How the search radius option works

When you type a search on your store locator, the map starts at the center of the searched area and then looks outwards to find stores up to a certain distance away. This distance is called the search radius and affects which stores are shown when searching your map.

How the search radius works

Stockist searches for stores based on their distance from a specific search point, not based on the geographic boundaries of the city or postcode searched for. This can be surprising, but in most cases it tends to give better results.

For example, take a visitor searching for stores near Vancouver, Canada. If we were to search based on the geographic boundary (city limits), only a few of the nearby stores would be shown (the ones with pins in green):

There are more stores nearby, however, they aren't technically within the city limits.

Instead, our search system drops an invisible pin at the center of the city and finds any stores within a certain distance from that pin:

That search distance is called the search radius. 

Choosing the search radius

There are three options for how the radius works, and you can select an option under Settings > Search behavior > Search distance:

The options are:

Show results in the entire searched area

With this option, Stockist will vary the radius based on what the customer types in. For example, a search for "California" will look for stores in a broader area than a search for "Los Angeles". This helps the map react naturally to a wide variety of searches.

You can additionally choose a "Minimum distance" - if the customer types in a small area like a neighborhood or postcode, the search will look at least this far away, which can help ensure results are found even if they're a little further away than the search would normally look.

Show results in a specific radius

With this option, you choose an exact radius that's always used. No matter what area the customer types in, the search will look exactly this far away from the center of the typed-in area.

Let the visitor choose the distance

With this option, Stockist will show a distance selector on the map so that customers can choose the radius to use. You can then choose the list of options to show (e.g. 25mi, 50mi, 100mi) as well as which option will be selected initially.

Geolocation radius

When using the first two options above, you can also choose a separate geolocation radius. This radius is used when searching via geolocation (an automatic location estimate).

When using "Let the visitor choose the distance", the geolocation will use the distance selected by the visitor for consistency.