THE WEB SHOP SERIES
Artem Liubutov
#1 expert in web shops for mobile games, monetization expert, and product manager with 15+ years of experience. I am the guy behind Xsolla's most popular solutions: Web Shop for Mobile Games, Game Sales, Subscriptions
Chapter Two: Pre-launch of your web shop - the Analysis stage
Preparation for the launch is the most crucial phase in the lifecycle of your web shop. The effectiveness of the time you spend at this stage will determine the results you achieve in the future. Studios often rush to launch a web shop without thinking through all the aspects of its operation, hoping to fix things along the way. Yeah, it's kinda true that you don't need to plan out every possible detail immediately and forever, because a web shop is a liveOps entity and should develop iteratively, allowing room for adjustments. However, to avoid running into problems right after launch, I strongly recommend following a series of actions, which we'll discuss in this article and a few subsequent ones. Launch the web shop, then systematically improve it based on collected data, metrics, and player feedback. As you might have noticed, it works pretty much the same way as with the game itself.
Here, I’d like to take a micro pause and emphasize that a web shop isn’t much different from your game itself. Don’t treat your web shop as just a website on the internet that sells stuff. Such a mindset isn’t just mistaken; it’s also incredibly dangerous. A web shop is a direct extension of your game — part of the player experience and your monetization strategy. The web shop continues everything that exists in the game — UI design, atmosphere, community, and interaction opportunities. Treat your web shop this way, and you’ll achieve outstanding results that go far beyond mere revenue.
You’ll see the impact a “website on the internet” can have on your game’s key metrics, how it can change LTV, how whales can turn into super whales, how consumption on the web shop can lead to spikes of in-game revenue, and how your competitors will be baffled as SensorTower/Data.ai stops giving them a clear picture of your revenues, and much more. Remember, in this series of articles, we’re discussing how to shift behavior paradigms and the way players think. To achieve this, I recommend starting with yourself and changing the way you think about what a web shop is. End of the micro pause.
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So, a web shop is a liveOps entity and develops iteratively, just like the game itself. However, there is a must-have checklist that you absolutely need to go through. Today we’ll be focusing on the analysis that you need to perform before launching your web shop.?
I've studied hundreds of cases so you don't have to, and I'm sharing this checklist with you.
Pre-launch analysis
Out of all the options, I suggest focusing on three key steps:
Enough talk, let's get down to business!
#1 Conduct an analysis of existing web shops in similar genres?
It's even better if it's the web shop of your direct competitor or someone you consider a leader in your genre and setting. Many games have already walked the path you're about to take. They’ve already made and corrected all possible mistakes, finding a balance between operational investments and financial returns. Here’s what you should pay attention to:
Conducting such research might seem intimidating, and it truly is hard work. But hey, we’re here to build a serious business, and as you know, there’s no success without some blood, sweat, and tears. Here’s a life hack: to save your efforts, you can always reach out to companies that professionally help build web shops (like the best company in the world, Xsolla). I'm sure they’ll be happy to help, even if you’re not using their services (because knowledge is worth sharing).
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#2 Perform target audience analysis
The success of any game heavily depends on how well its audience is analyzed, how accurately it is segmented, and how this information is used for personalization and offer optimization. What is the key difference between a game and a web shop? Right, none. For a web shop to function successfully, it’s just as important to understand which segments you are optimizing the experience for.
Who should you focus on? Unquestionably, absolutely, without any doubt, 100%, without alternative—on paying users. Specifically, you should aim to transition whales and super whales to the web shop. Carefully study what these players purchase in the game. Pay attention to how their behavior and purchasing habits differ during special events. Analyze which types of bundles are most frequently bought by these players. Identify which monetization mechanics are most effective with these segments. This data will be invaluable in the next stages of analysis (and generally for the liveOps of your web shop).
Paying users, especially whales, value exclusivity and additional value the most. This is why a web shop is the perfect tool for engaging with them. It allows you to break the $99.99 pricing ceiling and go much further, offering whales extremely expensive but highly valuable offers. I know of many games whose web shops generate more than 50% of their revenue from SKUs priced over $100 (and there are even examples of games achieving this result with SKUs priced over $1000!). Primarily, these are core genres: 4X strategy games and RPGs. However, I've also seen examples of casual games that successfully sell high-priced SKUs by combining deep metagame elements with numerous progressions and the exclusive ability of the web shop to accelerate advancement through them.
In your research, be sure to pay attention to what your paying audience responds to better (in each of the three segments, of course: Dolphins, Whales, Super Whales) - discounts or additional value. This is an extremely important aspect. Knowing this will help you better assemble bundles, special offers, personalized offers, and, crucially, the Welcome Offer when you open your web shop.
If you don't have this data or you often mix discounts with additional value, I recommend choosing additional value for several reasons. First, a discount means your lost profit in the form of a deliberately reduced ARPPU. Second, for some paying players, especially Super Whales, a discount can be perceived as devaluing the brand. Third, discounts strongly influence player purchasing behavior: to achieve sales spikes, you'll have to offer larger and larger discounts (see points 1 and 2 on why this is not great) - it’s called the Discount Trap - avoid it if possible.
To summarize:
#3 Analysis of the SKUs/Offers that sell well in the game
SKU analysis is closely tied to the audience analysis you conducted in the previous step. You need to create a report that not only lists all SKUs from most to least profitable but also does this for each important web shop segment (Dolphins, Whales, Super Whales). Pay special attention to how each segment reacts to different price buckets.
Why are these questions so important? The web shop excels at optimizing key metrics, such as increasing the Average Check or Repeated Purchases. This essentially means you have the opportunity to re-anchor a player, moving them from one pricing tier to a higher one. I'm sure you won't miss the chance to grow a Dolphin into a Whale or a Whale into a Super Whale under any circumstances. To make this possible, you need to understand what interests each segment and in what situations they are willing to go beyond their typical behavior.
Pay special attention to studying consumption patterns during limited-time events. These events are a goldmine of knowledge that can be used to build your web shop. This is because special events offer something exclusive or very valuable in an unusual environment for the player. Sound familiar? Exactly! That's the essence of your web shop. Its whole purpose is to sell something exclusive and/or extraordinarily valuable. If you see patterns in segment reactions to special events, you have a huge advantage that you must use. We'll talk more about how to put this into practice a little later.
Summary:
What’s next
Great, it seems we’ve covered all the key aspects of analysis. Undoubtedly, there’s still a lot more that could be studied, but what we’ve discussed will be more than enough to increase your chances of success significantly.
The data you gather during the Analysis phase will be used in making Key Pre-launch Decisions, which we’ll discuss in the next article. We’ll dive into UX design, why removing friction is so crucial, geographies and localization, retention mechanics, and much more. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!