Drive traffic to your game’s web shop with these web-native discount ideas

With a web shop, you’re asking people to leave the app, open a browser, and buy things in a brand-new environment - and while they’re becoming increasingly common, web shops still aren’t a channel many players are familiar with. So your storefront needs to offer users a shopping experience worth leaving the game for. 

The good news is, there are plenty of ways to build that value and create a shopping experience players can’t get in-game - whether that’s personalized bundles, extra bonuses, or engaging content, like lore and character guides. 

Often, this comes down to borrowing discount strategies from web ecommerce - which in addition to driving traffic, can also increase loyalty and spend depth. In this article, we’re covering 8 web-native discount ideas that make your game’s web shop worth visiting.

1. Web-exclusive offers and promos

Web-exclusive offers are the most obvious to use on your web shop, and they’re also one of the most effective at driving traffic, spend, and even repeat purchases. They belong front and center at the top of your shop page to encourage higher conversions. You can lock these deals while showing others until players log in to encourage them to share their user ID (therefore giving you access to valuable first-party data).

That’s the approach Clash of Clans took on their store, gating their web-only promotions but letting any player see the other deals offered, like Passes. Showing some of the other items available gives users a taste of what they can get in your shop, and entices them to log in so they can get access to the high-value, exclusive offers

Try including a countdown timer with one or more of these offers to create a sense of urgency that encourages players to buy immediately. As the deals expire, they get replaced with new ones that players will return to your shop to explore and buy.

Walking Dead: Road to Survival from Scopely runs a rotating series of web-exclusive offers at the top of their web shop. These high-value bundles include both a countdown timer and purchase limit to enhance the feelings of urgency and exclusivity. 

2. Volume based offers

Give users a discount on their total purchase once they reach a specified spend threshold - for example, “spend $50, get 10% off”. 

This type of web discount can encourage higher average order value (AOV) and increase spend depth: players are encouraged to spend more on your webshop so they can reach the amount that earns them a discount. 

For example, if you have a $19.99 bundle, you could set a volume-based discount rule that if players spend $20 or more, they get 10% off. In this case, players are encouraged to purchase the $19.99 bundle AND an additional item to get the discount.

A/B test these offers to determine which appeals to players most and yields the highest conversion rate and AOV. Try versions comparing different types of discounts (percentage off vs. additional item), amounts, and imagery to see which comes out on top.

Pro tip: include a progress bar at checkout so players can see how close they are to earning the discount.

3. Free daily rewards

Reward players for logging into your web shop each day with a free gift or reward. This encourages first-time visitors to become repeat customers.

Game of War from Machine Zone does this in their store, offering a free daily gift of 75 Jewels for players to claim every day they log back in. Then players can then use these Jewels to buy other items on the shop, which contributes to higher spend overall.

Walking Dead: Road to Survival takes a social approach to this incentive, offering players a cumulative reward at the end of the week for “checking in” to their faction. 

Every check-in rewards players with points towards their faction’s weekly point total. The more points a faction has at the end of the week, the more Faction Rewards they get, which can then be redeemed in the web store. Not only does it incentivize players to keep returning to the webshop, it gets others in their faction to do so, too. 

4. Discount codes

Users can apply special codes at checkout to earn a discount, either as a fixed dollar amount or percentage off. This incentive is especially effective in driving repeat purchases after a player first visits your site. By introducing users to the benefits of the web shop at a discount, they get a taste of the value - then they’re encouraged to return and pay full price, leading to higher average order value, or AOV. 

Marvel Contest of Champions from Kabam puts their promo code section on the main shop page and explains its benefits right under the heading so players know exactly what’s at stake.

A few other ways to run discount codes:

• Player-specific: Segment out your highest spenders and send them an email with a discount code to drive them to head to your web shop and complete a purchase. This works best when you can target high-spenders who have never visited your shop or have spent a low amount there (compared to their in-app behavior)
• Community-based: Offer the communities around your game (e.g. clans and guilds) a discount code they can share with others to earn rewards and exclusive content. Set a parameter for redemption, like 10 players need to use the clan’s discount code to complete a purchase on the webshop for the clan to receive an exclusive bundle
• Creator codes: Partner with creators to generate a unique discount code they can share with their followers. The creator gets a commission for every redemption, while encouraging a large audience of engaged players to head to your storefront and start shopping - players just need to use the creator discount code at checkout to redeem the offer

5. Bonuses

For every purchase players make, give them a bonus of extra resources or reward points. This web-only offer demonstrates the value of your store over purchasing in-game, which encourages players to shift their spend here.

Final Fantasy XV from Machine Zone uses this strategy in their web shop and ties it in with a first-time buyer offer. Combining bonuses with deals for first-timers is a great way to get users over to your web shop initially and then show them why they should keep coming back. 

Another strategy we’ve seen with this incentive is to give users a bonus for every $X spent. So for every $1 a player spends, they earn 5 extra diamonds, coins, or whatever your shop’s primary currency is.  

Pro tip: you can also tie bonuses to your loyalty program. The higher a player’s tier, the higher their bonus.

6. Site-wide “discounts”

Don’t let the term “discount” fool you - this strategy can include adding value to webshop items, rather than cutting the price, for a limited time. We’ve seen that offering site-wide discounts that reduce value is far less effective at increasing spend than giving players more resources with each purchase. That’s likely due to the fact that providing more rewards, rather than price reductions, is a psychological best practice - players feel that they’re getting a greater value than a traditional discount.

It’s an especially useful offer during seasonal periods and holidays, when traffic and revenue often increase. You can use it to boost AOV during the sale and get users hooked so they keep returning to your shop even after the discount period ends.

Cashman Casino from Product Madness took this approach, adding value across their coin packages. So normally, a player could spend $49.99 for a package of 100M coins - with the 20% site-wide “discount”, they spend the same amount but get 120M instead. 

7. Points programs

Award points to players that they can use on the web shop - these can come in two forms:

• Reward points: These are points that players can earn and accumulate through spend. The more they buy on the web shop, the more points they earn. For example, you could run a rewards points offer that gives players 200 points for every $10 spent. Those 200 points can then be redeemed for certain items on the shop
• Loyalty points: Loyalty points can be earned through spend, completing in-game quests, participating in special events, leveling up in the game, and referring friends or sharing other offers. And players can track their loyalty point progress through tiers (unlike rewards points that have no progress structure). At each tier, they can earn higher bonuses and get access to exclusive content and merchandise, like limited-edition items. So a player can earn 200 loyalty points on a $10 purchase, and that could help them get to the next tier that rewards them with a 40% bonus on every purchase, along with getting access to an exclusive Discord channel for players in that tier. 

8. BOGO

Buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers on your web shop is another way to give out extra rewards, like we mentioned above. This strategy gives players a free product or a product at a reduced price when they make a full-price purchase. Note that if you’re giving away a free product, it should be worth less than the purchase to ensure you’re not cannibalizing revenue.

Ecommerce brands have been using BOGO offers for years. Take Target, for example, which recently launched a campaign offering a buy-one-get-one 50% off ice cream deal. Games can take a page out of retail’s book and use a similar incentive to encourage players to visit your webshop and take advantage of this deal. It works best when applied to virtual items and goods, like skins (rather than currency).

A BOGO strategy only works if your web shop has a cart - web shops that restrict players to one purchase at a time (vs. loading a cart with multiple items) naturally can’t run this type of offer. 

Creating a custom discount strategy

Stash specializes in creating custom direct-to-consumer experiences that feel like a seamless extension of your in-game experience. Talk to us today about our proprietary discount strategy and how we can maximize traffic to your web shop - and keep players coming back.