Home / Module 3: The Loyalty Toolset / Loyalty Programs and Off-Platform Purchase
Loyalty Programs and Off-Platform Purchase
Don’t get stuck paying full price. With a loyalty website, your players can access better deals on your in-game currency bundles than they get in the app, and in exchange, you'll save a bundle on platform fees.
At playAWARDS, we build loyalty and direct purchase websites. If your app is interested in receiving support on this, reach out to us.
With playAWARDS loyalty and direct purchase websites, you simply integrate your app into our website, we'll provide the right bundles to the right player, then hand any purchases back to you so you can award your players their deserved currency. A loyalty website is also a place where your players can go and interact with their loyalty program. They can shop for rewards, view their loyalty status, update their information, and last-but-not-least, see ALL of the loyalty-enabled apps where they can earn LPs and rewards. You don't want to miss this opportunity!
In this article, we'll teach you all about the typical capabilities of a loyalty website and what it takes to get integrated into one, as well as cover some of the first principles to being successful with your direct purchase strategy.
Let's get started and be better together!
But First, Why?
Why integrate your direct purchase website and loyalty website into the same website?
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Synergy: Having two websites might confuse your players. Instead try having just one that speaks to both your game brand and your loyalty brand and ties them together for your players.
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Visitation: Having your loyalty website the same place as your direct purchase platform gives players more reasons to visit the website, which will only increase the wallet share you drive through your direct purchase program
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Marketing: It's a platform violation to solicit your players to visit a direct purchase site from within your app. If your direct purchase platform offers more than just direct purchase, it gives you the ability to talk about these other things in your app, then while your players are visiting the site they will discover the direct purchase functionality.
Basic Functionality
Before we go into the deeper toolset that we typically offer in a direct purchase site, let’s first cover the basic integration. The basic setup requires two integrations:
The Basics of a Bundle
Bundles are populated by YOU via the Website Bundle API. Here’s what you control:
Merchandising & Advanced Features
Beyond the basic features of your game store, you'll need some additional features if you want to successfully drive material wallet share.
Welcome Offer
Getting players to make that initial purchase on your direct purchase has the added friction of entering in their credit card information. That’s why playAWARDS recommends configuring a welcome offer.
Welcome offers can be for any price point and currency amount, just like any other offer, but should be richer. Typically, you would send us a Welcome Offer in the API, then we would ONLY show it to players who have not yet made a purchase on the site.
Promo Offer
Similar to Welcome Offers, you should provide your players with one-off promotional offers. The ability to support promotional offers on your direct purchase site is what helps keep parity between the direct purchase site and your app.
Purchase Bonus Games
Purchase bonus games are great incentives both in your app and on your direct purchase store. If players are enjoying bonus games in your app, they’re less likely to want to purchase direct, so we strongly recommend having a bonus game in your direct purchase game store.
Stamp Cards
The next biggest challenge is getting players to come back to the website for currency purchases again and again. That’s why playAWARDS recommends an accumulator system, AKA stamp cards. Stamp cards work with bonus games to provide a fun and enticing incentive for players to make multiple purchases through your direct purchase store.
And More!
Of course, that's a great start, and there are always more features you could build. Also, building out a direct purchase platform and strategy that successfully converts meaningful wallet share also requires best practices and hard work.
First Principles
Parity+
When it comes to your direct purchase strategy, your general rule of thumb should be what we call Parity+. Parity+ is that everything you’re doing in the app should be done on the website, but should be richer.
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Every currency you’re selling in your in-app store, including temporary liveops currencies, should be sold on your direct purchase store
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Any unique segmentation, such as by game level, that you do in your in-app store should be mirrored on your direct purchase store
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We recommend a scaled increase in richness (the Direct Purchase-to-In-App differential is GREATER for more expensive bundles), but the currency-to-$ ratio should generally be between 1.5 to 3x richer than in your app.
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As for the richness of the loyalty currencies, stick to a consistent policy, such as that it must be 50-to-$1 for Loyalty Points and 80-to-$1 for Tier Points
Number of Bundles
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We recommend at least 6 bundles, but you may offer as many as you’d like.
Price Points
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We recommend offering bundles as low as $5 or $10
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On the high end, you should consider going MUCH higher than in the app, up to $1,000. We generally recommend not going higher than $1,000.
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You should aim to have some similar price points on the site as you offer in your app so your players can easily make a price-to-value comparison.
Do's & Don'ts
Regarding the do's and don'ts of working within the boundaries of the platforms, the table below is a helpful illustration. As the regulatory environment is always changing, you should of course check with your legal/compliance teams on any final decisions as it relates to direct purchase websites and in-app compliance.
DO...
DON'T...
Wrapping Up
In this article, we discussed the virtues of integrating your direct purchase platform into your loyalty website. We discussed the typical capabilities of a direct purchase/loyalty website and what it takes to get integrated into one, as well as covered some of the first principles to being successful with your direct purchase strategy.
If you partner with playAWARDS, we can not only work with you to build out a successful direct purchase website, but we'll help you establish your own best practices to ensure that your direct purchase initiative is a successful one.