How to Use Location Filters to Help Customers Find Local Vendors

For many marketplaces, “local” is a major selling point. Whether you are running a regional food delivery service or a nationwide craft fair, customers often want to find and support businesses in their own backyard.

The Vendor store location filter and search by address feature transforms your marketplace into a local-first platform. It allows customers to filter your vendor list by country, state, city, and even postal code. For the ultimate local experience, it includes a Radius Search that uses the customer’s real-time geolocation to find the nearest vendors within a specific distance.

By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional location-based search system on your vendor listing page.

Prerequisites

• WC Vendors Pro must be installed and active.
• To use the Radius Search and Address Autocomplete, you must have a valid Google Maps API Key configured.
• Note: For help generating your API key, see the Google Maps Platform Documentation.

Preparing Your Marketplace for Location Search

Before enabling filters, ensure your page and API settings are correctly configured.

1. Set up your Vendors Page: Ensure your marketplace vendor listing page uses the Pro shortcode [wcv_pro_vendorslist]. If you use the standard shortcode, the advanced Pro filters will not appear.
2. Configure Google Maps: Navigate to WC Vendors → Settings → Forms → General.
3. Enter your API Key: Paste your key into the Google Maps API Key field.
4. Click Save Changes.

Activating Vendor Location Filters

Before customers can search by address, you must enable the specific filters you want to display on your vendor list page.

1. Navigate to WC Vendors → Settings → Forms → General.
2. Locate the Vendor Location Filters section.
3. Check the box to Enable Location Filters. This acts as the master switch.
4. Select the specific filters you want to provide to your customers:
   • Enable Country Filter
   • Enable State/Region Filter
   • Enable City Filter
   • Enable Postal Code Filter
5. Click Save Changes.

Setting Up Radius Search for Local Discoverability

The Radius Search is a powerful tool that allows customers to say, “Show me vendors within 20km of me.”

1. In the same settings area (Forms → General), check Enable Radius Search.
2. In the Radius Options field, enter comma-separated numbers representing the distances (in kilometers) you want to offer (e.g., 5, 10, 25, 50, 100).
3. Ensure your vendors have entered their addresses. WC Vendors uses the Haversine formula to calculate the exact distance between the customer and the vendor’s store.
4. Click Save Changes.

💡 Note:
For Radius Search to work, your site must be running on HTTPS so the browser can securely access the customer’s location.

How Customers Use Location Search

Once enabled, a new Filters button will appear on your Vendor List page. When clicked, it expands to show the location options.

• Cascading Dropdowns: To keep the interface clean, the dropdowns are “cascading.” When a customer selects a Country, the State list updates. Once a State is chosen, the City list updates to show only relevant locations.
• “Use My Current Location”: Customers can click this button to automatically detect their coordinates via their browser, making radius searching a one-click process.
• Address Search: The standard vendor search bar is now enhanced. Customers can type a city name or postal code directly into the search bar to find matching vendors.

💡 Tip:
To ensure your vendors’ addresses are mapped correctly, see our Google Maps Integration Guide.

FAQs and Troubleshooting Common Roadblocks

➤ Why don’t I see the filter panel on my page?
The most common cause is using the incorrect shortcode. Ensure your vendors listing page is using [wcv_pro_vendorslist]. The advanced location filters will not display if you are using the [wcv_vendorslist] shortcode. Additionally, ensure Enable Location Filters is checked in your settings.

➤ The City or State dropdown is empty.
Dropdowns only show locations where you actually have vendors. If you have no vendors in “New York,” then “New York” will not appear in the State filter.

➤ “Use my current location” isn’t working.
This usually happens if your site is not using an SSL certificate (HTTPS) or if the customer has blocked “Location Services” in their browser settings.

➤ The Radius Search is inaccurate.
Radius search depends on vendors having valid addresses that Google Maps can “geocode” (turn into coordinates). Ensure your vendors have correctly filled out their store address in their Store Settings.

➤ Do I have to use all the filters?
No. You can enable only the Postal Code filter if you want a very specific local feel, or just the Country filter for international marketplaces.

➤ Does this work on mobile devices?
Yes! The filter panel uses a responsive grid layout that stacks into a single column on mobile screens for easy tapping.

Quick Validation Before You Go Live

You have now empowered your customers to find exactly who they are looking for based on where they are. This reduces friction and makes your marketplace feel much more professional and accessible.

To confirm the setup is complete:

• Visit your marketplace Vendor List page.
• Open the Filters panel.
• Perform a search using your own postal code to see if your test vendor appears!

Need Help?

If you have a question or run into any issues, we’re here to help.

• Premium users: Open a support ticket
• Free users: Visit our community forum