6 reasons why you should have a store and product locator app—and how to optimize it
DO YOU NEED A STORE AND PRODUCT LOCATOR APP ON YOUR ECOMMERCE STORE?
Can't you just set up a listing in Google Places and be done?
Having a Google Places listing is a significant first step, but relying only on this tool will limit your store's potential for success, since it'll be your customer's single place for information about product and store locations, and hours.
This might not come as a surprise, but up to 22% of inbound phone calls are not answered during the peak hours of 9 am-11 am and 1 pm-3 pm, leaving a big gap of time where your customers will need to use other communication tools to find the information they need. 60% of searches are now through mobile, and 88% of all mobile searchers visit a related store they have searched for. According to Nielsen, 70% of smartphone shoppers use a store locator to arrange their shopping trips.
Luckily, you don't have to fundamentally change how you do business to ramp up your sales potential and decrease customer inquiries. Your company has many fantastic options for store locator tools. But first, let's explore the benefits of store locators, so you can be informed when picking the best store locator plugin for you.
6 benefits of a store & product locator app
According to Google Trends analysis, 76% of people who conduct a local search visit a physical store within 24 hours, with 28% of those searches resulting in a purchase. When conducting their searches, customers usually already know what they're looking for. Still, with a store locator, you can give them information that exceeds their expectations, increasing their likelihood of making a purchase.
Here are seven benefits of store and product locator apps that will ultimately help your store perform better:
1. BOOST SEO.
Bringing traffic to a local business is hard, but using store locators is a straightforward way to add valuable keywords to your site and make it easier for Google to surface your website to potential customers.
Locator tools should surface both your different store locations and the location of your products. Having the names of your products in multiple locations will improve your store's SEO, while only giving your customers the option to buy online or find them in-store doesn't move the needle on bringing traffic to your store. Make sure you find a store and product locator app that will let you input custom text so that you can build your SEO strategy even more and with other keywords and backlinks.
Note: When optimizing your keywords, make sure you place your primary keyword in your title or H1 tag.
2. BUILD CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND SALES.
Any business textbook will tell you that keeping your current customers happy is less expensive than focusing more time on finding new ones. A good store and product locator app will guide your customers directly to your products for a smooth as butter buying journey. Some locators will only direct your customers to your retail locations, but your customers need to know if the store they're travelling to will have their product in stock.
Moving your customers easily along the buying journey creates a great experience; you'll have the opportunity to answer questions they might have through the store locator like:
Which location stocks the product?
How many are in stock at each location?
What are the hours of operation at each location?
What are the COVID-19 protocols?
Answering these questions will not only make it more effortless for them to buy, but it'll also build your reputation as a trustworthy store that they'll want to keep coming back to.
3. ENHANCE YOUR MARKET RESEARCH.
As third-party cookies disappear, marketers and business owners are hungry for first-party data to reach the right customers at the right time and to help plan for store growth.
A locator tool should come with analytics to help you find your high-touch products to inform future buying decisions and prioritize upcoming product collections. It can also help fill the gap and create a better story about why certain products are/aren't selling better than others. Maybe you had significant foot traffic to one of your retail locations, and you noticed that many customers started searching for your brand of whiskey that is only offered at select locations. With analytics grabbed from your store and product locator app, you can now prioritize increasing the amount of stock you carry at that location. Or, experiment with getting that product to other areas to make it easier for customers to buy and increase potential sales.
4. HELPS YOU COMPETE.
When completing a SWOT analysis of your business, it's always wise to not only match what your competitors are doing but do it better. Odds are, your competitors are already using a locator tool to help them boost sales. If they don't have a locator tool - great, you're already ahead. If they do, find out what information they make available and see how you can add your store's unique value proposition to your locator. You can start with an out of the box solution but make sure it allows for customizations to reinforce your brand
5. MAKE YOUR BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORE MORE EFFICIENT.
Remember that stat we mentioned above about how 22% of customer calls are not answered during peak hours? With a locator, you won't have to field as many of those calls, which will let your in-store sales staff focus on helping more customers in person rather than on the phone.
You can also help guide your customers to the product they're looking for by inputting the aisle or bin number where they can find the product. See how Home Depot did it directly on their product page with their locator tool:
6. MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STICKY.
Having a store and product locator on your Shopify store or other ecommerce site is an element that provides valuable information to your customers. It's information that doesn't display directly in Google's search results, so customers will have to click through and engage with your store. Store and product locators encourage potential customers to explore where else your products are located and encourage them to keep coming back to check for product, stock, and location updates
Quick ways you can optimize your store and product locator with ZenLocator
Product and store locator apps have to be the best at supporting your business to raise brand awareness. ZenLocator is optimized for CPG & retail brands to deliver a zen and personalized experience with a full suite of easy customization tools. Let your customers search for your store AND product locations.
Add local content
Make your map interactive
Include accurate store information
Highlight your in-store sales
Integrate keywords for SEO
Make it mobile-responsive
Schedule a demo to see how ZenLocator works, completely free!
See some examples of brands successfully using store and product locators
SAKÉONE
SakéOne's store locator uses call-to-action buttons on their results page to drive subscribers and leads to their newsletter. It also shows your location so customers can visually see how far they are from the product location.
NOUNÓS
Nounós Yogurt's store locator uses its brand assets on their store locator to personalize the locations to their brand. They also let you know which products are available to purchase at specific retail locations.
KONA
Kona Bikes makes the buying process easier by giving customers useful information in its store locator like hours of operation, contact info, and dealer address.
What’s next for your store?
Schedule a demo to see ZenLocator in action
Take a look at a successful example of a store locator that works