5 tips to create a mobile store your customers will love

A well-run brick-and-mortar business can become an ingrained, trusted part of a community. Genuine, face-to-face connections are powerful and turn shoppers into repeat customers.

But there’s a way to deepen the connection you’ve fostered and make your business more accessible to your customers.

By creating a mobile store, businesses can take customer relationships and sales to another level. E-commerce remains on a steady climb, accounting for $4.9 trillion in sales worldwide in 2021. That number is projected to rise 50 percent by 2025.

And increasingly, more sales are completed on mobile devices rather than desktop computers. Mobile e-commerce saw 15.2 percent growth in the U.S. during 2021. By 2025, sales via mobile device are expected to command a 44.2-percent share of all retail e-commerce transactions in the U.S.

So how can you pivot toward online sales in a way that will nurture the in-person relationships you’ve already established? By creating a mobile store.

Here are five tips to create a mobile store your customers will love.

1. Put your best foot forward

You already have a successful business, so when you add a mobile store to the mix, lead with the products and services you know your customers will clamor for.

Say you run a bakery, and you’re known for having the best apple fritters in town. Make it easy for your customers to order their favorite item by placing an order form for apple fritters in a highly visible area of your mobile store.

You can also use Jotform’s Image element to add vivid photos of your business and products. This makes your new mobile marketplace instantly familiar to your customers, providing an extension of the good vibes you’ve worked so hard to build through your brick-and-mortar shop.

2. Optimize your layout for mobile and desktop

The average consumer in the U.S. spends nearly three hours on their mobile device each day, and you should try to reach your customers where they are. That said, it’s important to build a mobile store that’s simple and uncluttered. Space on mobile screens is limited, and unneeded distractions could obstruct your sales flow.

Some essentials are clearly visible navigation tools; shopping cart and checkout features, including multiple payment gateways; and a customer support form. Jotform Store Builder provides solutions for all of these mobile e-commerce needs.

But you don’t want to neglect customers who prefer to shop from their desktop computers. With Jotform Store Builder, your mobile shop is optimized to look and perform great as a mobile app and on desktop computers. There’s no need to build a website and a mobile app separately.

3. Make purchasing easy, and don’t stop there

You could create the perfect mobile store for your business — familiar products, clean layout, mobile and desktop compatibility, and more — and still fail to make a sale if your checkout process doesn’t provide your customers’ preferred payment methods.

Since Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are the dominant operating systems for mobile devices, customers often look for each company’s mobile wallet, Apple Pay and Google Pay. With Jotform Store Builder, you can place those two options directly on your payment forms. Altogether, Jotform provides 25-plus payment gateways, including other big names such as PayPal, Square, and Stripe.

Your customers can track their orders with Jotform Store Builder’s customized Sentbox. Customers can also view their previous orders and reorder those items. Additionally, customers can mark certain products as “favorites” for easy reference.

4. Engage via social media

Worldwide, the average person spends nearly two and a half hours scrolling social media each day. So it’s beneficial to make popular social media platforms part of your shop’s mobile experience. This can get tricky, as you don’t want your social media to clash with your sales efforts. It’s usually a good idea to stick with one or two of the major players like Facebook or Instagram.

Jotform Store Builder allows you to add multiple pages to your mobile marketplace. You can devote an entire page to your business’s social media feeds, customer review and feedback forms, and other engaging media. Use Jotform widgets like the Facebook Like Box, Social Share, Instagram, and more, including Giphy, a way to embed GIFs on your form.

It’s also important to have a social media marketing strategy. Visit our payment integration partner Square for proven social media marketing tips, such as creating an “Instagram worthy” area in your physical store where customers can take photos to share on their own social media page. In addition to creating an attention-grabbing area in your store, you can also set up an Instagram Shop for your store and even make it more appealing to your customers by using Instagram Shop Templates.

5. Stay up to date

Now that you’ve made your mobile store sparkle, it’s important to keep it current. If customers or potential clients open your mobile store and it’s out of date, that reflects poorly on your business. It could even lead some to think you’re no longer open at all.

Jotform Store Builder’s Product List element provides a way to seamlessly update items on your virtual shelf. Add multiple product lists without leaving the store builder, and if you start offering a new category of products, you can add another page to your store with its own product list.

Staying up to date with inventory is also vital, because you don’t want to inadvertently sell items you’ve run out of. As orders come in, track them with Jotform Tables and Jotform Inbox. Accomplish complete inventory control by linking your inventory spreadsheet to your store’s table.

And no matter how you share your Jotform store — via QR code, email, direct link, or by embedding it into your website — your updates will appear in real time so your customers are always in the know.

Making consumer habits a plus for your business

There’s no getting around it — consumer habits are changing, especially when it comes to mobile devices. According to a survey conducted by reviews.org, Americans check their phones 344 times a day on average. Furthermore, 71 percent said they check their phone within 10 minutes of waking up, and 70 percent check their device within five minutes of receiving a notification.

So when you create a mobile store, you’re entering a space where your customers already spend time. And since clients have already embraced your brick-and-mortar business, they’ll be happy to see you online.

It’s still important to do the job right, though. Here at Jotform, we’re proud to offer Jotform Store Builder, which allows you to efficiently connect with your customers online to solidify and enhance your current operations, all while preparing your business for the future. So why delay? Build your Jotform store today.