Wild Birds Unlimited, the largest retailer of bird feeding products, increases in-store visits with Google Maps retail logistics solutions.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Founded in 1981, Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) is well known for its wide range of backyard bird feeding supplies and products. The company operates over 350 franchised stores across the United States and Canada, encouraging communities far and wide to preserve songbird habitats. For over 20 years, the company offered a store locator component on its website which had become inconsistent, outdated and lacked user experience. Wild Birds Unlimited turned to Google Maps Platform’s retail logistics solutions.
BENEFITS
“You can’t run your business without Google Maps these days and tapping into Google’s best practices.”
WORKING WITH WOOLPERT
Wild Birds Unlimited began working with Woolpert Digital Innovations in fall of 2020. “The whole [Woolpert Digital Innovations] team was great at listening to what we were trying to accomplish, came to the table with expertise and were very responsive. I’m not a Google tech expert but they were great at breaking it down so that I was understanding of what we were doing all along the path. I would highly recommend the team — they’ve been great,” stated Director of Marketing Bo Lowery. Lowery also shared that working with Woolpert Digital Innovations as a Google partner has helped reduce WBU’s Google Maps Platform costs.
THE SOLUTION
Wild Birds Unlimited began working with Woolpert Digital Innovations to implement the Google Maps Platform’s API toolset, specifically Store Locator Plus. Store Locator Plus has enabled WBU to develop an intelligent and interactive store locator to display on its website.
Site visitors can quickly find nearby store locations by typing their address, city or zip code in the store locator search bar, where Autocomplete returns accurate suggestions after just a few keystrokes. Once search criteria is entered, Geocoding API places a pinpoint of that location on Google’s dynamic map along with pinpoints of local stores, which are populated using Distance Matrix API.
Within the list of local WBU stores, visitors can find a wealth of information on each location which is powered by Place Details. The directory offers the franchise’s address, webpage, phone number, ecommerce link as well as driving directions using Directions API. Each listing also features a photo of the storefront using Street View API, giving customers a snapshot of what to look for when they visit their local Wild Birds Unlimited.
These features combined provide customers with a seamless and simple to use experience for finding WBU store locations. Additionally, the interactive map is connected to WBU’s Salesforce CRM, making it up-to-date, scalable and easy to manage on the back end. Check out the store locator map by visiting www.wbu.com/store-locator/.
