A web store launch isn't a feature launch. The code is a day's work; the launch is 30 days, because you're asking players to buy somewhere new. This is the plan we use with publishers who build a store on Appside, in the order that works.
Before day one: the launch checklist
Don't announce until every line is true.
| Ready? | Item | Where |
|---|---|---|
| ☐ | Catalogue with the same packs as the app, each product confirmed | Studio → Catalogue |
| ☐ | The store looks like the game: icon, colors, hero, pack art | Studio → Design |
| ☐ | Terms and privacy linked (Appside requires them to publish) | Studio → Legal |
| ☐ | Player token signed by your backend, so the store knows who's buying | Player tokens |
| ☐ | order.paid webhook verified and granting exactly once per order |
Webhooks |
| ☐ | Return to the game works on a real device (Universal Link / App Link) | Deep links |
| ☐ | One reason to buy here: a first-purchase bonus or a web-only bundle | Studio → Operations |
| ☐ | Support team briefed, with a line to say and a code to give | Below |
| ☐ | A test purchase, from the game, by you, with the balance refreshed afterwards | Your phone |
The last line is the one people skip. Do the whole loop yourself: open the store from the game, buy, come back, see the balance. If anything in that loop is slow or confusing, players will find it on day one, and a bad first purchase is the last purchase.
Week 1: launch to your best payers only
Your top spenders are the right first audience, for three reasons: they trust the game, they buy packs big enough that the web bonus is real money, and they tell you what's wrong. Reach them where you already talk to them, in-game where the rules allow it, by push, in Discord, or by a direct email.
The offer for this week is simple: a first web purchase bonus. In Appside you can target an offer at a spender tier, so the offer can be bigger for the players you most want to move and invisible to everyone else. Your backend puts the tier into the player token; the store does the rest.
What to watch in week 1: does the return to the game work on every device your players use? Do balances refresh? Are there support tickets that say "I paid and got nothing"? If the signed webhook grants exactly once, that last one shouldn't exist, but check.
Week 2: open it to everyone
Now the broad announcement: push, email, community, social, in that order over a few days, each with its own promo code so you can tell them apart (the channel guide has the details).
Three offers at launch, one per kind of player:
- First web purchase bonus. For players who have never bought on the web. Targets new players.
- Web-only bundle. A pack that doesn't exist in the app. Gives regular buyers a reason to look.
- Launch window code. A percentage off for two weeks, announced everywhere, with a total limit so it ends on its own.
Set start and end times in UTC in the Studio, so nothing needs a human at midnight.
Weeks 3 and 4: fix the weakest step
By day 14 you have enough data to see where players leave. The Studio shows the funnel: app → store → checkout → paid. The step with the biggest drop is the job for weeks 3 and 4.
| Biggest drop | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| App → store | Players don't see the link, or there's no reason to click | Move the link to the shop screen; make the bonus visible on it |
| Store → checkout | The store doesn't look like the game, or the prices don't beat the app | Check design and the bonus; the conversion checklist has 20 checks |
| Checkout → paid | Payment methods missing for the player's country, or a slow checkout | Enable local payment methods by region in the Studio |
| Paid → repeat | No reason to come back | Start live ops: timed offers, bundles, codes |
The five numbers, at days 7, 14 and 30
Keep it to five. You can add more later; at launch, more numbers hide the one that matters.
- Store visits. Is traffic growing week over week?
- Visit → checkout rate. Is the store convincing?
- Checkout → paid rate. Is checkout working?
- Repeat purchases per player. Are players coming back, or trying once?
- Refunds. A rising refund rate at launch almost always means an unclear offer or a delivery problem.
Revenue matters, but in the first month it's a result of the five, not a lever.
Brief support and community before the announcement
The support team will get the first "is this real?" and "where's my pack?" messages. Give them three things: a one-line answer to "why the web store?" (the bonus), the store URL on your own domain, and a code they can hand to a player who had a bad first experience. Give the community moderators the same, a day earlier.
Appcharge's go-to-market advice (its blog post of June 5, 2024) also rests on support, social and a newsletter, and its part two was to cover retention. The plan above adds what that post leaves out: the pre-launch checklist, a first week limited to your best payers, the three launch offers with end times, the funnel table that tells you what to fix, and the five numbers to read on fixed days. It also needs no account manager: every step is in the Studio or in your own code.
Day 30: decide what's next
At day 30 you'll know one of two things. Either the store converts and the job is traffic, which the channel guide covers, or the store has traffic and the job is conversion, which the checklist covers. Either way, the live ops calendar starts now.
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