy across town carries the same model as Staples, but for $5 bucks more (scammers).

Turns out I'm not the only one who thinks this a great idea. Milo's 7 11-person team has raised about $5 million from an impressive cast of investors including Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, Chris Dixon, SV Angel, and Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer (that infographic is straight out of Mint's playbook).

Related companies, investors and entrepreneurs

Ron Conway

Bio: Silicon Valley angel investor. Ron has invested in over 500 companies in the last 15 years, including Google, PayPal and Ask Jeeves. He's...

Jeff Clavier

Bio: Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of ...

Aydin Senkut

Bio: Aydin Senkut is the Founder and President of Felicis Ventures. He has been named one of the top 25 tech  angels by Businessweek rece...

Comments

James Smith, on March 11, 2010

I partially disagree with this article. I think that online shopping provides more freedom and control than shopping in s a regular store. It also provides customers with the convenience and variety of products from several internet retailers. In other words, users can shop from several shops from the privacy of their homes and computers. For instance, I did 80% of my shopping from Google Products and Onewayshopping.com (www.onewayshopping.com) during the holidays. The best part is that you can always get products not available in local stores.

Matt Bowman, on March 11, 2010

I agree re: Holidays--shopping then is about checking names off the list. If I need to get something for some more immediate, acute need, though, I'd much rather know the best price locally.

Dave Felipe, on March 11, 2010

Online shopping is "lame"....wow that's some solid journalism right there. Not sure where you get your so-called "facts" but online retail is actually outperforming brick and mortar stores more and more every year. For more actual facts, check out this blog posting on a recent Forrester Research study on the future of online shopping.

http://ecommercejunkie.com/2010/03/09/forrester-research-report-paints-rosy-outlook-for-the-future-of-e-commerce/

Matt Bowman, on March 11, 2010

Dave, online shopping is not "outperforming" brick and mortar at all. It is growing faster, which is inevitable given that it's a brand new market, but it's still only 5% of retail sales, compared to 95% in-store. That is not outperforming.