How to Use Location Searches to Plan Your Next Store Opening

Quick Answer

Location searches, read alongside order data and customer requests, can support the early research stage of planning a new owned store, without replacing the deeper market research an opening decision still requires. Patterns in where shoppers look for a nearby store, and where those searches consistently come up short, point toward regions worth investigating further. SC Store Locator Map is where these searches happen, which makes it a practical starting point for this kind of research. This guide covers how to use that starting point responsibly.

Introduction

Opening a new owned store is a significant decision that depends on far more than customer interest alone, including cost, staffing, lease terms, and local competition. But before any of that detailed work begins, a brand still needs a shortlist of regions worth considering in the first place, and that is where location search behavior can genuinely help.

This guide is for merchants with at least one physical store already, who are considering where to open the next one. It focuses specifically on using store locator behavior as an early, low-cost input into that decision, distinct from the wholesale and dealer focused uses of location data covered elsewhere.

What Is Location Search Based Store Planning?

Location search based store planning means using patterns in how shoppers search a store locator, combined with order and support data, to build an early shortlist of regions for a potential new store. It is an input into the research phase, not a substitute for site selection, lease negotiation, or local market analysis. Its value is in narrowing a wide field of possible regions down to a smaller, more informed set worth deeper investigation.

Who Needs This Approach?

This kind of early research is useful for businesses such as:

• Brands with one or a few physical stores planning their next location
• Multi-location retailers deciding which of several candidate cities to prioritize
• Consumer goods brands with a strong online following considering their first physical store
• Retail chains weighing several similar sized markets against each other
• Brands whose past store openings were based mostly on instinct rather than customer data

Why Using Location Searches for Store Planning Matters for Your Business

Bringing location search behavior into store planning has a few practical benefits:

• It grounds an early shortlist in actual customer behavior rather than assumption
• It helps narrow a wide list of candidate regions before expensive research begins
• It surfaces regions with existing brand demand that might not be obvious otherwise
• It gives internal stakeholders a clearer story for why a region is worth exploring
• It reduces the chance of overlooking a strong candidate simply because no one thought to check
• It complements, rather than replaces, standard site selection research

How to Use Location Searches in Store Opening Research

Step 1: Confirm Your Store Locator Reflects Reality

Make sure the store locator app lists every current location accurately, since gaps or outdated entries will distort any comparison against customer search behavior.

Step 2: Test Searches Around Candidate Regions

For any region already under consideration, search the locator as a shopper would and note how far they would need to travel to reach an existing store. A large distance suggests the region is genuinely underserved rather than simply overlooked in this exercise.

Step 3: Review Support and Social Requests for the Same Regions

Check whether customer questions about a nearby store have come from the same candidate regions, which adds a direct customer voice to the distance based observation from the previous step.

• Note how many separate requests came from the same region
• Distinguish between a general brand request and one about your product range specifically
• Keep the log dated so patterns over time are visible

Step 4: Compare Against Online Order Volume

Pull order volume for each candidate region from Shopify reporting. A region with strong, consistent online sales and no nearby store is a stronger candidate than one with occasional orders and a louder but thinner pattern of requests.

Step 5: Rank Candidate Regions Before Deeper Research

Combine distance, request volume, and order data into a simple ranked shortlist. This is the point where the exercise hands off to standard site selection and market research, rather than trying to make the final decision from this data alone.

Step 6: Revisit the Shortlist as New Data Arrives

Store opening decisions often take months, during which new orders and requests keep arriving. Update the shortlist periodically rather than treating the first version as final.

Examples and Use Cases

Industry: Specialty coffee retailer
Problem: Three candidate cities were under consideration for a second store, with no clear way to prioritize between them.
Setup: The team tested locator searches around each city and compared the results against online order volume.
Result: One city showed a clearly stronger combination of distance and demand, giving the team a starting point for deeper research.

Industry: Furniture brand opening its first physical showroom
Problem: The brand had strong online sales nationally but no framework for choosing where to open a first store.
Setup: It reviewed regional order volume alongside customer requests for an in-person showroom.
Result: The findings narrowed a long list of possible cities down to a small set worth visiting for site research.

Read more case studies for our apps covering how brands approach new store planning.

Best Practices

A few habits keep this research useful without overstating what it can prove:

• Treat location search behavior as one early input, not a final site selection tool
• Combine search patterns with order data rather than relying on either alone
• Keep candidate lists small enough to research each region properly
• Update the shortlist as new orders and requests come in over time
• Hand the final decision to standard site selection and market research once candidates are narrowed
• Document why each region made the shortlist, for future reference

Summary

Using location searches to plan a new store works best as an early, low-cost step that narrows a wide field of possible regions before deeper research begins. Testing searches, reviewing customer requests, and comparing order data together give a brand a more grounded shortlist than instinct alone, without pretending to replace real site selection work.

Shopify store locator app is where these searches happen, so keeping it accurate is what makes this kind of early store planning research possible.