In today’s dynamic business environment, effective location management is crucial for growth.
Did you know that shoppers use store locators, even though other options like Google Maps and business directory apps exist? Yes, it’s true. Though most people don’t think so, customers prefer your own website to find information online. It is essential for any business to have a store locator; integrating it into omnichannel can yield exceptional results.
According to Google, 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps or a store locator before visiting.
Customers today are smarter and more tech-savvy, and they do their research and make comparisons before they go to an actual store. We live in a fast-paced world, and time is of the essence; once a customer has decided to buy, they need information instantly. And that information must be relevant to their requirement.
In fact, 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours.
This is where store locators come in; these are placed on websites and can provide the information the customer wants, namely, the nearest location where they can buy your products from. So in a sense, store locators today are not merely address books. They can help you target customers and nudge them towards a location and make a sale.
Having a store locator in ecommerce can help you to not just grow your business, but significantly boost it, both virtually, and in your brick-and-mortar store. Think of it as an invisible salesperson that centralizes your business, increases efficiency, offers customers more convenience and boosts searchability.
Research shows that businesses with a store locator on their site experience a 20–30% increase in foot traffic.
Which Business Sectors Need Store Locators?
Store locators are useful for a wide range of industries. Any business that has multiple outlets or physical stores should have this feature on their website. This includes:
- Retail: From supermarkets to boutique shops, customers want to know where to find your products. In 2024, 72% of shoppers said they checked store availability online before buying in-store.
- Hospitality: Hotels and resorts can guide guests to the nearest property.
- Restaurants: Diners need to find your closest location for a quick meal or a reservation. Restaurant searches with “near me” grew over 200% in recent years.
- Fashion: Clothing stores use locators to direct shoppers to try on items.
- Services: Banks, salons, and clinics rely on locators for appointment scheduling.
- Healthcare: Hospitals and nursing homes make it easy for patients to find facilities. Healthcare-related “near me” searches have grown 900% over the last 5 years.
What are the benefits of store locator?
Having a store locator on your website can help build trust, enhance branding, boost customer loyalty, and increase overall revenues. Let’s take a detailed look at the benefits offered by a store locator app:
Increases your Searchability
One of the most common searches on Google is customers searching for local store locations. Having a store locator on your website, and including details like phone number, email, full address, and business hours, offers customers the convenience of engaging with your business the way they want to. 46% of all Google searches have local intent, and “open now near me” searches have grown by over 200% in the past two years. Having valuable and relevant content is one of the key factors that impact searchability; the more the content and the more value-adding it is, the more customers you can get.
Increases Foot Traffic
As a direct consequence of being more searchable and customers being able to find your physical stores easily, you can drive more foot traffic to your business, and increase not just sales but your brand visibility too. 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
Saves Time and Money
This is one of the most important benefits of store locator. How does this work? You create product lists so that customers can check out the different products available that meet their needs. Click-and-collect usage grew by 35% YoY in 2023, and customers using store pick-up visit stores 2.5x more often than average. But we know that prices, discounts, offers, and store bonuses can be different at different stores. This problem is efficiently solved by having a dedicated store locations page; you can link the locations to either local pages or contact numbers. This saves time for both you and your customers.
Customers can find out if the item they want is available, what offers are running on them, or any other details they want. This is more efficient than, say, customers coming to your shop and having to go back without the item they want because you’re out of stock. When you offer such convenience to your shoppers, you can be sure that they will be more loyal to your brand.
Increases Trust And Overall Branding
The most important of all store locator features is helping them find what they want at the closest location to them; and they can get this information at any time of the day or night. They can check inventory through the specific local page whenever they want, as well. Giving customers all the information they want, and a precise physical address, helps build trust and boosts your branding. This places you as a serious and customer-centric business.
Operating Hours and Reviews
Google reviews play a huge part in informing shoppers about the quality of the products and services offered by a business, as they are largely genuine and unbiased reviews left by actual customers. Reviews can also deliver insights to other customers about shopping experiences and shipping times. This creates more transparency and trust, helping prospective buyers to make informed decisions.
Detailed information about business hours helps shoppers know when to visit your stores and plan their visits according to their convenience.
Optimizes Your Physical Store Functions
There is a limit to the number of customers you can accommodate in your physical stores. However, with quick inventory updates and the capability of handling multiple queries, store locators can reduce the load on physical stores. They can provide services like booking or reservation, information about quantity, sizes, colours, and so on, and also enable calling local numbers. Physical stores have a 20–40% conversion rate, compared to just 2–3% for online, making optimized store functions more profitable. In fact, there can be a synergistic operation of both business channels, with a mutual reliance for business transactions.
It Facilitates Market Research For Your Business
Store locators also generate customer data; you can use this invaluable data to inform your marketing strategies. Whenever a customer uses your store locator, the system will log that activity. You can later analyse this data and understand trends in customer requirements, activities, and preferences, and make forecasts for the near future.
Information like discount codes, pin codes, and the date and time of customer visits can all be used to form marketing strategies like deciding the ideal time to launch campaigns, and how you can improve your customer service. It can also help you make decisions about inventory, offers, products at different outlets, and so on.
It can also help you to decide if you need to open new stores at specific locations, going by the number of check-ins or searches from prospective customers in those locations. In this way, a store locator can facilitate business expansion.
Centralizes Your Business
Store locators need centralized data; this means you can create a spreadsheet and manage all your store locations easily with the store locator. This feature can efficiently support your retail stores, and is especially helpful when you have more stores than can be managed by a limited staff. Centralized store management can reduce operational overhead by up to 30%, according to a 2024 survey by Retail Dive.
Enhanced User Experience
By providing a store locator tool, you can provide a better user experience for customers who prefer to shop in physical stores instead of online. By pointing them towards the nearest location, the store locator makes the shopping process simpler and more convenient for your customers. You can offer additional convenience by allowing customers to purchase an item and pick it up from a store of their choice.
Sync Your Products
When you sync your products with your store locations, it can completely change the game for your ecommerce business. This can help you to seamlessly connect your online and offline business, providing customers with more convenience and consistent experiences.
Customers can easily transition between online and offline purchasing as per their convenience, and make their shopping experience a cohesive one.
Integrating store locator provides customers with accurate information about products and helps them to make better informed decisions.
Competitive Advantage
Incorporating a Shopify store locator on your website can help you stand out from your competitors and give you an edge. Only 49% of luxury and specialty retailers have adopted store locators,giving early adopters a clear competitive advantage. It signifies that you are committed to offering valid, relevant, and useful information and excellent service to your current and prospective customers.
Keep Your Store Locator Feature Updated
To ensure that your store locator will do all this, you have to keep your information on your website up to date and relevant. Without this, you would be wasting an invaluable asset. Outdated store information leads to a 40% drop in foot traffic, according to Google My Business data. that can significantly increase your business and improve your bottom line.
Final Thoughts
Your online and physical stores have a symbiotic relationship, Brands using omnichannel strategies including store locators retain 89% of their customers. which can be strengthened further by incorporating a store locator feature on your website. These passive marketing tools make your overall omnichannel more robust. If you look at any successful store, you will see that they all have it. Why should you be left behind?
If you are wondering, how can I know which is the best store locator, don’t worry, you have come to the right place. LocateStore is a simple, no-code store locator tool that is highly efficient and has already proven itself across industries. Regardless of the segment, LocateStore is capable of guiding your business towards phenomenal growth and success.
With easy search features, engaging maps, language translation, unlimited locations, and simplified navigation, this mobile-friendly tool is just what you need to beat the competition. If you want to see your witness thrive and expand, embrace the limitless potential of location intelligence in this dynamic business landscape.
Sign up on LocateStore today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of a store location?
Having a Store locator allows your customers to find more about you, such as the contact details, working hours and store locations, helping them efficiently reach your store closest to them, improving customer experience and foot traffic
What is the function of a store locator?
A Store Locator, in simple terms, combines and showcases all your store locations and other necessary details on a single map, which can be managed by adding and editing a Single Google Sheet.
What is the best store locator?
Amongst many Store locators available online, LocateStore Store Locator offers features, customization, and management at ease, making it one of the best store locators online
Why does your business need a Store Locator?
To offer convenience and enhance customer experience in your business, a Store Locator is a great way to do so. Along with this, a Store Locator also enables higher foot traffic to your business stores and improves your overall reputation as a business.