Our regular blog readers know that I am quite fond of the comparison shopping engine known as TheFind.com. It’s one of the CSE’s I regularly post about and advocate for and continues to move up on my list as one of the best product search destinations with social shopping capabilities. Not too long ago, we posted about some of the things TheFind is doing to make their search service even better including their mini-malls, virtual shopping districts, improved product mouse hovers and even an advanced search and browsing history features.

Today, TheFind has launched yet another new and useful feature for shoppers and merchants which allows TheFind.com users to be able to search and discover local shopping destinations for products within a specific geographic area. Not only that, but the new local search sorting and refinement capability also includes an in-store availability feature and shows the user related maps, all from one page for quick and easy access to products close to a shoppers’ physical locations.

Local Search & Shopping Overview:

TheFind’s new local search capabilities allow shoppers to…

• Search for products available through local retail outlets. For example, a search for UGG boots in and around Miami would show store locations that are within 20 miles of the shopper’s location. Consumers can easily adjust the search area to comprise a 40- or 50-mile radius, if desired.
• Immediately identify local retail outlets near you that carry desired items. After searching for a product on TheFind, search results will display items from both online retailers and local retail outlets - with local stores clearly identified via a “Local” icon.
• Check in-store availability. For select outlets supporting this capability, TheFind enables shoppers to see which nearby stores have a particular item in-stock. Additionally, all listings for local retailers have phone numbers listed so busy shoppers can call to check in-stock status.
• Quickly and easily determine which retail outlets offering the desired items are closest in proximity. For every search, TheFind graphically maps all the local brick and mortar stores carrying the items of interest. Consumers can use the map to determine which location is the closest to them, saving time and resources. The site also provides street addresses and phone numbers for each store location.
• Compare each store’s offerings and obtain the very best deal. TheFind puts a wealth of information at users’ fingertips to enable shoppers to assess the total overall cost of goods. TheFind alerts shoppers to various considerations such as sale items and promotions and driving distance of retail outlets, so they can make purchasing decisions based on their individual preferences and criteria. Integration of online prices and local offers helps consumers determine the best possible options.

Here’s what Siva Kumar, TheFind’s Co-Founder and CEO, had to say about the launch…

While there are a number of shopping sites that offer local search capabilities to varying degrees, with this added capability, TheFind brings the most comprehensive and complete local shopping search to the market. We are responding to consumer demands by merging online shopping and offline shopping research all in one single website to most closely align with how consumers use the Internet. These new local features are an added bonus around the holidays, as shopping days begin to dwindle and consumers start to hurry to complete their gift lists. Leveraging TheFind.com, consumers can shop at home first and find products at stores nearby, so they can pick up the merchandise themselves, quickly and easily, avoiding costly rush shipping charges.

Setting A Geographic Location For Local Product/Merchant Results:

The local product and merchant search feature only works for your geographic location once the actual city, state and zip code are entered in by the shopper. In addition, TheFind users can set the distance (in miles) from their physical location in order to narrow down results and find the store or product that is closest to the city, state and zip code that have been entered by the user.

Currently, there are two places in which a shopper can enter their physical location and set the miles away distance. The most noticeable spot is right under the main search bar at the top of every search result page.

The second, less noticeable, is under TheFind logo on the left hand sidebar under the ‘refine by’ section. The refinement section now features sorting options for price, color, sale items, new items and now we can refine by local items too.

You can see from the screenshots that I searched for a ‘Cashmere Scarf‘ within 50 miles of Redmond, Wa 98052.

Browsing Local Product/Merchant Results:

Once the desired geographic location has been set and a search has been performed, TheFind will show you local results related to the item(s) you queried, including a map with the store locations, the store name, distance from your location, address, phone number and how to check availability at specific local shops. In addition, off the right side of the map and store information are additional local shops that match your search and location. These results can be sorted by relevance or distance from the set location and once clicked on will bring up that stores information next to the map.

Local Shopping Map Results:

A must have feature for local search engines, especially product comparison engines, is the ability to display a map of all the physical store locations surrounding the geographic area of interest which show shoppers locations in which they can find and buy the product they queried from the search function. Users can go down the list one by one to see availability of the item, they can sort results on the map by location or they can change locations or distance. TheFind.com uses Yahoo Powered Maps for their local search mapping locations.

Local Shopping Store Information & Product Availability:

Another must have for local search services would be the ability to see data about each store result such as brand, distance, address location, phone number and any other related information about the store that carries any items you have searched for. TheFind has done a good job of providing this data, which appears next to the maps on the right hand side. I can easily see which store I am looking at, how far away they are from my location, their address and information on how I can find out if the item(s) I searched for are available at that location or not. IN addition, shoppers can change the their searching location from the store information section by clicking on the ‘Change’ link, like we discussed previously.

Local Shopping Store Results & Sorting Shops:

An additional great feature to TheFind’s local search capability is the store results list that appears to the right of the store information sections. The list features names for shops that carry the item(s) that were searched for within a specific geographical location and allows shoppers to refine results according to relevance or distance. In addition, when users click on each store from the list, that store’s information will show up to the left of the list so it is clear to shoppers how far away the shop is, and all the other information which was covered in the section above. There’s also a magnifying glass icon next to the results that when clicked, will show shoppers that individual store on the map along with the information related to that shop.

Local Shopping Mouse-Hover Results:

Finally, there’s a new addition to the already improved product mouse-hovers that feature local shopping and stores near you data by simply hovering the mouse over a product on the local results pages. There’s so many ways to find the local shops it’s amazing, yet they keep the clean look and feel as well as the site usability intact and undisturbed. It’s a great way to see if the products you want can be picked up or purchased at stores near your geographic location or any specified location withing local search results.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

Wow, I am so surprised by this move, yet happy to see a CSE jumping into local search for products. I have said many times that the shopping sites that are able to blend comparisons, social and local will eventually be the leaders in years to come and now, finally, TheFind has shown us that they hope to be the first site to merge all three key aspects. Not only have they found a way to blend all of these useful shopping tools together, but they do it in a sleek, easy to use interface that is pleasant for shoppers and converts well for merchants.

This feature is great for holiday shopping, school shopping, last minute gift ideas and a whole bunch more that I can think of. I have said it before and will say it again, TheFind is doing a wonderful job with their venture capital, I hope they can continue to crank out features like this in the record time they have been able to so far. If they can, they will certainly prove that they are THE comparison, social and local search engine for products or shops.