Amidst mobile market changes, Xsolla Web Shop emerges as a valuable tool for generating additional revenue. While some developers rely on basic landing pages for success, the reality is far more complex. Web Shop represents a significant shift in player behavior, and our experience shows that reframing player behavior requires considerable effort. That's why Web Shop rewards are crucial in building new habits and growing player engagement.

Web Shop reward system

The Xsolla Web Shop solution includes a tier-based reward system. It's a ready-out-of-the-box feature that motivates players to spend more and buy more often by offering value points for every purchase made exclusively in the game's online store. These value points accumulate over a specific promotional period and unlock exclusive rewards at different tiers, such as special items, bundles, or currency packs. Why should you use a reward system in a web shop? It's no easy task to get gamers to change their payment habits. Selling items at discounted prices is not enough to achieve good retention. It's difficult for players to get used to something new without gamification tools and leaning on the concept of FOMO (fear of missing out). We updated our Web Shop offering to include mechanics that help players form a new shopping pattern ("game is where I play; web is where I pay"). These updates were directly informed by the knowledge that consumer habits form more quickly if:

• The brain perceives the effort (new actions) as beneficial to the individual.
• The actions taken are simple and easy to understand.
• The action is repeated and reinforced enough times.

Web shop rewards are thus a practical pathway to retraining player habits, and they work best to motivate purchases in two specific situations:

1. If your web shop visitors browse but do not actively purchase. Rewards highlight the value of buying items on the web instead of in the game.
2. If your players regularly visit your web shop but only rarely buy. Reward chains - multiple or increasing reward points triggered by each consecutive purchase - incentivize repeat purchases and reinforce the habit of buying via the web.

Increase purchase rate and build retention

Following the launch of this new Web Shop feature, we’ve seen our partners achieve these results after implementing the reward system:

• The web shop’s core audience makes more than 10 purchases per month
• The share of paying users increased by ~15%
• Users interacting with the reward system delivered a ~10% increased ARPPU
• Players actively seeking rewards purchased 30% more often (number of weekly purchases)
• Rewards resulted in more user engagement as players were more likely to revisit the web shop more frequently

We recommend that you talk with one of our experts to find the most efficient approach to implementing rewards in your web shop.

Best practices for your rewards mechanic

With Xsolla Web Shop, setting up and launching rewards for your web shop is simple. Note that if you use a custom storefront, you can also integrate Web Shop's reward system via API methods. Here are our expert recommendations on maximizing your rewards mechanic:

• Periodically analyze and improve your reward system. For example, examine the stages funnel, determine where the most churn occurs, and experiment with reward tier hierarchy.
• Build a marketing campaign around the rewards feature launch. Showcase the message on channels where you have already promoted your shop. You must communicate the message about rewards clearly and often: the more often a player visits your web store and purchases there, the more value they will get.
• To get players accustomed to and invested in the reward system, make the initial reward instantly attainable after any purchase and give players more points than necessary to acquire the first reward but not enough to reach the second reward tier.
• Include exclusive items that are difficult to get in-game but can easily be obtained at different reward tiers.
• Link rewards to in-game events and limit their availability only to those events to incentivize players to pay more during those specific periods rather than some other time.
• Create reward “chains” by offering tiered rewards for different amounts of real currency spent and provide the highest-value rewards at the end of the chain to motivate users to complete it.

For details about setting up your own Web Shop rewards, visit our documentation page.

How to get started with Web Shop rewards

What we covered above is just the beginning of Xsolla Web Shop’s capabilities. Our team of video game commerce experts is always happy to meet with you and discuss your game's audience's unique needs. If you’re ready to create your Web Shop rewards quickly, contact us today. We’re the video game-savvy market leader with direct-to-consumer commerce expertise—and over 400 Web Shop installs to prove it. Schedule time to talk with our team today to get started.