Product search engine Krillion has launched a feature, called “Stock Check,” that enables consumers to see if products (starting with TVs) are in stores locally, buy them online and pick them up at a range of major U.S. retail chains, including Sears, Best Buy, Circuit City, and others. Krillion had been using “click to call” to enable consumers to check with the local store or a call center to determine whether products were actually in stores.

The new feature, announced today at SMX Local & Mobile, is true real-time inventory information. A number of companies (ShopLocal, StepUp, GPShopper, among others) are working on building out this infrastructure so consumers can actually find online (or in mobile) where products are sold locally. However, to date that has mostly been about “proxy” information for local inventory (e.g., what’s on sale) with some exceptions, notably NearbyNow, which offers “reserve online” for in-store pickup for its entire database of products sold at local malls.

What’s also interesting about Krillion’s new Stock Check feature is that the company will take a piece of the transaction rather than a per-click fee.

Here’s my earlier discussion on local search and products. I also have more discussion of today’s Krillion announcement on my personal blog Screenwerk.

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Shopping Search Engines

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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