Winston-Salem, N.C. - The Nationwide Marketing Group is making Milo's local store locator and shopping service available to member dealers at no charge.

Milo Local Shopping, a unit of eBay, allows consumers to search for locally available products online and via their mobile devices.

The platform syncs with merchants' point-of-sale systems to provide shoppers with real-time inventory availability and pricing information within a select geographic area. Customers can then make purchases with one click for pick up at their local store, giving retailers additional attachment-sale opportunities.

Providing Milo to Nationwide dealers has been a goal of Jeannette Howe, executive director of the group's Specialty Electronics Nationwide (SEN) division, who believes the platform can help level the playing field between physical and online-only retailers.

eBay president/CEO John Donahoe, in his keynote at last month's Consumer Electronics Association  Leaders In Technology dinner during 2012 International CES, said Milo's mobile app, along with other eBay retail services, is enabling brick-and-mortar merchants to compete with e-tailers as the smartphone continues "blurring the line between e-commerce and retail."

Nationwide's Milo program follows a recently forged pact between the Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO Group) and eBay, which will give the buying group's specialty A/V dealers greater visibility and traffic on the e-commerce platform.

Nationwide will present Milo to its members at this month's PrimeTime! convention and buy fair, where the shopping service will have an exhibit booth. The event is being held Feb. 26-29 at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Fla.