Simple Store Locator Help

Quick start

1. Add locations: in the app, open Locations and click Add location. Fill in the name, address, city, and country (the rest is optional). The address is placed on the map automatically. A "Needs attention" badge means it could not be placed: check the spelling and save again, click "Retry address verification", or enter the store's latitude and longitude and save. In Google Maps, right-click the store and click the numbers to copy them; you can paste that "latitude, longitude" pair straight into the Latitude field. An entered pin is used as-is, stays put when you later edit the address, and is never replaced by an address lookup. Clear both fields and save to place the pin from the address again.
2. Add the store locator page: on the app home, click "Create store locator page". The first time, Shopify asks you to let the app manage online store pages (only used to create this one page). The app creates a published page at /pages/store-locator, then "Turn on in theme editor" opens your theme with the Store locator page app embed switched on. Save the theme. This works on every theme, including older (vintage) themes, and the store locator shows inside the page content under the page title.
3. Prefer another spot? "Add to home page instead" adds the Simple Store Locator block to your home page. On Online Store 2.0 themes you can add that block to any section on any page, as many times as you like; each placement has its own settings.
4. Floating button: Theme settings, App embeds, Store locator button adds a "Find a store" button to every page that opens the store locator in a window. Set its text, position and colors there.
5. Customize: in the theme editor, select the store locator (the block, or Theme settings, App embeds, Store locator page). Layout: list beside map, map beside list, map above list, list first (map on demand), or list only, plus the map height. Map: map style (Standard, Light, Bright, Dark, Blue grey), a custom pin image, up to 3 tag pins (a tag and its own pin image), pin colors per tag (one line per tag, or separated with ;, for example "Outlet: #d72c0d"), and the default map position (leave it blank to start on the shopper's country, with the nearest stores first). Store cards: show or hide open now, distance, directions, call, website, store image, description, email address and tags. Style: accent color, corner radius, spacing and custom CSS that applies only to that store locator.
6. Texts: every text in the widget (search box placeholder, buttons, result count, messages, store card labels) has its own field under "Search texts", "Results texts", and "Store card texts". Leave a field blank to keep the default wording. The default wording ships in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Czech, and Turkish, and follows the language the shopper is browsing in. Text you type into a field is shown as-is in every language.
7. Analytics (Grow plan and up): in the app, open Analytics to see how often the store locator was opened, the top searches, searches that found no store, and the stores shoppers asked directions to, called, visited online or emailed, for the last 7, 30 or 90 days. Only anonymous daily totals are kept, for 100 days.
8. Custom fields (Grow plan and up): in the app, open Settings, Custom fields, and add up to 10 store details of your own, such as parking, wheelchair access or a booking link. Each is text, a link, or yes or no. Fill them in under "More details" on each location, or in a CSV column named like the field. They show on store cards and location pages, and a yes or no field can also be offered as a filter next to your tags.
9. Dealer applications (Pro plan and up): businesses can apply to sell your products through a "Become a dealer" form at /apps/store-locator/apply. Turn on "Show a Become a dealer link" in the store locator settings in the theme editor to link it under the store list. New applications show on the app home and under Applications; approving one adds the business as a hidden location so you can check it before showing it. Declined applications are deleted after 90 days, and applicants are not emailed: reply from your own email.
10. Products sold here (Pro plan and up): on a location's page in the app, link the products or collections that store carries. The first time, Shopify asks you to let the app read your products (used only by the product picker). Then add the Find in store block to your product page template in the theme editor: shoppers see the stores carrying that product, nearest first after "Use my location".
11. Google Sheets sync (Grow plan and up): keep your stores in a Google Sheet with the same columns as a CSV import, choose File, Share, Publish to web, pick the sheet and Comma-separated values (.csv), and paste the link in the app under Settings. The app imports it once a day when the sheet changed, and when you click Sync now. Rows that need a choice are skipped and counted, rows deleted from the sheet stay in the app, and the sheet wins over edits made in the app.
12. Sidekick: from any admin page other than the app itself, ask Shopify's Sidekick "How many of my stores need attention?" or "Find my store in Lyon". After you allow it to access your Simple Store Locator data, the app's read-only tools answer with your counts, the matching stores and a link to edit each one.
13. Favorite store (optional): in the app, open Settings and turn on "Let signed-in customers save a favorite store". If the switch is disabled, approve the app's updated access request in your Shopify admin first.

CSV import (every plan)

• Where: Locations > Import CSV opens a dialog. Drop your file on it or click Add files, then Upload and preview. The dialog links a sample CSV you can start from.
• Required columns: name, address, city, country. Optional: address 2, state/province, zip, phone, email, website, description, image url, tags (separate several with ;), id, monday to sunday (opening hours, see below), and latitude + longitude (both or neither). Rows with both coordinates skip the address lookup and go live at that pin; both blank removes an entered pin so the address is looked up again; leaving the columns out keeps pins as they are.
• Large files: address lookup runs at about one row per second, so a 1,000-row file without coordinates takes about 17 minutes. Include latitude and longitude columns to import instantly. The CSV export fills them for pins you entered, so an export re-imports without moving any pin.
• Preview first: uploading shows exactly what will happen (new, update, possible match, conflict, invalid) before anything is written.
• Updates are partial: only the columns present in your file change; everything else keeps its current value. Visibility is managed in the app, not by CSV.
• Opening hours: one column per day, monday to sunday (mon, monday hours and similar headers also work). Write 09:00-17:00, 9am-5pm, closed, or 24h; overnight ranges such as 20:00-02:00 are fine. Put am/pm on both times or neither: 9:00-5:00 is rejected because it could mean overnight, so write 09:00-17:00 or 9am-5pm. A blank cell in a day column you included means closed that day. Leave a day's column out of the file to keep that day's current hours. A cell that cannot be read marks the row invalid in the preview, with the expected format. The export includes the seven day columns, so an export re-imports without changing any hours.
• Re-imports are safe: importing the same file twice updates stores instead of duplicating them.
• The id column wins: if a row's id matches an existing store (from the export, or the store's own ID), that row always updates that store, even when the name or address changed. This is how two stores can share one address, such as mall kiosks, each with its own id.
• Without an id, rows match by name and address. If your file has no ZIP column, matching uses name, address, city, and country instead, so a partial update without ZIPs still finds the right store.
• A row whose name, city, and country match an existing store and whose address is close (same ZIP, same street number, or a near match after fixing typos) is a possible match. It is never merged or duplicated silently: in the preview choose "Update existing", "Create as new", or leave the default "Skip". Skipped rows are listed in the final report. Use "Set all possible matches to" to apply one choice to every possible match; a row you set yourself always wins.
• A row that could match two or more existing stores is a conflict. Choose "Create as new" in the preview, or add an id column to say which store it means.
• Exports from other store locator apps generally work unchanged: common column names are recognized.

Visibility, plans, and limits

• Hidden locations stay in your data but never appear on the storefront. Imports cannot un-hide them.
• Location limits: Free 5, Grow 200, Pro 600, Unlimited. Going over the limit (for example after a downgrade) never deletes anything: your oldest locations up to the limit stay visible and the rest wait for an upgrade.
• The Free plan shows a small "Powered by" link under the store list; paid plans remove it.
• CSV export is available on every plan, including Free.
• Change plans any time from the Plan page in the app.

Good to know

• Your store list is public: the widget shows your visible locations to any storefront visitor. Hide any location you do not want shown.
• Tag filters match any selected tag: choosing "Bakery" and "Cafe" shows every store tagged Bakery or Cafe.
• Keep the app proxy path as installed (/apps/store-locator). If you change it in your Shopify admin (Settings, Apps, Simple Store Locator, App proxy), set the "App proxy path" block setting to match, or the widget and every store link stop working.
• "Use my location" uses the browser's location only to sort results; nothing is stored.
• Distance units follow the store's country (miles in the US), or force km or mi in the block settings.
• Opening hours support overnight ranges (for example 20:00 to 02:00) and show "Open now" in each store's local time zone.
• Set hours for many stores at once: in Locations, tick the stores, click "Set hours for N locations", enter one week of hours, and save. This replaces the hours of every selected store (days left blank become closed). Selection covers the stores on the current page; for larger changes, use the day columns in CSV import.

SEO location pages (Pro plan and above)

Every visible store gets its own page on your domain at /apps/store-locator/locations/<store-slug>, rendered in your theme with structured data for search engines, plus a directory of all stores at /apps/store-locator/locations. Page labels (opening hours, weekdays, directions) follow the shopper's language, in the same languages as the widget.

Link to the directory so search engines find these pages: add it to your navigation or footer (Online Store, Navigation). The pages are not in your sitemap automatically. A store page address never changes once the store is created, so links stay stable.

AI-readable store list (all plans)

/apps/store-locator/locations.md (and <store-slug>.md for each store) serves a plain-text version of your public store list, so AI shopping assistants can answer "where can I buy this near me" with your stores. No setup needed; it lists the same stores your widget shows.

Favorite store

When you turn it on in Settings, signed-in customers can tap the heart on any store to save it as their store; it is highlighted on their next visit. The choice is stored on the customer's profile in Shopify (Customers, then the customer's metafields), so you can use it for segmentation, and your theme can show it anywhere with Liquid:

{% assign fav = customer.metafields.app--429127368705.favorite_location.value %}
{% if fav %}Your store: {{ fav.name }} ({{ fav.city }}){% endif %}

Signed-out visitors see no hearts. The app keeps no customer records of its own; see the Politique de confidentialité.

Support

Email sean.gemify@gmail.com. Pro and Unlimited plans get priority response. Include your store URL and, for import questions, the CSV file.