How to build a loyalty program for your game’s web shop

Loyalty can go a long way - in fact, 56% of people spend more on a brand they feel loyal to, and just a 7% increase in brand loyalty can increase individual customer LTV by 85%. It’s why industries from ecommerce to airlines to hotels use gamified loyalty programs to retain their most valuable customers and increase spend. And loyalty for games is no different: in the wake of IDFA deprecation and struggles with new user acquisition, boosting loyalty for existing users has become one of the most important strategies in a game developer’s toolkit.

Gamified loyalty programs have long been associated with top tier casino brands, like Player’s World for Heart of Vegas (Product Madness) or Playtika Rewards for Caesars Slots (Playtika). But as we’re seeing more and more, it isn’t just casino game developers who can benefit from these programs. Games in every genre - from RPG/strategy games like WWE Champion’s Universal Champions Club (Scopely) to Supercell ID Rewards for Supercell’s portfolio of games including Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale - are building loyalty programs to reward their games’ highest-value users and give them new ways to deepen their engagement with the game. And all of this leads to more player spend. 

One of the biggest reasons for the boom in gaming loyalty programs? Their role in direct-to-consumer channels like webshops, which have significantly been on the rise in the last year. 

The key to building a successful web shop loyalty program is striking a balance between retaining players and monetizing them, especially your highest spenders. Since each game and its mechanics, player base, and player motivations are unique, Stash believes that loyalty programs for web shops need to be tailored to your specific game - one-size-fits-all templates just aren’t effective for boosting player spend on your webshop, increasing LTV, and convincing non-paying users to start making purchases. For example, what works for a core game (a loyalty system with a lot of tiers, complexity, and content) won’t work for a casual game (less complicated offers and fewer tiers) or an MMORPG (exclusive skins).  

And while each program differs from the next based on the game’s unique qualities, we were able to gather together a few tips and best practices for you to apply to your own game’s loyalty program. 

What are the goals of your loyalty program?

Before we dive into how to build a webshop loyalty program of your own, let’s lay out the 3 main goals that we use to guide our approach to building web shop loyalty programs. These objectives can act like guiding lights for your strategy - you should consider how each part of your program helps you hit a specific goal:

1. Shift spend from in-game to the webshop: Loyalty programs on the web are an extremely effective way to convince players to bypass spending on the app stores and start engaging directly with you, the developer. D2C channels let you bypass the 30% commission fees of the app stores - and paired with a loyalty program, you can drive these higher margins without players spending more. A well-designed loyalty program should shift more spend to your webstore from in-game. Since this spend is free from the app stores’ fees, you can use a portion of it to reward your players.
2. Increase player LTV: Loyalty programs can work on both sides of the LTV formula (retention and monetization), but they’re usually focused more on retaining high-value users than boosting ARPU. Outside of your app environment, you have a lot more flexibility in how you talk to and engage your players. For example, you can establish direct communication channels like email or socials and offer a more personalized experience to VIPs - something Apple and Google’s restrictions prevent. Utilizing these strategies can help boost retention and keep your high-value players engaged for longer
3. Convert non-spenders into spenders: A recent report from Unity showed that less than 2% of mobile gamers spend money on in-app purchases. By offering free rewards, loyalty programs can show non-spenders the value of in-app purchases - and eventually convince them to buy their own (much like rewarded ads do) 

3 must-have components of a loyalty program 

From our experience building loyalty programs for webshops and analyzing the industry, these are the features that a successful program must have:

1. Tier-based progression

Most webshop loyalty programs have clear tiers for players to climb and to inspire them to reach the next one. And at each consecutive tier, players earn higher rewards and payouts.

As you construct a tier-based loyalty program, you need to consider how players will progress. There are two main strategies that games usually adopt:

• Webshop spend: Players can earn points towards tier progression by spending on the web shop. Clash Royale from Supercell does this with the Bonus track on their web shop. As players make purchases on the shop, they earn points that move them along the bonus track - the further along they go in the track, the bigger the payout

• In-game missions and/or resources: Users can move through loyalty tiers by spending in-game currency or completing missions in-game. That’s what Clash of Clans from Supercell does - their web shop includes Missions for players to complete in the game that earns them points they can then redeem in the web store

The structure of your tiers - how many you should have, the difficulty or cost to progress through each one, rewards at each, etc. - depends entirely on your game. For example, one of our developer partners has a turn-based strategy game with a lot of core elements. Their players are used to complex features and deeper ways to engage with the game - so we designed a loyalty program for their web shop with many tiers, multiple currencies, and a lot of content and incentives. Meanwhile, for a partner with a more casual, casino-style game, we designed a program with fewer tiers and a more simple structure with clear offers and rewards that aligned with their simple mechanics and user motivations to keep playing and winning.

Keep in mind that you should design your tiers in a way that leaves wiggle room for how long it takes players to move through them: you need a long-enough system so that non-paying users won’t run out of content and paying players continue to have a reason to pay and progress. 

Generally speaking, you can determine how long it should take players to move through your tiers by looking at your non-paying users. Non-payers move more slowly through your game - and as a result, they’ll progress more slowly through a loyalty program. But if you look at your paying players first, you’ll end up with a loyalty program that’s too short for your non-paying players to make any meaningful progress. So set your benchmark based on your non-payers and from there, you can determine paying player progression. You know how long it takes for non-paying players to make progress in your game; now you just need to apply that knowledge to build your loyalty program. For example, if you’re expecting it to take 3 years for your non-paying players to progress through your loyalty system, actually design it to take them 6 years. This timeframe also accounts for your paying users, who will move through the program more quickly.

2. Calibrated rewards system

A rewards system determines how and when you reward players in your loyalty program. Just like in-game, giving players the right rewards at the relevant part of their player journey is critical to boosting spend and engagement. 

As you reward players, make sure you’re orienting these rewards to your primary objectives, whether that’s shifting spend to your web shop or boosting high-LTV player retention. Overall, your rewards system should be calibrated to maximize the positive impact on player behavior while minimizing any unintended or unwanted side effects, like lowering overall player spend (cannibalization). 

Here are a few of the reward calibrations that a good loyalty program will keep in mind:

Plan your reward value based on your existing economics 

Remember: one of the goals of a loyalty gaming program is to increase overall spend  - but this means you need to be careful not to cannibalize your in-game spend. Even if your primary goal is to shift traffic to your webshop (so you’re comfortable with a bit of cannibalization), you should make sure the additional margin you’re getting from this shifted spend exceeds the level of cannibalization. 

One of the best ways to do this is to tie all of your rewards to a dollar value or your game’s core resources, like determining that 20 rolls is worth $5 or 10 gems is worth $20. This allows you to calculate the “cost” of the rewards program and measure if it’s offset by a positive impact, like boosting retention. Note: it’s hard to know what your players would have done in the absence of your loyalty program, so remember to constantly A/B test how generous you are with your rewards (your “cost”) and measure the impact. 

Offer more rewards, rather than discounts

Another way to avoid cannibalization is to focus your rewards on giving players additional resources rather than cutting prices. Not only do discounts diminish the perceived value of the items, they also lock in lower spend. In other words, it’s better to give 10% more resources than to charge 10% less - and make sure these rewards pay out incrementally so the higher the tier, the more value players get.

Giving additional resources instead of offering discounts rarely leads to a 1-to-1 cannibalization of player spend - and in fact, it can often increase engagement. It also gives you the ability to mess around with the amount of resources that players consume (their demand) so you can offset the supply-side issues created when giving players more rewards. 

Create new forms of value that don’t cannibalize existing spend

You can also identify opportunities for granting players intangible benefits outside of your core game resource that don’t cannibalize their actual spend, but can still make players feel special and greatly enhance their experience. These can include: 

• Exclusive characters
• Early access to new content releases
• VIP communities
• High-status cosmetics skins

Players can think of characters or cosmetics as a valuable reward, but for many games this has a minimal impact on the core resource economy of a game. 

Add personalization

By introducing personalization to your rewards system, you can build even more value. Adjust rewards so they’re personalized to all types of player motivations in your game: different players like different things about the games they play. Some might enjoy progression while others enjoy community or status. Creating a rewards system that serves each of these needs and motivations can make your loyalty program more appealing and engaging. 

For example, the Huuuge Rewards program uses a rewards system that offers multipliers, personalized offers, and intangibles at an increasing value as players move through the tiers. At Silver, users get a 10% shop bonus and a 1.2x multiplier on Huuuge points, among other rewards. At Diamond, that shop bonus increases to 35%, the multiplier goes up to 3x on Huuuge points, and they get access to a dedicated account manager. These rewards strategies speak to the different types of users that play Huuuge’s games: from the players who just want to keep playing so look forward to the chip bundles, to the whale who craves the personalized attention of the account manager.

3. Rewards strategies

Once you have a rewards structure in place, you can start considering the ways that you give players rewards. There are 3 main reward strategies - though each depends on your specific objectives, a good loyalty program will leverage all of them. 

Engagement-based (check-in) rewards

A great prize to start with is one that rewards regular engagement with either your app or web shop - like a daily check-in or login reward that players can earn every time they go to your webshop’s loyalty program. 

For both paying and non-paying players, these rewards can be very effective at driving traffic to your web store and boosting retention. They’re also a great way to convert non-spenders into paying players (one of those key goals of a loyalty program!).

Monopoly Go, for example, has a Daily Wheel of rewards for members of their Tycoon Club loyalty program. It resets every 24 hours, giving players a reason to return to the game and spin the wheel for new rewards and resources they can redeem in-game and on the webshop.

As we were building the loyalty program for one of our clients, we included daily rewards because we recognize how effective this feature is. We also introduced a weekly multiplier that rewards players with bonus resources on the 7th day after 6 consecutive days of checking in. 

Spend-based rewards

Beyond engagement-based rewards, you also have spend-based rewards, including:

• Loyalty tier points: This is often the most important reward in a loyalty program because it’s how players progress through each tier, giving them access to better benefits, higher status, and bigger payouts. It’s actually pretty similar to the status points that airlines give out 
• In-game Currency/resource grants: Give players X amount of resources for every $ spent on the web shop, then increase the bonus based on tier (e.g. a Bronze tier member earns 5 spins for every $1 spent, and a Gold tier member earns 25 spins for every $1 spent)
• Milestone-based rewards: As you spend in a webstore you can progress through certain milestones and claim fixed rewards. Marvel Strike Force from Scopely does this on their web store with their Bang for Your Buck milestone feature. As players make purchases on the MSF web shop, they earn Strike Points that contribute to their progress in these milestones - and each subsequent milestone offers higher-value rewards

• Web-exclusive currency and store: Introduce a webstore-exclusive currency that players can earn with their purchases and spend in an exclusive store. Star Trek Fleet Command uses Multiphasic credits as a currency that players can only earn by making purchases on the web shop - then they can use it in the Multiphasic credit store, which is separate from the STFC storefront. The key difference between this and the milestones rewards of MSF is that players can choose how they spend their web-exclusive currency - this is not only more engaging, but also presents an additional opportunity for monetizing with real-money offers 

• Cash back: Cash back gives players a percentage of their purchase back in the form of credits that they can use on the web shop. This keeps players within your webshop ecosystem and encourages repeat purchases. In other industries like retail, this is a common loyalty rewards strategy - and some companies have seen an 80% revenue increase after implementing a cashback strategy

As you implement spend-based loyalty rewards, be sure to constantly communicate the benefits of these offers and emphasize the value that players are receiving (e.g. put bonus currency earned next to each price/product). Clash of Clans from Supercell does this, highlighting the X times value that players get from purchasing on the web, along with additional bonus points.

You should remind players of this value at every point of the process, including at checkout - this is the final page they see before they leave your webshop, and it’s an opportunity to make a last impression that entices them to return:

VIP benefits

Exclusivity in general is a player motivation that can help them feel more engaged with your game, likely to retain for longer, and spend more. In fact, 63% of people feel more positive about a brand that offers them exclusive content, and 70% and 72% feel more positive when they get early access to new products and sales, respectively.

Give loyalty program members access to exclusive VIP benefits at ultimate tiers, like:

• A VIP store with exclusive offers just for their status tiers 
• VIP-exclusive content or cosmetics 
• Early access to new releases 
• Dedicated account manager
• Dedicated VIP forums/community spaces
• Exclusive discounts and bonuses  (mentioned above)
• Access to exclusive events at the developer’s offices or conferences (e.g. EVE Fanfest or World of Tanks’ Tankfest)
• IRL goodies like merchandise or gifts 
• Direct access to talk with the developers, community, or game team
• News, updates, and other non-gameplay content  

Playtika’s Slotomania, for example, has an Inner Circle that’s only available for a highly select group of VIPs - and it’s the highest echelon of their loyalty tiers. These players get perks like personal customer service, access to in-person events like their VIP event in Las Vegas in 2024 with Seinfeld actor (and avid poker player) Jason Alexander, and tons of in-game bonuses. It’s a badge of honor for players to reach this tier - and they need to be the highest spenders to do so. Earning these bragging rights along with all the exclusive perks is motivation for the most loyal players to increase their spend.

And Coin Master from Moon Active has a loyalty program that gives members at higher tiers exclusive access to high-value items, like chests and stickers. Beyond that, they even have a highly private VIP account that only their most loyal highest-spending players can access. There’s no publicized path to joining the VIP tier - but players that do make it into this elite circle have access to their own account manager and can earn premium rewards, like rare cards, extra spins, and deals on pet supplies.

When building the VIP features for one of our partners, we rolled out a VIP store with its own currency (in addition to the existing web store currency). Every player that’s a member of the loyalty program is also a VIP and gets access to the store, which holds unique offers that players can only purchase using the exclusive VIP currency. And the offers available to each player depend on the customer’s tier system: the higher a player’s tier, the bigger their currency bonus and the more unique VIP offers they can access. 

Making some form of benefit accessible to all loyalty program members encourages more spend and engagement from a wider player base, while introducing more valuable rewards at the later tiers captures more spend from the highest-value players. We also integrated check-in rewards and milestones to increase the value of the VIP store and give players another reason to keep checking back. 

Metrics to measure loyalty program performance

To make sure your loyalty program is meeting its goals, you need to track the right metrics that not only indicate the program’s performance, but also analyze the economic impact to your in-game currency, inflation, and spend. The metrics we often look at when building and optimizing loyalty programs for our partners include:

• Web shop share of player spend: This metric measures the percentage of total player spending that occurs through the webshop, compared to in-game. It helps determine whether the loyalty program is effectively driving transactions through the webshop 

Pro tip: To increase the share of spend to your webshop, try giving players first-time rewards for joining the loyalty program that are redeemable on the web shop, like Monopoly Go does by rewarding players with 750 Loyalty Points as a welcome gift to their Tycoon Club. Players new to your loyalty program are often new to your webshop, too. A free reward like a gift of webshop-exclusive currency gives them a reason to visit your web shop and start shifting their spend there

• Average revenue per user (ARPU): This metric measures the average spending per user before vs. after the implementation of the loyalty program. An increase in ARPU indicates that the loyalty program is effectively increasing player spend. Pro tip: One way we suggest boosting ARPU is to tie your loyalty rewards to liveops events. Giving players rewards that they can redeem on the webshop during an event (e.g. a resource or skin) will drive traffic to the shop, which can lead to more purchases and higher player spend

• Engagement metrics: Engagement metrics include daily active users, session length, frequency of play, and in-app purchases. Monitoring changes in these metrics helps determine if the loyalty program is boosting player engagement and encouraging longer gameplay sessions
  
  • Program adoption rate: This measures the response rate and adoption of the loyalty program among players. It tells you how effectively the program is being communicated and how valuable it’s perceived. ‍‍Pro tip: Try building engagement-based progression into your gameplay so that players can accumulate loyalty benefits while they play, regardless of whether they have already accessed the loyalty program. Then you can remind them with a simple popup in-game that their benefits are waiting to be redeemed ‍
  • Tier advancement rate: This monitors the rate at which users advance through the tiers of your loyalty program. Like we mentioned earlier, tier construction is a careful process - how players progress and the rewards need to be engaging and motivating. This metric tells you if your tier system is achieving those goals - or if there are places where players are getting deadlocked and abandoning your program. Pro tip: if there’s a tier where many players stop advancing, try introducing new and/or higher-value rewards at the next tier that make progressing more appealing. You need to build enough value for players at each tier so they keep striving for the next one - and this can come down to the mix of rewards you’re offering 

• Economy-specific monitoring and balancing: Monitoring metrics related to your economy helps ensure that your loyalty program doesn’t disrupt the game's economics, inflate the currency, or over-cannibalize sales. One of these metrics is net impact on sales, which indicates that the program is leading to more revenue compared to the sales lost due to discounts/price reduction. Pro tip: Tie all of your rewards to a dollar-equivalent value so you can measure in advance what the ratio between player spend and rewards will be. For example, you know that a player at Gold tier has to spend at least $Y to reach that tier. By measuring your rewards in an equivalent dollar value, you can calculate what your ratio of player spend ($Y) to rewards value ($Z) will be: $Z rewards/$Y player spend 

Take a custom approach

What we’ve covered today is a general overview of what contributes to successful gamified loyalty programs on the web. But based on our own experience, it really comes down to tailoring the program to your specific game and player base. A templatized loyalty games program just isn’t going to accomplish all of the goals: shifting spend to your webshop, increasing LTV, and converting non-paying users into light spenders.

To give your players gamified loyalty programs that enhance their experience, feel like an extension of your game, and give them valuable rewards and ways to engage, you need to take a custom approach. If you’re interested in how Stash can help you build a custom loyalty program for your web shop, talk to us today.