StepUp.com announced the launch of its local "shopping engine," currently in beta testing. The service allows shoppers to search online for retail products located in local stores. Merchants may list their products online, driving Web shoppers to their physical locations.

Kendall Fargo, president and CEO of StepUp.com, said, "Currently, half of the 80 million web shoppers in the U.S. prefer to purchase offline, but the Yellow Pages, the most-used local shopping resource, only list generic categories and force customers to call around in order to find specific products. This makes local shopping tedious at best."

StepUp.com’s sales tools include a client that automatically uploads inventory information continually from QuickBooks, a leading financial management product from Intuit Inc., so businesses have a hands-off way to drive sales from Internet shoppers even if they do not currently have a Web presence. Businesses can easily register as member stores and will be able to begin merchandising their products immediately. For a limited time, StepUp.com is allowing businesses to sign up as charter member stores for free, allowing them to merchandise their products without paying any product listing fees.

Shoppers visiting StepUp.com will be able to search for a product and will have the option of buying from a physical store in their vicinity or, if it is not available locally, the shopper will be able to buy the product from a Web store. "The ability for consumers to shop across channels will offer an enormous, unique and convenient product selection that will surpass anything else available on the web," said Fargo, whose background includes positions at Handspring Inc. and Beyond.com.

http://www.stepup.com