Looking to enhance your website with a store locator feature? In this guide, we explore the best WordPress store locator plugins available to streamline the process of helping customers find your brick and mortar locations. From customizable maps to easy installation, discover how these plugins can elevate your online presence and improve user experience. We’ll also explore alternatives to WP store locator plugins and whether they measure up against these popular business solutions.

What is a Store Locator in WordPress?

A store locator in WordPress is a plugin designed for e-commerce websites to help visitors find physical locations of stores or businesses that sell a particular product or products. It's particularly useful for businesses with multiple physical locations, such as retail chains, restaurants, banks, or service providers, as well as for businesses who sell their products in a variety of locations.

A store locator plugin typically integrates with a map provider like Google Maps, Mapbox or OpenStreetMaps, allowing users to enter their location or use geolocation features to find the nearest store. Users can then view details about each location, like the address, contact information, hours of operation, and any other relevant information provided by the business.

Store locators enhance user experience by providing an easy and intuitive way for customers to locate and visit physical locations. This ultimately helps to drive foot traffic and increase business opportunities. These tools are especially useful for alcohol brands that experience restrictions when it comes to shipping to individuals.

Learn more: 8 of the Best Store Locator Examples →

What Page Should You Put a Store Locator Plugin On?

Ultimately, the best page for your store locator depends on your specific website design, user behavior, and business objectives. It's often a good idea to test different placements to see which one generates the most engagement and conversions for your business.

Here are a few common options for store locator placement.

Dedicated Store Locator Page

Creating a standalone page specifically for the store locator is a popular choice. This ensures that visitors looking for store locations can easily find the information they need without distractions. You can include a prominent link to this page in your website's main navigation menu.

Contact Page

If your website already has a contact page, adding the store locator functionality to this page could make sense. This is a logical location, as your business’s contact information and physical address are likely to be listed here. This allows users to easily find your nearest location relative to them.

Product Page

Many brands feature a store locator on a specific product page or pages to help increase the likelihood of an in-person sale. This method can be especially effective, as product pages are designed to highlight the best features of a specific product. Brands can also track data on how many page visitors use the store locator which can be a helpful metric to track.

Footer

Placing a condensed version of the store locator in the footer of every page can ensure that it's easily accessible from anywhere on your website. This is particularly useful if you think a majority of your visitors will be looking for store locations regardless of which page they're on.

Sidebar or Widget Area

Depending on your website's layout, you may have a sidebar or widget area where you can include the store locator. This keeps it visible without occupying too much space in the main content area.

Homepage

If you run a business where finding physical locations is a key aspect of your service or product offerings, placing a simplified version of the store locator on your homepage can be effective. This is especially true for businesses that rely heavily on foot traffic, like retail stores or restaurants.

Learn more: 10 Website Pages Every Alcohol Brand Needs →

What to Look For When Choosing a WordPress Store Locator

Not all store locators are created equal. When choosing a WordPress store locator plugin, there are several factors you should consider. By considering these factors and thoroughly researching your options, you can choose a WordPress store locator plugin that meets your requirements and enhances the user experience on your website.

Features

Assess the features offered by the plugin. Some essential features include customizable maps, search functionality, the ability to add multiple locations, support for custom fields (like store hours or contact information), responsive design for mobile devices, and integration with popular mapping services like Google Maps.

Ease of Use

Look for a plugin with an intuitive interface that's easy to use for both administrators and visitors. It should offer simple setup and configuration options, as well as an easy way to add and manage store locations.

Customization Options

Consider whether the plugin provides sufficient customization options to match your website's branding and design. You should be able to customize map styles, markers, info windows, and other elements to ensure consistency with your site's look and feel.

Search Functionality

Make sure the plugin offers robust search functionality, allowing visitors to search for store locations by address, ZIP code, city, or other relevant criteria. Auto-complete and geolocation features can also enhance the user experience.

Performance

Choose a plugin that is optimized for performance to ensure fast loading times and smooth operation, even with a large number of store locations. Avoid plugins that significantly slow down your website or consume excessive server resources.

Compatibility

Check whether the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress and other plugins or themes you're using. Compatibility issues can lead to conflicts and functionality problems, so it's important to verify compatibility before installing.

Support and Documentation

Look for plugins that offer comprehensive documentation and reliable customer support. This ensures that you can quickly find answers to any questions or issues that arise during setup or use of the plugin.

Reviews and Ratings

Before making a decision, read reviews and ratings from other users to gauge their experiences with the plugin. Pay attention to feedback regarding ease of use, features, support, and overall satisfaction.

8 Best WordPress Store Locator Plugins

Looking for a store locator for your site? Check out these standout options that provide solutions to a wide variety of businesses.

1. Store Locator Plus® for WordPress

Store Locator Plus® simplifies the process of adding a location finder to your website, allowing visitors to easily locate your business. The plugin can map anywhere from 10 to tens of thousands of locations worldwide and offers highly customizable search and directory building options through premium add-ons. 

The base plugin is fully functional with no location limit restrictions, making installation quick and easy. Whether you have a handful of locations or a large database, managing them within WordPress requires no special programming or setup—simply input your locations, create a page, and add the SLPLUS shortcode to have the search form and map appear seamlessly.

2. MapifyPro

MapifyPro offers fully responsive WordPress maps, ensuring seamless interaction across devices with features like pinch, zoom, and swipe for app-like navigation. It includes a bulk uploader feature enabling the easy addition of map locations via spreadsheet, with automatic updating of only changed locations. 

Additionally, users can bulk upload images to each location, with MapifyPro generating thumbnails and creating interactive galleries. Customized map tooltips with thumbnails can also be added, providing a sleek and personalized touch to the map experience.

3. WP Store Locator

WP Store Locator offers seamless management of an unlimited number of stores, allowing for the inclusion of additional details such as phone numbers, emails, and opening hours. The plugin provides customizable map styles and nine retina-ready marker icons, ensuring visual coherence with your website. It also supports the display of driving distances in either kilometers or miles. With convenient shortcodes, users can effortlessly add individual store information, addresses, or maps with single markers to any page, enhancing user experience and functionality.

4. Agile Store Locator

Agile Store Locator is a top-tier WordPress plugin providing instant access to local stores via Google Maps V3 integration. Offering unlimited store addition with category management, it ensures precise geolocation for customer inquiries. 

With a highly responsive UI design and support for unlimited markers, alongside category management capabilities, Agile Store Locator allows for comprehensive customization, including adding custom fields, empowering businesses to create tailored store locator experiences effortlessly.

5. Super Store Finder

Super Store Finder is a robust and user-friendly store locator plugin designed to simplify the display of store locations on websites, particularly through touchscreen devices. With easy installation and usability, it's ideal for businesses seeking a quick addition of a store locator map. 

Its powerful administration platform allows effortless management of stores, tags, categories, and style customization, ensuring alignment with branding. Offering extensive customization options, including map style adjustments and additional filters, Super Store Finder caters to businesses aiming to create functional and visually appealing store locators.

6. WP Go Maps

WP Go Maps is a versatile plugin for WordPress that lets you add customized Google maps, map blocks, or Store Locators to your posts and pages using shortcodes, without any hassle. The free version allows you to create maps with multiple markers, while the Pro version offers advanced features like Elementor integration for creating maps easily, support for classic WordPress installations with map widgets, and the ability to create custom maps with high-quality markers containing various details such as locations, descriptions, images, categories, links, and directions. Whether you need maps for contact pages, delivery areas, or other purposes, WP Go Maps provides a user-friendly solution.

7. Locatoraid Store Locator

Locatoraid is a user-friendly and lightweight store locator plugin designed to help customers easily find stores and businesses. Setting up is a breeze: just input your locations, and the plugin's automatic geocoding function finds the coordinates, placing your locations on the map for your customers to access. Customizable map styles ensure seamless integration with your website, while shortcode parameters allow for easy configuration of the front-end view, including default search text, search radius, view layout, and more, providing a tailored user experience.

8. MapSVG

This is a robust maps plugin that allows you to create directories and databases as well as maps. With MapSVG, you can have a wide variety of maps, including SVG vector maps, Google Maps (unlimited custom styles), Google Maps plus your custom vector overlay, and image maps with the ability to add interactivity to any .png or .jpeg image.

Alternative to a Store Locator Plugin

Managing a store locator plugin can be time-consuming, especially for a growing business. If your business has begun to scale and you find yourself struggling to keep up with the demands of a plugin while also wishing you had better reporting options, there is a solution for you. 

The Grappos Product Locator is a powerful alternative to the store locator plugins available for WordPress. This app is fully managed by a dedicated team that takes care of updates and data aggregation, so you don’t have to. With Grappos, customers can easily find your products wherever they are, from retail stores to restaurants and more. Users have full access to all of Grappos features on mobile, too, which makes this an excellent solution for website visitors on the go.

The Grappos Product Locator is not a plugin, but it does work seamlessly on WordPress as well as other website platforms. No matter where your website is hosted, Grappos can provide an incredible store locator experience for your users.

‍Request a Grappos Product Locator demo today →

Locating the Perfect Solution

A store locator plugin for your WordPress website is a great starting tool for your business. They provide visitors with a convenient way to find your products and physical locations, ultimately driving customer loyalty and brand success. Once you start growing and achieving your business goals, a more robust application like Grappos is the perfect solution to handle the greater demand and provide you with robust analytics to help your business grow even more. 

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