How to Add Store Groups and Categories to Your Shopify Store Locator

Quick Answer

Store groups and categories let you organize a Shopify store locator by attributes such as region, store type, or service, making a large location list easier to manage and search. SC Store Locator Map supports both location groups and search tags, giving merchants two complementary ways to categorize their locations.

Short Intro

As a store locator grows beyond a handful of locations, an unorganized list becomes harder to manage internally and harder for customers to search effectively. Groups and categories solve this by adding structure to the underlying data. Without that structure, even simple tasks like reviewing coverage in a specific region can turn into a manual, error-prone exercise.

This guide covers the practical setup of store groups and categories, including when to use location groups versus search tags and how the two features complement each other. It also covers common mistakes to avoid when applying this structure to an existing location list.

What Are Store Groups and Categories?

Location groups organize stores by a broad, usually singular attribute, such as region or brand division, while search tags allow more flexible, often multiple categorizations per location, such as services offered or store type. Used together, they give merchants a structured way to organize even a very large location list. Choosing the right mix of groups and tags up front tends to save considerable rework later.

Who Needs Store Groups and Categories?

This becomes especially useful for businesses such as:

• Multi-location retailers with dozens or hundreds of stores
• Brands with several distinct store formats or types
• Businesses managing locations across multiple regions or countries
• Wholesale or dealer-based brands with locations that differ meaningfully from one another
• Businesses planning a redesign of their store locator page and wanting a cleaner structure
• Brands merging location data from an acquisition or a newly added distribution channel

Why Using Groups and Categories Matters for Your Business

Adding structure through groups and categories has a few practical benefits:

• It makes a large location list easier to review and manage internally
• It supports customer-facing filtering so shoppers can narrow results to what matters to them
• It reduces the chance of inconsistent or unclear location data as the list grows
• It gives the business a clearer picture of coverage across regions or store types
• It scales well, since new categories or groups can be added without restructuring the entire list
• It makes onboarding new team members to location management noticeably easier

How to Add Store Groups and Categories to a Shopify Store Locator

Step 1: Decide on Your Grouping and Tagging Structure

Determine which attributes are worth organizing by, such as region for groups and service type or store format for tags, before adding this structure to your existing locations. Sketching this out on paper first can reveal overlaps or gaps before any data gets touched.

Step 2: Install and Configure SC Store Locator Map

Install SC Store Locator Map, which supports both location groups and search tags as built in organizational tools.

Step 3: Apply Groups and Tags to Existing Locations

Go through your existing location list and apply the appropriate group and tags to each one, using bulk actions where available to save time.

• Assign each location to one primary group, such as a region
• Apply as many relevant tags as needed for services or store type
• Use bulk tag actions to update several locations at once

Step 4: Customize the Store Locator

Enable customer-facing filtering by tag if this would help shoppers, while keeping location groups primarily as an internal organizational tool if that suits your business better.

Step 5: Document the Category Structure for Your Team

Write a short internal reference explaining what each group and tag means and when to use it, so future additions to the location list stay consistent with the original structure. Share this document with anyone who adds or edits locations, not just the person who originally set up the structure.

Step 6: Test the Customer Experience

Confirm that filtering and search work as expected with your full, tagged location list, and check that no location was missed during the tagging process. Spot check a sample of locations against the source data to confirm tags were applied correctly.

Examples and Use Cases

Industry: National pharmacy chain
Problem: Hundreds of locations with different service offerings, such as pharmacies with or without a drive-through, were listed with no way to filter.
Setup: The brand tagged locations by available services and enabled filtering on the store locator.
Result: Customers could quickly find a nearby location with the specific service they needed.

Industry: Regional grocery chain
Problem: Stores varied widely in format and services, but the locator gave customers no way to tell one location from another before visiting.
Setup: The chain introduced regional location groups alongside service tags and enabled tag-based filtering.
Result: Customers could filter directly to locations offering the specific services they needed.

Read more app case studies from Shop Circle covering store groups and categories at scale.

Best Practices

A few habits keep groups and categories useful over time:

• Keep group structures simple, generally one primary group per location
• Use tags for anything that could apply to more than one category at once
• Apply groups and tags to new locations as soon as they are added
• Use bulk actions to update tags across many locations efficiently
• Review your tagging structure periodically to confirm it still reflects the business accurately
• Keep a short internal reference document describing what each group and tag means
• Avoid creating a new tag when an existing one already covers the same distinction

Summary

Store groups and categories turn a large, unorganized location list into something both customers and internal teams can navigate confidently. Location groups and search tags serve complementary purposes, and using both well is what supports a store locator as it scales, provided the structure is documented clearly enough for the whole team to follow.

the app supports location groups and search tags together, giving merchants the structure needed to manage a growing location list with confidence.