Weird problem with orders

[Emmanuel]

Hello guys,

Garden War is the first product I sell directly online to end-customers (I've only sold infrastructure software to companies before) so this may be normal, or not, but I would like your opinion on this:

Around 5% of the people who downloaded the free demo go to my order page. Almost all of them did so by clicking the "Get full version" button within the game (as opposed to directly going to buy it from the webpages).

The problem is, I only get about 0.1% sales - only a small fraction of the people who visited the order page (http://www.funpause.com/get.php?name=Garden%20War&from=indiegamer).

Do you see anything obviously wrong with it? Or is it normal on product launch? (the game has been up for sale for 2 days). Did you have a similar experience before? How did you fix it (besides just increasing traffic!)

Thanks guys

Emmanuel

[James C. Smith]

It is not uncommon to get many people looking at the order form out of curiosity even if they have very little intention of buying. Most of the order form viewers do not purchase the game. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with the order form.

But the main thing that did catch my eye on the order form in the warranty. Charging for a 1 year warranty sounds scary to me. I would either include it for free or not offer it at all. By offering it as an option it makes me think there may be something wrong with the software that would make it need a warranty. This kind of option is very uncommon for $20 downloadable games. I don’t think you are adding any value by offering this option and I don’t think it build confidence in the game or the company. But that’s just my personal opinion and my knee-jerk reaction.

[Matthew]

What are your expectations? A conversion rate of 1% is good. A conversion rate of 2% is great. A conversion rate of 3.5% is phenomenally superb and only attainable by the rare mega-hits (like, oh say, Big Kahuna Reef).

[Andy]

from 0.1% upto 10% of clicking our order page at RegNow are ordering - depends from the game ;) - - but they are moving through the order page at our site at first.

For your case I'm afraid that menu above on the order page acts as distraction - peoples look at it and wondering to check something else - such as Guarantee and later return to order and check something else etc... - you could track their movement in some log analyzer. There is no anything bad really in common - if you will get enough orders finally - let them walk around - they accept your order page as part of your site. But I'd consider to remove it from there - order page means order page - nothing shouldn't distract the prospects in there moving to sale closing.

But if I assume correctly 5% of downloaders visiting order page is very good result. But again they probably just wondering to check the price.

2 days is really very small amount of time Emmanuel to get the final view of picture. Hopefully evrything would be OK. I wish you...

[Emmanuel]

But the main thing that did catch my eye on the order form in the warranty. Charging for a 1 year warranty sounds scary to me. I would either include it for free or not offer it at all.

Plimus puts it there by default as a way to charge for more :) I was wondering about it, so you fed right into my doubts and I just took it out. I'm actually paying for it but if that works, I'll see with their support how to get rid of it entirely.. Unless another Plimus vendor can tell me how to ?

Thanks! (and Reflexive rocks :))

Emmanuel

[Emmanuel]

What are your expectations? A conversion rate of 1% is good. A conversion rate of 2% is great. A conversion rate of 3.5% is phenomenally superb and only attainable by the rare mega-hits (like, oh say, Big Kahuna Reef).

My expectation would be to reach 1% and then keep working really hard and target 1.5% to 2% in the mid-term. Certainly not 0.1% :)

Emmanuel

[James C. Smith]

If Plimus puts it in there then maybe it is more common than I thought. And maybe other developers have a different take on it.

[Andy]

But the main thing that did catch my eye on the order form in the warranty. Charging for a 1 year warranty sounds scary to me.

If I get correctly that was download warranty from Plimus James. And if I get correctly it's already out from the order page. :)
I'm second one for removing of this distruction as well Emmanuel.

edit
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Hell! Am I too slow in typing by today morning. :D OK. Leave this on you guys.

[Emmanuel]

If Plimus puts it in there then maybe it is more common than I thought. And maybe other developers have a different take on it.

Well, I'll requalify (sorry, screaming babies tend to distract me from typing !): Plimus put it there by default IF you host the full version on their server, which I have so far.

I figure the best way for me not to be charged for the extended warranty thing will be to host the full version myself. In the meantime I'll be charged; it makes no difference to my customers anyway, all they pay and will be paying is $19.95.

I haven't got enough data to see the difference in sales yet, I will post it when I do though, if anyone is interested !

[Emmanuel]

For your case I'm afraid that menu above on the order page acts as distraction - peoples look at it and wondering to check something else - such as Guarantee and later return to order and check something else etc... - you could track their movement in some log analyzer.

Actually, Andy: you're right! A lot of people click on the menubar after they get to the order page.

I've changed the behavior as such: if you go to the order page from the site, the menu bar stays (so that you can still navigate properly), but if you're clicking "Get full version" from the game, now, the page is just for orders and there's nowhere to click at.

I'll post sales data when I have enough of it.

I like your site by the way. I usually loathe black backgrounds but you managed to make it look clean and pro.

Emmanuel

[patrox]

Plimus puts it there by default as a way to charge for more :) I was wondering about it, so you fed right into my doubts and I just took it out. I'm actually paying for it but if that works, I'll see with their support how to get rid of it entirely.. Unless another Plimus vendor can tell me how to ?

Thanks! (and Reflexive rocks :))

Emmanuel

Ask them to remove it, this guarantee is one of the most "evil" thing payement processors invented , it reduces the CR by 50% ( for them it's worth it since they make the same amount as 2 sales with 50% less risk of fraud )

In the meantime you can add &extendedDownloadCost=0 to your buy links ;)

pat.

[Emmanuel]

Ask them to remove it, this guarantee is one of the most "evil" thing payement processors invented , it reduces the CR by 50% ( for them it's worth it since they make the same amount as 2 sales with 50% less risk of fraud )

In the meantime you can add &extendedDownloadCost=0 to your buy links ;)

pat.

Ok, I'll do that now. Merci Patrice :)

Emmanuel

[Emmanuel]

No change in the conversion rate so far.

Anything else that looks wrong? :)

Emmanuel

[Jack Norton]

Anything else that looks wrong? :)

You :D
Seriously, calm down... you're worse than me after my first title release :) wait at least 90 days before saying "this game has bad CR or good CR".
I have many games that sold badly the first month then suddenly changed...

[Emmanuel]

You :D
Seriously, calm down... you're worse than me after my first title release :) wait at least 90 days before saying "this game has bad CR or good CR".
I have many games that sold badly the first month then suddenly changed...

I'm kind of impatient. Did that show? :)

I know.. I'm still looking for holes to plug, though. I'm sure there are plenty, this is my first title to end-customers. I think my registration incentives need a bit of work, for instance: the demo levels may take too long to complete (being a bit tough) and then that may delay a purchase decision. If you have 15 minutes to spare, can I pick your brains?? I'd appreciate if you tested the demo objectively (as a customer, not as a developer) for how well it performs in terms of how much you'd like to own it. You have experience now, so you'll probably see that it needs more of X and less of Y.

Do you know what you did, that turned the tide after a month, or is it just that you hit critical mass ?

Thanks :)

Emmanuel

[mahlzeit]

Is the demo supposed to have sound? I noticed there was a button to turn sound on and off, but on my machine (WinXP, SP1, DirectX 9.0b) there was no sound at all...

[Emmanuel]

Is the demo supposed to have sound? I noticed there was a button to turn sound on and off, but on my machine (WinXP, SP1, DirectX 9.0b) there was no sound at all...

There's music and SFX yes (I personally love the music -- the guy I contracted is great).. One other person reported the same problem, so it has to be a mistake on my end. Try running the demo again, it seems to be an intermittent problem -- it worked for the other person. I'll look at it this weekend (upgrades are free for customers who are wondering :))

Emmanuel

[undersan]

I tried to look at your order page from a consumer's perspective, and here's what I came up with:

What exactly happens after you process my payment? What exactly am I getting? Your order page says "delivered in less that five minutes!", which is a bit vague (side note: fix that typo!). Specific questions:
- Assuming it's a file download, what happens if the download fails (e.g., due to lost Internet connection)?
- Am I installing a new program? If so, then what happens to my game progress in the demo?
- How does the money-back policy work? ("let us know" is a bit vague.)

I suppose the counter-argument is that, the more details you give the consumer, the more they'll worry about something going awry. Maybe you should answer these "paranoid" questions in a "Buyer's FAQ" popup, launchable from the order page, so that the trusting consumers don't ever see the questions.

At the very least, it would be interesting to see what percentage of people click to view the FAQ.

[Emmanuel]

I tried to look at your order page from a consumer's perspective

Thanks! Fair enough -- it's the only perspective that matters.

I reworded the page. Can you take a look again and tell me what you think now?

Thanks!
Emmanuel