Mobile game companies have a new D2C opportunity in front of them, and it’s potentially huge. Plenty of game companies are already using social channels and engaging communities outside the game, and setting up a web shop to sell items doesn’t seem like a particularly great challenge. However, it’s far more complex than most developers realize.

At GamesBeat Next, Braden Steel, senior product marketing manager at FastSpring, spoke with Josh Burns, senior director of business development and partnerships at FunPlus and Justin Sacks, CEO at Nexus, about what it takes to set up a successful D2C strategy — and why it’s important developers understand what they’re getting into.

Why web shops take time and expertise

“The actions of building, managing and then eventually operating a world-class web shop really have very little to do with building, managing and operating a world-class game,” Burns said. “For a lot of the market, the middle-tier and long tail, it’s going to be beneficial in the long term, but in the near term it might not be as impactful as people think, because the time and complexity is the big thing.”

There’s a huge amount of complexity in the back end, from ensuring the shop can accept the vast array of payment types that a global audience demands to the legal complexities. You need to ensure there’s a flawless mechanic for ensuring that the items a player buys are reflected in the game, and that the transition from game to shop and back again are flawless.

Figuring out how to court and delight high-value players — that core set of power users that developers may already be engaging with on social — is where the initial opportunity lies, and there’s less friction. They’re more likely to be lured by the VIP treatment. That includes things like loyalty programs in which purchases are rewarded, and other features that up the value proposition. But addressing the larger player population is the key to long-term growth, so the challenge there is figuring out how to overcome friction and communicate the value of the shop, and why it’s worth leaving the game to check out, and pay directly.

“You want to make sure that you’re thinking value first, rather than margin first,” Sacks said. “Provide real value to the player so that they’re excited to go there, tell their clanmates or friends about it, and then there’s a real reason for them to go to the web shop and make those purchases.”

But it takes a tremendous amount of expertise, plus it’s time-consuming to handle building out a shop yourself. There are providers in the market that offer tools that can integrate payment processing, or even templated web shops with much of the necessary technology already set up, and other partners like FastSpring.

Getting the word out with influencer marketing

Once a shop is set up and running, the other part of the equation is actually getting players to visit it. Barred from communicating about the shop within the game itself, developers need to find new ways to reach players. The social channels a developer already has in play are of course a large part of that strategy, but influencer marketing, or incentivizing a player with a following, can really move the needle, Sacks says. This could be a YouTuber or Twitch streamer, or a clan leader that runs a community pillar like a Discord server, who’s incentivized to drive a direct call to action to the web shop and make a purchase.

“If you think of the Venn diagram of the players you most want to use your web shop — the most engaged, the most playing, the highest spending — and you think of the people that are watching content creators, it’s almost a circle,” Sacks said. “One of the best ways to get the folks you most want to move from in-game to web shop is to get creators to have that message for you.”

For an influencer program to be maximally effective, new creators need to be identified, vetted and onboarded, and divvyed up into value tiers. They need a short feedback loop to know when they’ve driven purchases — and the developer needs that data to see what SKUs are working, which creators are the most successful. And developers need an effective, legal way to handle payouts across a team of creators around the world, as well as applicable taxes — a third-party platform like Nexus is key here.

Keeping those influencers engaged with the game should also be a priority, he added.

“Retaining those creators doesn’t just retain a person who can be valuable for marketing and awareness, but a lot of your most engaged players take their cues from them,” Sacks said. “Usually a lot of people think it’s about acquisition. Getting new players, new creators, new marketing. But a lot of it is really about retention and reactivation.”