The Geolocation Feature

The Geolocation1 Feature is your solution to managing international websites.

In this example you have built two websites (Stores); one designed for Australian and another for USA customers.

The two Stores have some overlapping and exclusive products to their country of origin. They have different tax behaviours, they have different shipping methods and a different currency. For these reasons you want to ensure that your customers land on the Store most relevant to their country of origin.

Using the customer’s IP address, when a user visits the USA website from Australia, the geolocation feature detects and redirects the user to the Australian website.

Likewise, when a customer from USA visits the Australian website they will be redirected to the USA site.

Geolocation is determining the website visitor’s location based on the IP address they are reported as coming from.

If the customer is neither from Australia or USA they will redirected to the default Store. See Store Information to locate the default Store field in your Store object2.

Why Would a Store Use Geolocation?

In summary, geolocation is used to direct the customer to a more relevant Store that matches the country that they are in, so as, for example, to access pricing in their own currency, exclusive products, or to access shipping rates specific for their location.

The Customer Purposefully Switches to a Store Outside of the Geolocation Region

Following any initial auto-redirections, if a customer chooses to switch to a Store that is outside of their country, they will not be auto-redirected back to their country Store.

Instead they will see a Region-Selector bar3 at the top of the website that lets them know the Store they are accessing is out of their region. It prompts them to choose one of the available Stores from a drop down menu.

The customer can elect to choose a Store, the dropdown will send them to their Store of choice, and no longer show the Region-Selector bar. If they visit another region after that, it will once again show the Region-Selector bar. The customer won’t be auto-redirected back to the store they chose.

If they elect not to choose a Store, the Region-Selector bar will stay there until they make a decision.

The purpose of the Region-Selector bar is to make it clear to the customer that they are “out of region” (either their native one, or one they have selected) in case they arrived or navigated there by accident. Having them select a region from the bar:

  • confirms they’ve been notified that they’re out of region,
  • allows them to see and select a more relevant store
  • gives them a way to dismiss the notification

For example, the customer notices that there is a Canadian Store and switches to it.

A Region Selector bar appears at the top of the website indicating that they are accessing the site out of their region. It offers a drop down list of the Stores they can access and prompts the customer to pick one.

The customer is aware of this, but does not pick one. They continue to browse the Canadian Store. The Region Selector remains at the top of the site, however, it can be closed by the customer if they wish.

The Customer Chooses a Store region

A customer accessing the website from New Zealand lands on the Store which is linked to the USA. Since there is no Store set up for New Zealand, the customer is redirected to the default Store.

The default Store happens to be the USA Store, so they were actually redirected to the same Store they started on. However this time a Region Selector bar appears at the top of the site.

It offers a drop down list of the Stores they can access and prompts the customer to pick one.

The customer picks the Australian Store, and confirms the selection. They are redirected to the Australian Store, and the Region Selector does not show anymore.

Enabling Geolocation

There is an add-on fee to enable the geolocation feature. Contact our support team to enable this for you and visit our Pricing > Plugins page for more details on current pricing.

Once enabled a Store can be linked to a Country using the using the Zone field on the Store tab. See Store Information to locate zones in your Store object.

There is no specific configuration for the Geolocation Feature beyond the configuration of Stores, their Zones and designating the Default Store.

There is no Geolocation object to change, no liquid or css code to edit.

 

 

  1. Geolocation: Geolocation is 1) the process of determining a website visitor’s location based on the IP address they are reported as coming from, and 2) a feature by which Salesforce Admins and/or Partners can custom build showing Collection Points on a map. See Click and Collect for more information. ↩

  2. Object: In Salesforce, an object is another name for a database table. A database table is essentially a spreadsheet where fields exist as columns and records as rows. Complete the “Understand Custom & Standard Objects” Trailhead to understand more about Objects. ↩

  3. Region-Selector bar: The purpose of the Region-Selector bar is to make it clear to the customer that they are “out of region” (either their native one, or one they have selected) in case they arrived or navigated there by accident. Having them select a region from the bar: 1) confirms they’ve been notified that they’re out of region, 2) allows them to see and select a more relevant store, and 3) gives them a way to dismiss the notification. ↩

 
 
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