Why Do Brands Need a Store Locator?

With e-commerce sales on rise, brands with physical store locations are looking for an edge. Adding a store locator to a website, mobile app, or social media page is one way that brands are bringing people back into their stores and converting online visitors into offline customers.

From a functional perspective, store locators are designed to give website visitors directions to nearby store locations. They display valuable information and unique details about each store, including hours of operation, special promotions, and local events. Store locators also give brands a way to control authoritative location data, which is the basis for local marketing.

Having a store locator designed with best practices in mind can increase conversions. Store locators play a key role in helping brands build their local search presence, and provide a convenient means of directing customers to local store pages.

Store Locator Business Advantages

The best store locators do more than just provide online visitors with the addresses of local business locations. Store locators actually move website visitors along the customer journey. During the post-purchase phase, they can even be used for customer service opportunities or to display reviews or ratings for specific store locations.

Other advantages to adding a store locator include:

• Increased website traffic
• Improved presence in local search
• Cut down on unnecessary telephone calls
• Collecting analytics, such as where visitors are searching from

Common Features

• The most important features to look for in a store locator are:
• Real-time updates
• Geocoding
• Driving directions
• International mapping
• Multilingual capabilities
• Save my location feature
• Mobile-first design

To learn more about integrating a store locator into your own brand’s website, contact Brandify.