Should you promote your store locator in the header?
If you sell online and in stores, keep retail location links lower to protect conversions.
It seems helpful at first: give customers an easy way to find your products offline.
But that convenience comes at a cost.
When you surface alternative shopping paths too early, you risk pulling visitors away.
For a multichannel brand, we tested moving their “Where to Buy” link from the top navigation to the footer.
The goal: make it easier for customers to find the product in-store.
The risk: sending traffic away from the website before they buy.
So we ran a clean test:
- Variant A: “Where to Buy” in the header on the homepage.
- Variant B: Store locator left in the footer under “Support”.
The store locator link left out of the header led to a 5.1% lift in sitewide conversion rate and $153,573 in projected revenue over 6-months.
Turns out even helpful options can backfire. Especially when placed too prominently.
Every link needs to earn its keep in a high-traffic area, such as your header navigation.
Seeing “Where to Buy” too soon can send shoppers off the page before they explore your site, costing you revenue (and first-party data).
✨ Takeaway: Selling in a brick-and-mortar shop, too? Keep store locator links low to protect online sales.
Try it out.
