How to Create Location Groups for Stores in Different Regions

Quick Answer

You can create location groups for stores in different regions on Shopify by grouping owned retail locations geographically, such as by state or country, to support reporting, staffing, and region-specific promotions. SC Store Locator Map supports location groups built specifically for this kind of regional organization, letting retail chains structure their store network in a way that matches how the business actually operates. This guide covers how to set up regional groups for owned retail locations.

Short Introduction

Retail chains with stores in many regions often need to think about their network in groups rather than as one long, flat list. Regional managers oversee specific areas, promotions sometimes apply only to certain states or countries, and reporting frequently needs to be broken down by region rather than covering the whole company at once. Without a structure that reflects this, every one of these tasks becomes harder than it needs to be.

This guide focuses specifically on regional location groups for retail chains with their own stores, covering how to define regions, apply them consistently, and use them for internal purposes like reporting and staffing, not just for customer-facing search. It is written for merchants organizing owned retail locations rather than dealer or stockist networks.

What Are Regional Location Groups?

Regional location groups are a way to organize a retail chain's own stores by geography, such as state, country, or a custom region the business defines, so the network can be managed and reported on in smaller, more relevant segments. This differs from grouping locations by type or certification, since the grouping here is purely about where a store sits geographically. A well structured set of regional groups often mirrors how regional managers, staffing, and internal reporting are already organized.

Who Needs Regional Location Groups?

Regional groups are especially useful for businesses such as:

• Retail chains with owned stores spread across multiple states or countries
• Businesses with regional managers overseeing a defined set of store locations
• Brands that run promotions or campaigns limited to specific regions
• Companies that report sales, staffing, or performance data by region internally
• Retail chains expanding into new regions and needing a clear way to track new store additions

Why Grouping Stores by Region Matters for Your Business

Organizing owned retail locations by region has a few practical benefits:

• It matches how many retail chains already structure regional management and staffing
• It supports promotions and campaigns that only apply to specific regions
• It makes internal reporting easier when data needs to be broken down by region
• It keeps a large store network organized as new locations continue to open
• It helps identify regions with strong store coverage and regions with clear gaps
• It gives leadership a clearer view of the business when reviewing performance by area

How to Create Location Groups for Stores in Different Regions

Step 1: Define Your Regional Structure

Decide how you want to divide your store network, whether by state, country, or a custom regional boundary that matches how staffing or reporting already works internally.

Step 2: Install and Configure SC Store Locator Map

Install the app, which supports location groups as a built-in way to organize owned retail stores by region.

Step 3: Create Your Regional Groups

Set up a group for each region defined in the first step, using clear, consistent naming so the structure is easy for the whole team to understand and apply correctly going forward.

Step 4: Assign Every Store to a Region

Add each store location to the correct regional group, making sure no location is left ungrouped, since ungrouped stores are harder to include in region-based reporting later.

• Assign new stores to a region as soon as they are added
• Use consistent region names across the entire store list
• Double check assignments for stores located near a regional boundary

Step 5: Use Regional Groups for Promotions and Reporting

Apply regional groups when running region-specific promotions or pulling reporting data broken down by area, since this is often where the real value of regional grouping becomes clear internally.

Step 6: Customize the Store Locator

Decide whether customers should be able to browse or filter by region directly, or whether regional groups are mainly useful for internal management, based on how customers already search your site.

Step 7: Test the Customer Experience

Confirm that stores near a regional boundary still display correctly and that filtering, if enabled for customers, returns accurate results for each defined region.

Examples and Use Cases

Industry: National apparel retailer
Problem: Store performance reporting was manually cross-referenced with a separate regional spreadsheet every quarter.
Setup: The team created regional location groups in their store locator matching their existing regional management structure.
Result: Regional reporting could be pulled directly from the same system that managed store locations.

Industry: Grocery chain expanding into new states
Problem: New store openings in a new state had no clear place in the existing, unstructured location list.
Setup: The brand created a new regional group ahead of launch and assigned incoming stores to it as they opened.
Result: New stores were tracked separately from the established network during the early expansion period.

Explore more Shop Circle case studies covering how retail chains organize stores by region.

Best Practices

A few habits keep regional location groups useful over time:

• Match regional groups to how staffing or reporting is already organized internally
• Use consistent, clear region names across the entire store list
• Assign new stores to a region immediately, not after the fact
• Review regional coverage periodically to spot gaps as the network grows
• Avoid creating overly granular regions that add complexity without adding clarity
• Revisit the regional structure if the business itself reorganizes its territories

Summary

Creating location groups for stores in different regions turns a flat store list into something that reflects how a retail chain actually manages staffing, promotions, and reporting. Matching regional groups to existing internal structures makes them easier to maintain, and the benefit grows clearer as the store network continues to expand.

Shopify store locator app supports location groups so a growing retail chain can organize its stores by region without maintaining a separate spreadsheet just to track where each location sits.