One question we're frequently asked is how to set the order in which locations are listed when the store locator first loads. Up until now, this was only possible by making a change in the Bulk Import file or by manually setting the Display Order for each location, however we've released a new update to make this a lot easier.

The default behavior of our store locator software when the web page on which it is hosted first loads is to reorder the list of locations by their distance from the centerpoint of the map. This applies to the starting map position as set on the Starting Map View page in our admin console so the location order will always be the same unless this view is adjusted.

We've now added a Setting called 'Initial Location List Order' which defaults to the 'In order of distance from map center' as I've described above. We've added an option for this to be set to 'In alphabetical order' instead which will automatically sort locations in alphabetical order. As soon as a search is conducted either by automatic geolocation (the 'My Location' button) or an address being searched for in the search field then the location order will revert to the distance from the centerpoint of the map as before.

You can still use the Display Order on an individual basis to retain complete control over the list order - for more details on how this works, please see our Support Article on the subject.