Store locator software image Map pin 1 Map pin 2 Map pin 3 Map pin 4 Map pin 5 Map of store locator Map pin 6 Map pin 7 Map pin 8
Create a store locator for your website
Simple to set up. Easy to customize. Free trial.
 
Every day people all over the world use a store locator created with Blipstar. Sign up and let potential customers find you today.

Create your own Store locator - How it works

Import or input your store information
»
Customize your store locator's appearance
»
Integrate with your website using one line of code

I really can't remember the last time I have been so pleased with software. Customer service has been above and beyond my loftiest expectations.


Latest news: May 3rd 2024. Change in two functions Two functions are currently no longer available. More...
  • Provides an easy way for customers to find you
  • Attractive mapping
  • Driving Directions available
  • Customize your locator with over 120 settings
  • Responsive - adapts to any screen size inc. Mobiles
  • Hosted app - integrates directly into your site
  • Display map, phone, website, opening times, logo etc

Store Locator software lets your customers enter a zip code, post code, address or place name and get a list of your nearest stores or products, complete with an attractive interactive map and driving directions.

Blipstar is the simplest way to enhance your website with a fully-featured store locator or zip code finder. It's simple to set up, easy to use and provides an invaluable service for existing and potential customers. And there's no software to download or install.

Just create an account, input address data and choose one of several ways to integrate it with your site. Your locator will work with smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs and is fully customizable. It's fully compliant with W3C HTML5 standard and we've made it accessible to users with screen-readers and other assisted technologies.

Creating a store locator has never been easier, better value or more, dare we say it, fun.

Thank you very much. You all provide great service and great customer service.

Features

Simple to set-up

Configuration screen highlighting numerous options

Simplicity is our mantra - the only thing you need to provide is a spread-sheet.

Most businesses already have such data to hand, so it's just a case of changing the column names so the system knows what each column represents (e.g. store name or zip code). Any useful data you want displayed (opening times, logo, images, special offers or notes) can also be displayed. Once your data has been uploaded (or manually input) it's then a case of integrating it with your site. Code snippets and straightforward instructions are provided by the Deploy wizard, so your computer skills don't need to stretch beyond 'copy and paste'!



Easy to customize

Example store locator icons

"Can I..?" Yes, you probably can!

Every website is different, so most users like to customize their store locator in some way and Blipstar boasts a huge range of settings (over 100 at the last count). Nearly every aspect of how it looks and operates can be altered, tweaked and perfected.

For example you can choose from a range of high quality icons or upload your own, change all the text/wording, alter various search parameters - the list goes on. Advanced users can define their own CSS for limitless flexibility.

Best of all, if there's something you'd like to do, but can't, just let us know. If the feature doesn't exist we can add it to our product roadmap and it will appear in the next version. Blipstar is constantly innovating to stay ahead of the competition and our clients play a big part in that process.



Works across all devices

Mobiles can be used to access your store locator

Your store locator is mobile friendly by design.

That's important because over half of users now use a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet to access the web. Blipstar supports "responsive" web design so your store locator dynamically resizes to match your site layout. It can automatically detect mobile devices and switch to a special mobile mode, perfectly suited to smaller screens. If the device is really limited there is also the option of a basic text-only mode which doesn't even require Javascript to work. For mobile users with built-in GPS or wifi tracking they can automatically find their nearest store based on their current location (naturally it asks their permission to do this) so there's no need to fumble around entering a zip code. So whatever hardware your customers are using to find you, all the bases are covered.




Easy integration into a range of Website Builders

It's easy to add a store locator to your site, whatever tool you use.

Blipstar also works with every Content Management System or website builder we've ever come across (no joke!). If it allows you to add HTML or Javascript, it'll work with Blipstar and you can add a store finder. We also have instructions on how to integrate with SquareSpace, Magento, Jimdo, Shopify, WebStarts, Weebly, Wix and Webflow (that's a lots of Ws). It also works with popular CMS like Joomla, Drupal and, of course, WordPress.



Looking for a WordPress store locator add-on?

You're in the right place.

We're not alone in being fans of WordPress - it powers a sizeable chunk of websites across the globe. WordPress store locator add-on If you're looking for a WordPress-friendly store locator software then Blipstar makes it really, really easy. If you've mastered WordPress, you can certainly master integrating it with a Blipstar store locator. Seriously, it'll take two minutes max.



Analytics module gives you 'geospatial insight'

Example heat map analysis

Find out where your customers are searching from.

Most businesses and organizations use analytics to better understand how people interact with their websites. The Analytics module in Blipstar adds an interesting twist by adding the spatial dimension. Each time a customer uses your store finder the location of where they searched is recorded. Over time this builds up a powerful picture of where your customers are. Even better is the fact you can cross-reference this data with your locations and start seeing places where there are lots of potential customers, but no nearby stores serving them.



Turn-by-turn directions

Sign giving directions Once your customer's found a store, they need to know how to get there.

That's why Blipstar comes with driving directions available via Google Maps. The user knows where they are (you'd hope) and, once they've used your store locator, they'll know where you are too. The next logical step is to get from A to B and easy to follow driving (or walking) directions are a great way to facilitate that journey.



Automatic back-ups for your data

Peace of mind.

Blipstar location data back-up If you overwrite or mess up your location data - fear not! Everytime you upload data the previous version is saved so you can easily get back to where you were with the minimal of fuss. Data and settings is also stored remotely offsite (in a different physical location) for those worst-case scenarios.

Payments are handled separately by secure industry standard payment processors so your confidential info is never stored on our system.



Your tool is great and it is the best thing out there for store locations.


See it in action with a Demo store locator , Live examples or watch the video below




Key Store Locator Features

A complete list of features is also available.

Mapping

  • Street level mapping and geo-location for over 200 countries
  • Return nearest X stores, all stores within a certain radius, by country or by state or by keyword...
  • US zip codes, Canadian zip codes, UK and European postcodes, Australian postcodes, New Zealand postcodes, plus others
  • Search in miles or km and get turn by turn driving directions
  • Custom store icons and labels - show different icons for different store types
  • Special mobile mapping - ideal for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows
  • Auto-locate mode - uses GPS/wifi to determine a user's current position
  • Pop up map infobox showing address, phone number, email, website, tags, opening hours and custom fields of your choice
  • Text only mode (when javascript is turned off, or no map is required, ideal for screen readers)
  • Dynamic update option - automatically updates the results when the user pans the map

Customization

  • Change colors, text, labels, fonts, sizes, layout, icons
  • Add opening times, custom fields, logos and map icons
  • Add tags to your data to allow filtering (e.g. product search)
  • Import data in Excel (XLS, XLSX) or CSV text format
  • Online editing - add, alter and delete from within your account
  • Dynamically import store data from a Google sheet or SalesForce
  • Export data in CSV or KML format
  • Assign higher priority to certain stores
  • Add online stores
  • Compatible with Content Management and e-Commerce Systems
  • Easy to create your own front end widget to interface with Blipstar
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 compliant
  • Can be used with HTTPS (for secure sites)
  • Use custom CSS to fully control styling

Account

  • No coding knowledge required
  • Fully hosted solution. 99.9% uptime
  • Nothing to download, nothing to install
  • Access your account from any device with a web browser
  • Most cost-effective service on the market
  • Locator uses accessible, 100% W3C compliant HTML5
  • Also ideal as a product locator, sales rep finder, or any other type of locator
  • Editing functions - add, edit and delete stores online in seconds
  • Analytics - analyze where people are searching from, including smart heatmaps
  • FTP upload or link to online data source (to update your data automatically)
  • Option to let owners submit (and edit) their own store details
  • Protect your data by limiting the number of searches per IP
  • 15% discount when upgrading additional accounts
  • Fast, friendly support

Mr Blip - the shooting star

About Blipstar, the Store Locator Software Solution


Background

Hosted store locator software provides a convenient way for existing and potential customers to find which of your stores/shops/dealers etc. is nearest to where they live (and how they can get there). They simply enter a zip code, post code or address and the store locator finds the nearest store locations (within a given radius) and plots them on a map. Store locators and Branch locators are a popular feature of many websites but setting up an effective store locator from scratch takes time and effort.


Blipstar is born

So in August 2006, the original Blipstar was born, a store locator service designed to greatly simplify this process - it does the hard work for you! You create an account, upload a spreadsheet of store information (name, address, phone number etc.) and set up some design options. Blipstar then creates your store locator tool and and you simply need to link to it from any web page. No programming experience is required and you don't have to download or install anything on your website. It worked and people were generally happy with it but after a few years it started looking dated and the underlying technology had been pushed pretty much as far as it could go. Looking back on it, as our first major web app we learned a lot and, as always, with hindsight would have done lots of things differently. So a completely new product seemed the way to go and the original Blipstar became "Blipstar Basic".


Blipstar - next generation Store Locator software

Blipstar proved popular and many businesses and organizations (of all sizes) have set up store locators using the original Blipstar. Three key things people asked for was the ability to

  1. save more stores
  2. customize the store locator to make it look more like their own website
  3. use it as a locator tool for things other than stores

So a new Blipstar was created in response to this, allowing 1000s of store locations and providing a wide range of options for customization, including the ability to integrate the store locator directly into the customer's website.


New features are continually added and the site underwent a revamp in late 2011. Improvements included a flexible keyword search, search by US state, text-only search, SmartSearch mapping, a raft of new customization options and integration within Facebook. Quick Add, Quick Edit and Quick Delete functions for making fast changes to your data. A major upgrade - Blipstar v2.0 - was released in December 2012 with a raft of new features and a contemporary look. Every aspect of setting up a store finder has been enhanced or tweaked to make the process even simpler. We hope you like it.


All around the world

Blipstar is also ideal as a UK store locator with full mapping support. Likewise it's perfect for Australian and Canadian store finders. Users from other countries can customize the wording (it has unicode support) and set the map interface to be a language of their choice.

UK users or visitors might also be interested in Things to do Near You.


Blipstar Server - store locator software for developers and programmers

Some advanced users wanted even more control and customization over their store locator and not have to rely on a third-party. Blipstar Server was therefore released, a "host-your-own" product effectively allowing a customer to set up their own store locator on their website and expand and customize it to meet their exact requirements. This separation from Blipstar meant that the new version didn't get bogged down in too many features that weren't relevant to most users, but gave developers infinite flexibility. Server is very much a niche solution and Blipstar is the best option for the vast majority of users and organizations. That said, most users have been able to set up Blipstar Server in minutes rather than hours. That said, old-school software like software is a lot harder to maintain meaning Blipstar Server is no longer available so we can focus all our efforts on the hosted version.


Looking forward to the future

Blipstar will continue to be developed to keep up with the latest HTML tricks and techniques and ever growing range of mobile devices. A key focus is on marketing and getting the word out to small and medium sized businesses who would benefit from a simple store locator. Watch this space for the latest Blipstar developments! New versions are regularly released (by October 2016 the version was 3.8) and because it's software-as-a-service (i.e. hosted) you benefit from the enhancements straightaway, with no action needed on your part.




Providing store locator solutions since 2006.   Share: Linkedin  |  Twitter  |  Google+  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest