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The Mobile Game Web Store Designer’s Playbook

There’s a monumental shift happening in the mobile games industry. Since Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple centering around a dispute over the right to use its own payment system in Fortnite on the App Store—rather than being forced to use Apple Pay—governments and regulators around the world have increased their scrutiny over potentially monopolistic app store practices.

Specifically, their concerns have focused on the 70/30 revenue split, whether it’s fair, and whether companies should be able to integrate their own or other third-party payment systems. There has been resistance from Apple and Google so far, but that hasn’t stopped publishers from opening their own web stores to skirt around the app store tax. The clock appears to be ticking on the established revenue share model and moving in favour of the creators, not the platform holders.

Web stores for mobile games represent a $30 billion+ opportunity for developers and publishers—the market generated an estimated $110 billion from global player spending in 2022, according to data.ai, with approximately 30% sucked up by platform fees.

But it’s not a simple case of ‘build it and they will come’. Creating a successful web store and getting players to use it requires a thoughtful strategy—but the Appcharge team has you covered. We’ve put together a list of top tips to help you build the best web store possible so you can unlock a new, potentially lucrative revenue stream that’s free of the 30% app store tax (in fact, Appcharge only takes about 5% for powering your transactions).

Web Store Monetization: Best Practices

Price IAPs Differently

For web stores to fulfil their potential, they must differentiate their offers to those available in the in-game store.

On a web store, purchases such as currency, boosters, cosmetics, season passes—anything you have to sell—can and should be priced differently. Without having to worry about losing 30% of each in-app purchase off the bat, developers can give players better deals reflective of a transaction’s true value, which can lead to better engagement and a more enjoyable spending experience.

Developers can also price outside the parameters of the app stores. Previously the App Store capped in-app purchases at $1,000, though these rules have since been relaxed.

Leverage Personalization and Segmentation

One of the best methods of making a shop successful is to surface personalized deals to your players, segmenting them based on their playing habits, their progress, and personal profile.

Everything can be personalized for different user segments: a user’s first time visit experience, prices, types of offers and items, accumulation bar size, and so on.

This creates a better experience for players, who receive only the most relevant offers. In turn, you can maximize conversions and user LTV.

Integrate Gamification Mechanics

A mockup of a mobile game web store account interface demonstrating gamification elements. It features a user profile with accumulated 'Royalty points' and progress towards a 'sugar candy' reward. An 'Exclusive' tag is displayed next to a vibrant graphic of assorted candies, representing a special offer, the 'Candy Royalty bundle'. The 'Visit Store' call-to-action button suggests a seamless transition to shopping within the game's ecosystem, set against a dynamic purple background

To really maximise their potential, web stores should provide a similar experience to what players have in-game. Making purchases should be part of the fun, not just a bland experience for the simple purpose of making a transaction.

Gamification mechanics such as Stamp Cards, Accumulation Bars, Daily Rewards, Coupons, and Loyalty Programs should be incorporated to ensure users don’t just visit your web store once, but make it part of their gaming routine.

Build a Community

A screenshot of an Instagram post from the official Pokémon GO account, featuring a 'Great Voyager Box' as a web store exclusive deal. The image includes an in-game explorer character with binoculars, a styled treasure box, and a jungle backdrop. The accompanying caption promotes a limited-time offer on Super Incubators and more. The post has received 16,324 likes and displays a date of June 1, 2023.

As of April 2024, it is not possible for U.S developers to directly link to an external store from inside their app. It recently became possible for EU developers to link out to web stores, however this will lead them to lose 17% should a user click the link and complete a purchase within seven calendar days from the token issue date (plus another 3% if they’re using Apple’s payment tech).

To bypass these taxes and drive players to your web store, an out-of-app community is crucial.

Many of the world’s top publishers excel at building communities around their top games. Perhaps the best example is Niantic, whose Instagram page for Pokemon Go has 2.2 million followers, and whose in-person Pokemon Go events drew almost 300,000 players in 2023.

Learn more about the Pokemon Go web store design here.

Few publishers will be able to reach this level of community, but every publisher can begin building en engaged community outside of theirs app, whether on Discord, social media, email newsletters, and/or dedicated websites.

Going direct-to-player with web stores is all about owning your audience. And having a thriving, owned community is an integral part of this. Bringing your most loyal players into a close-knit community outside of the game can not only improve their enjoyment of it, but it provides a chance for you to engage directly with them.

This could come in the form of getting feedback on the latest updates, or having the ability to direct them to special deals on your web store that could get them more bang for their buck thanks to the lack of store fees.

Capitalize on the Shift to Web Stores

Web stores help you design your game economy differently, in a way that offers players better deals and puts more of the revenue generated to where it should go: you, the developer. By implementing the tips in this article—offering better deals, personalizing offers, gamifying the experience, and building a community—developers are well placed to take advantage of this opportunity.

The world’s biggest mobile games companies, including Clash of Clans developer Supercell, Star Trek: Fleet Command publisher Scopely, and RAID: Shadow Legends’ Plarium, are all doing it. Now’s your chance to join them.

Appcharge is helping some of the biggest publishers in the world create and manage powerful D2C web stores, supported by comprehensive Merchant of Record services.

If you’re interested in speaking with a member of our team, book a demo via our homepage.

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