Editorial Policy

Our purpose

Storehunting is an editorial shopping discovery publisher. Our primary goal is to help users find online stores worth browsing. We focus on curating independent shops, discovering niche brands, and creating organized guides that help shoppers find better alternatives to massive marketplaces. We believe that finding a great online store is just as important as finding a great product.

How we choose stores

We do not catalog every store on the internet. Our directory is hand-curated. When evaluating a retailer for inclusion in a guide or our broader directory, our editorial team considers the following criteria:

Relevance to the guide: Does the store genuinely fit the theme or category?
Product and category fit: Does the inventory align with what our readers are searching for?
Price range: We feature stores across all price tiers but aim to label them accurately.
Store experience: The website should be usable, secure, and easily navigable.
Shipping availability: We look for clear shipping policies and prioritize stores that outline their geographic limits.
Return policy clarity: Honest retailers make their return windows and fees clear before checkout.
Giftability: For our gift guides, we assess presentation, unboxing experience, and gift messaging options.
Distinctiveness: We favor stores with an original point of view over generic dropshippers.
User usefulness: Ultimately, does knowing about this store benefit the reader?

How we create "Stores Like" guides

Our most popular format is the "Stores Like X" guide. When we recommend an alternative to a popular brand, we evaluate the comparison based on several axes: visual style, product category, price point, and shopping intent. We aim to answer the question, "If a shopper likes Brand X but wants something slightly different, cheaper, or from a smaller maker, where should they go?" We do not list competitors purely because they sell the same category—they must share a similar aesthetic or customer use case.

Affiliate relationships

Storehunting is a for-profit publisher. To support our editorial operations, we participate in affiliate marketing programs. This means we may earn a commission when you click on links to retailers and make a purchase. However, affiliate availability does not dictate our coverage. We regularly feature stores that offer no financial return to us because they are the best recommendation for our readers. Our priority is building reader trust through accuracy.

Updates and corrections

Retail landscapes change constantly. Stores close, rebrand, or change their inventory focus. We actively monitor our directory and guides. Many of our pages display a "last checked" or "updated" date, reflecting the last time an editor reviewed the page for accuracy. If a store goes out of business or its quality significantly degrades, it is removed from our guides.

What we avoid

To maintain credibility, there are several practices we actively avoid on Storehunting:

Fake reviews and fake ratings: We do not assign arbitrary star ratings to stores.
Unverified claims: We avoid repeating marketing hype ("the world's most comfortable chair") without addressing it as a brand claim.
Copied merchant descriptions: We write our own descriptions summarizing a store's vibe and inventory.
Hidden affiliate relationships: We provide clear disclosures on our guides.
Coupon claims without verification: We are not a coupon site and do not aggregate expired codes to drive traffic.