If you sell services or products to online retailers, you already know the hardest part isn't pitching — it's finding the right person to pitch. Finding Shopify store owners from business listings is one of the fastest ways to build a targeted outreach list without guessing or scraping random directories.
Here's the direct answer: you search for the business category or niche on a Google Maps-based lead tool, pull the store's public contact and profile data, then match that business to its Shopify site and owner name using LinkedIn or the site's "About" page. Below is the exact process, in order.
Why This Works Better Than Random Scraping
Old-school SEO advice says "just Google the store name and find an email." That works maybe one time in five. AI-driven lead research works differently — it starts with why a business shows up in local search at all, then reverse-engineers the owner from there.
Most Shopify store owners for small and mid-size brands also register their business on Google Business Profile (GBP), because local visibility drives foot traffic or brand trust even for online-first stores. That overlap is the opening you can use.
Step 1: Search by Business Category, Not Brand Name
Start broad. Instead of searching for a specific Shopify brand, search by the product category or niche — for example "handmade candles," "custom apparel," or "organic skincare" — combined with a location.
Using a Google Maps data tool like TheMapLeads, the process looks like this:
Enter the business category or business name
Set the target location (city, state, or region)
Hit search
You'll get a full list of matching businesses, each with the content info already extracted from their Google Business Profile — name, address, phone, website, and category. No manual copy-pasting from map pins.
Step 2: Filter for Businesses That Are Likely Shopify Stores
Not every local listing runs on Shopify. To narrow the list:
Check the website field for .myshopify.com in the URL structure, or a custom domain with Shopify's checkout patterns
Look for e-commerce signals in the business category (retail, online store, boutique)
Prioritize listings with an active website link, since dormant listings rarely convert
This filtering step is what separates a usable outreach list from a bloated spreadsheet full of dead ends.
Step 3: Export the List and Add It to a Campaign
Once you've got a clean list of relevant businesses, export it and organize it. Inside your dashboard's saved lists, you can group stores by category, region, or campaign stage, which makes follow-up outreach far more manageable than a flat CSV file.
This is also the point where you decide your outreach angle — you now have verified business data, not a cold guess.
Step 4: Find the Actual Store Owner's Email
Business listings give you the storefront. To reach the person, not just the business, you need the owner's name and email — and that's usually on LinkedIn.
Here's the procedure:
Install the MapLeads – LinkedIn Email Finder Chrome extension
Connect your LinkedIn account and add your API key
The extension now appears directly on your LinkedIn profile
Search for the store name, brand, or owner
Pull the bulk email list or a single verified email
Save or download the results
This closes the loop: business listing → verified brand → real decision-maker → working email address.
Step 5: Send Outreach and Track Replies
Once emails are saved, you don't need a separate mail tool. From the same dashboard, you can:
Send bulk emails in one click, generated with AI based on the business's own listing content
Track opens and responses inside your campaigns dashboard
Connect other tools through integrations if your team uses a separate CRM
This is where topical relevance meets action — the outreach message references the actual business category and location data pulled in step one, which makes it read as researched, not templated.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Searching by brand name only. You'll miss dozens of smaller stores that don't rank for their own name yet.
Skipping the filter step. Not every retail listing is a Shopify store — sending generic Shopify-specific pitches to non-Shopify businesses wastes your list.
Ignoring saved lists. Re-running the same search without saving wastes time and duplicates work.
Sending one-size-fits-all emails. Bulk doesn't mean identical — use the business category and location fields to personalize at scale.
