From Code to Checkout: Tackling the Top 5 Challenges in Crafting Your Game's Web Store

By now, it's no secret that a web store is the golden ticket to catapulting your mobile game revenue into the stratosphere. But the path to building a successful web store is riddled with challenges, requiring a strategic combination of skilled professionals and a carefully allocated budget.

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Game developers often plunge into this venture unaware of the intricacies, only to find themselves tumbling down the rabbit hole of unforeseen costs and missed deadlines. Here’s our top list of challenges to take into consideration before you start building a web store from scratch, to ensure you're well-prepared for the complexities that lie ahead.

1. Assembling your team

Sure, assembling a team seems like a breeze: after all, your game studio is teeming with superstar developers, product managers, designers, and analysts. But are they experienced in building e-commerce stores for mobile gamers? Proficient in game app development, your team might lack the expertise required for the intricate task of building a direct-to-consumer web store.  

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Moreover, as a game developer, you’ll probably want to prioritize… well, game development goals, reserving your best talents for the game, and leaving a junior team grappling with a sizeable project. Balancing your team's skill set is crucial to the success of your web store venture.

2. Doubling your effort (and then some)

Building a web store is not a one-off event; it's an ongoing endeavor. Some gaming companies launch a basic web store only to let it gather dust due to the costs of maintenance. Ensuring the commitment of your entire team, from marketing to LiveOps, increases the workload for everyone involved in terms of development as well as maintenance, but is also essential.

3. Being your own Merchant of Record

Launching a direct-to-player platform and avoiding the usual 30% transaction fees is (oh so) enticing, but what does it mean to handle your own transactions? How expensive is it? In case you decided to build both a web store and a checkout system, you are now not only delving into the web development sphere, but also embarking on a journey into the complex world of payments.  

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Becoming your own Merchant of Record means grappling with local taxes, currencies, exchange rates, invoicing, billing and fraud prevention. This newfound responsibility introduces the risk of exceeding chargeback limits, potentially resulting in penalties or even the blocking of your game by payment providers. If managing these financial intricacies seems overwhelming, opting for a third-party payment solution is a prudent choice.

4. Getting players to your store

Bringing players to your store is a challenge in itself. Currently, directly linking to your store within your game means losing a significant cut to Apple. You’ll need a creative approach to user acquisition, including retargeting campaigns, directly messaging your whales, and leveraging online communities on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Discord, depending on where your audience is.  

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Training your community and account managers to navigate this uncharted territory is essential. Opting for an out-of-the-box store via a dedicated DTC platform can be helpful, as the right platform can offer best practices and insights based on their monetization expertise. With Appcharge, for instance, publishers get decades of mobile game monetization expertise on their side to ensure they have the highest impact DTC strategy.

5. Keeping up with industry trends

The gaming industry moves at breakneck speed. New monetization tools emerge daily, promising unprecedented revenue increases. Amidst the daily grind of game maintenance, player management, and team oversight, keeping pace with these innovations becomes a formidable task. Developing and introducing new web store monetization tools to your audience with in-house resources requires vigilance, dedication, and of course, a substantial part of your budget.

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Embarking on the journey of building a web store is undoubtedly an ambitious undertaking. But with meticulous planning, the right team, a deep budget and a clear understanding of the challenges, you can transform this endeavor into a lucrative opportunity for your game. 

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Alternatively, let a DTC platform like us at Appcharge do the heavy lifting - we use our decades of mobile game monetization experience to launch the best converting web stores in the industry.