Store locator

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The Design Need:

If retailers have a potential customer visiting their site with the sole purpose of locating one of their (nearest) physical stores, the experience must be simple, quick and helpful or the user might go to one of the competitors.

Design Examples:

Design Solution:

Finding the locator is the first step in finding the physical location of a brand on a site successfully.

  • Users have to be able to search for locations directly on the homepage (especially on mobile sites, see later) or find a listing of local stores within one click from any page. Therefore, the site needs a clear store locator navigation link.
  • A clear textual label for this navigation item is needed (containing “in the vicinity”, “where” or “shops/branches”). Don’t use the word shop if you also have an online shopping section because this can refer to both and can therefore confuse users.
  • Links to the store locator are best implemented as plain text, rather than as graphics because of the download time, maintenance, and search engine purposes (see later).
  • It is not good to hide the store locator under the contact or about this company section.

Secondly, this locator should help a user to easily find out where the stores are located.

  • Keep the initial search easy and usable and avoid too many search criteria:
    • Provide a single field that can accept flexible input of users’ address details, such as a zip code or a city name and if applicable the state or country.
    • An optional, flexible search radius can be added with a clear default setting (if a retail contains many locations within a certain region). This radius should be easy to adjust.
    • You can allow users to search for the nearest branch that offers a specific product or service. Be sure you use in that case categories that are clear for your target users. Retailers are mostly familiar with the specific names of products or services, while this can confuse ‘normal’ customers.
  • Directory listings (browsing) and/or map area selection?
    • Find a good and usable balance between directory listings and maps to show the results.
    • Companies with relatively few locations often rely on (alphabetical) directories; while clickable maps (that zooms in on particular locations) are mostly used by companies with lots of locations in one country and/or that are a worldwide present. It is often a good idea to combine both principles.
    • Some websites employ “narrowing down” techniques to aid the user in finding store locations on a map. Users prefer to select regions from a list, rather than on maps.
    • Mostly it is best to let users find stores using the pull approach, in which users give their address details and see then the store locator presented on a map and/or in a listing, to determine the nearest branches.
    • When you want to give users a pre-defined branch list, best used if there are not many results possible or if users want to get an overview of more stores then only the one(s) nearby a certain location.
  • Feedback handling is important:
    • Store locators must provide helpful and usable feedback when a customer attempts to locate a store in an area that doesn’t have one (when no results are shown). This is a basic requirement but locators often fail here.
    • An easy way to search a second time if needed.

Finally users must be able to determine the best location and find directions to get there.

  • Showing the results:
    • The result page should include (a link to) the information that customers are looking for which is in most situations the following: contact information (street address and telephone number), a map and directions and local dealer links.
    • Show results default in a list and enable uses to get a (bigger) overview map, because only displaying a big map can be problematical for people using mobile devices and isn’t very useful for users who primarily look for opening hours and/or a phone number.
    • Make it possible to zoom in and out or change the view on the map. It is good to use a known third-party map (e.g. Google maps, MapQuest) since users are familiar with them.
    • Provide detailed maps and directions.
    • Make route planners available with the address details of the branch specifying the destination, so users can enter the address details of the location of departure and get directions to get there.
  • Useful additional information communicated to the visitor can be:
    • Any important differentiators (e.g. if store sells clothing’s for men and women, while most stores of this brand only sell one)
    • A mention of nearby landmarks (e.g. directly on your right after the second traffic lights) and other nearby branches in the branch-specific info if relevant;
    • Brief special instructions if applicable (free parking in front of the building);
    • Opening hours and holidays, which saves users a phone call or email to the store. If this info is not provided it is even more important to show a phone number to allow potential costumer to easily contact the business;
    • Information about the available products/services (useful for smaller retailers to show what is in stock);
    • Photos (of the building or entrance) that can help users to identity the area and location more quickly next to the map and driving directions.
  • All information should be accurate and up-to-date.
  • Avoid rich media (like Flash, videos, animations, etc.) for store locators since they do not add real value here and aren’t always supported by computers or mobile devices.
  • Store locators are mostly frame-based so a specific functionality to print the map and driving directions can be a useful tool to provide.

If a website fails into one of these ‘steps’, users will not be able to find the location which is obviously bad for the business. If you need to develop a retail site for mobile devices consider the following:

  • Visitors who are accessing a website on a mobile device are probably on the go and have often something very specific in mind. If they want to buy a product, it can be that they are looking for a store close to their current location. It is less likely that a mobile visitor is interested in simply browsing a website. This means that the most interesting features/options for mobile websites are: offering a product search, a store locator and the phone number.
  • If a website must be accessible both on computer and mobile device it is good to provide the store locator directly on the homepage. Requiring one less step improves the user experience and makes the locator more mobile friendly.
  • Lists works well on mobile applications. Do not forget to provide a clear view stores on map link.

Allow users to keep the directions and other information on their mobiles or in an e-mail account, since this is growing in popularity.

When to use:

Although we all live more virtually then before, users still often need or want to visit a company physically. A store locator must help them with this simple task or it fails.

Why use this solution (rationale):

Users will often use a search engine when looking for a nearby location of a specific company instead of going to that company’s own website. Still it is important to include a location finder on your site since users can decide to do business with you on any page of your site, and should be able to find where you are located easily when they have made that decision. People who start out at a search engine should ideally be directed to location information on your site rather than on a third-party service. To make this option possible, your site must have a locator.

More info elsewhere:

• Categorized as Design Patterns