Gate2Shop - Sell more.

G2S continues to deliver exactly what customers need.  Read about the solutions delivered here.  More case studies to follow soon.

OneStepCheckout is a shopping cart optimization for Magento stores – and Tanki Online is a MMOG that currently has over 5 million players worldwide.

Check out our friends over at Tanki Online. They are running some nice promotions for crystals if paid through Gate2Shop.
You can find more information here.

The Internet is undoubtedly the best channel to sell games online for its convenience, immediacy and global reach. Nonetheless, it is also a very competitive sector. Therefore, when selling games, software or digital products, you should bear in mind that an online store does not sell by itself.

If you are determined to start selling your games online, you should consider some key elements in order to succeed:

1. First, you need to choose the right ecommerce software that best suits your needs. Not every ecommerce solution is specifically designed for the gaming industry and not all of them support, for example casual game or Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games.

2. Make different versions οf уουr game аnd mаke thеm available for different operating systems as well. Besides, provide your customers with satisfactory information about the game, build great product sales pages: attractive and describing all the benefits and main advantages over other games.

3. Offer a free version of the game or offer just some features and for a limited period of time after which players will need to pay. This way, players will learn more about your product and they will have an incentive to keep playing and pay for it.

4. Create a Marketing plan to promote the game that includes different online marketing tactics and, if possible, publicity аnd advertisement. Consider joining an affiliate networks that can help you to sell your games online easier and faster.

Although you are selling a digital product via the Internet, act like you have a physical store. Remember that behind every conversion there is a person so try to improve their experience using your online store and dedicate time to lead nurturing.

5. Finally, without collection there is no shop. Nowadays, offering a great range of payment options is necessary to avoid losing sales and be able to succeed. Yου need tο find a reliable payment service provider which will allow уου to accept the greater range of payments options.

When selling games online, especially Social Networks and Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO or MMOG), you need a provider that offers micropayment solutions and Flash Payments option which allow gamers to remain in the game while making a purchase.

At the end of the day, all you need is to build an attractive and effective website technically compatible with your game and ready to accept payments online.  Note that there are full-service providers that can help to throughout the entire process to success.

Attractive and, above all, efficient websites is the great challenge for every online merchant. Being efficient means to sell more and improving the user experience will definitely help. In this post, we will give some keys points to improve customer experience for software, digital goods and games online merchants. The main peculiarity of the digital product industry selling online is that there is no physical products so certain parameters that are important to the retailing sector, such as stock availability, shipping charges or payment on delivery, do not need to be considered. Nevertheless, the tips listed below can and should be applied to any online store:

1. Optimize your website. Optimize the more technical aspects of the site: Improve accessibility, site-speed and create a simple, attractive and well-organized website structure. Bear in mind that clear and clean navigation is critical.

2. User oriented design. Keep it simple! Online consumers like simple and short processes. Users do not want to learn to use your site; they want your site to be adapted to their mental structure. Add clarity to simplicity and do not make the mistake of, for instance, labelling call-to-action buttons with confusing words like “submit” if what you mean is “buy now.”

3. Product display and information. Accurate, complete and clear information about your products is essential. You cannot allow your users to find the information needed to finalize the purchase elsewhere. Create your own product descriptions and never just copy the description given by the manufacturer. When selling digital products online, you do not really need to include 360-degree view of the products, but be imaginative and include, for example, a demo or an explanatory video of your digital goods.

4. Social Shopping. People like to know what other people have bought, which the best-sellers are or what the online community thinks on a given item. Bear in mind that personal recommendations are a major influence on purchase decisions and build trust. So include the options to rate products, post comments, and show these references to future buyers and you will improve significantly the user experience. Additionally, combine users-ratings with cross-selling options, which will be very effective if you display “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed…”

Do not forget to include social media sharing buttons to every product, this will allow your clients to recommend your products, inform their contacts about their latest acquisition or ask for advice to their network.

5. Price policy. Price is one of the first things consumers watch and one of the main reasons to purchase, so display it clearly. Your users will appreciate not having to do extra clicks to find the price and remember that your competitors are also one click away. On the other hand, do not hide additional charges revealed only at the checkout; nobody likes to be taken for a fool.

6. Checkout process. The checkout process MUST be as short and quick as possible. Users will also appreciate if you inform about how many steps the purchasing process is going to take and at which point they are.  Allow checkout without registration. Registration is a useless burden and a major cause of cart abandonment for first time clients (most of the users do not want to reveal personal information when is not really necessary) but also for returning clients, since they might have forgotten their password.

7. Payment options. Provide a great variety of payment options to boost your sales, markets and conversions. Do not assume that everyone has a PayPal account, that everyone has a credit card or that everybody can pay in dollars. It is best to offer the greatest possible number of credit and debit cards from as many countries as possible and to accept payments in different currencies.

8. Keep in touch. Cultivate the relation with your customers. Once customers have finished the purchase, it is time to ask them to subscribe to your newsletter or any other personalized alert system. Find out which are their interests and keep in touch accordingly (e.g. or accumulative points, extra discount for frequent users, etc.)

We take this opportunity to share with you this video about Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea. Although we want to focus our post on the virtual goods sector, it is a great example of how to eliminate boundaries and frustration and fascinate consumers:

If you found this post helpful, share it with your network!

Yuval Ziv (Gate2Shop) – “Payment Processing vs Affiliate Marketing! Which one really matters?” from Flash GAMM.

We’re going to be in Kyiv in a couple of days attending and sponsoring the International Conference of Online Game Developers (http://www.confog.org.ua/en). It’s going to take place on April, 21, 2011 and we’ll be glad to meet you there for a cup of coffee and a discussion how to monetize your games.
Do drop us a line if you’re in town and we’ll set up a meeting.
You can email, call or contact us via Twitter.

We’re looking forward to talking to you.

Hamburg has yet again offered an amazing environment for one of the most targeted gaming events of the year. The casual atmosphere and great people that made the conference so successful were open to conversations and shared useful insights to what is to come in 2011. Anything from problematic areas and development challenges to potential gold mines were covered as part of the program.

We are proud to have sponsored and taken part in this year’s event. We have met great professionals from the industry and have formed strong partnerships with some of the leading companies in the world. Walking down the halls of the conference and feeling the vibrancy in the air is something that we are looking forward to. Casual Connect Seattle, here we come.