ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live – service review

I had a chance to check out and implement a service which I have been using quite commonly when shopping online on Futureshop, BestBuy or any other online shopping sites. Store locator is a very convenient way of finding the store nearest to you. ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live provides the exact service as the ones you use on other online shopping sites to businesses with multiple stores.

This service is perfect for businesses with multiple stores spread across Canada, the United States as well as more than 30 other countries worldwide. With the Store Locator Live, webmasters can simply copy and paste a few lines of code into their websites without the need of handling or programming any code. It is currently available in PHP and .NET as well so it can be installed onto the local servers for more control.

Why choose ZIPCodeWorld Store Locator Live? Well, it is currently supporting 1089 companies and total of 30692 unique stores and growing as well as over 30 countries worldwide as mentioned above. This service is free for businesses with less than 100 physical stores and/or dealers but in return you have to have a banner link back to them which is worth it. Price starts at $499.95USD for less than 500 physical stores and/or dealers, $999.95 for less than 2000 and 1,999.95 for less than 10,000. Prices are for one year subscription.

Here are the key features and benefits from the site:
Secure Administrator Control Panel
Bulk Store/Dealer Batch Import
Limit Results by Radius and Records
Support MapQuest®/Yahoo®/Google® Location Maps & Directions
Display General Store Details and Custom Fields
Support Miles and Kilometers Measurement
Sort Results by Distance, Names and City
Support Preferred (Highlighted and Show on Top) or Hidden Stores
Support United States and Canada Postal Code
Absolutely Free for less than 100 physical stores / dealers

Aside from testing the Client Demo for finding the RadioShack, I registered with an account because I wanted to know more about it. The registration took less than a minute to confirm and activate my account. Once logged in, I was presented with a simple and easy to use interface where I could add stores into the system based on a ZIP code or Postal Code if you are in Canada. Or I could bulk load multiple stores using the Import feature which is a great feature if I had multiple stores, it just wouldn’t make sense to upload one by one unless I was opening new stores in the future (it has a sample import text file so I could just follow the format).

After adding all the stores, I was able to preview what I have entered by testing the Store Locator. And finally, I just obtained the HTML code and pasted onto my site and ready to be used! (assuming I had a business with multiple stores) The process was quick, simple and to the point!

As a related side note, ZIPCodeWorld also offers a comprehansive ZIP code, posta code, city name, province/state name, province/state abbreviation and phone area code for the United States, Canada and Mexico.