Regnow Sales Stat - inquiry

[SteveZ]

Stat from Regnow since the launch of game (http://www.blueteagames.com/CactusBruce.exe) on October 14th:

********************************
Products Selected: 583
Billing Page Hits: 84 (14.4%)
Confirmation Page Hits: 22 (3.8%)
Completed Products: 10 (1.7%)
********************************
-Product Selected: visits to the order (http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8715-2) page
-Billing Hits: The next page (clicking on "Order Now"), user enters basic info
-Confirmation Page: Next page, users enters in credit card info
-Completed Products: Success!

I'm not too familiar with the average stats of games using Regnow.
Is the Completed Products / Product Selected (1.7%) consider a low number?
How about Confirmation Hits / Completed Products ratio?

Please feedback on the stats. If you also uses Regnow, can you show some insights on my figure or provide some of your own?

Thanks!
Steve Z.

[patrox]

I'm not too familiar with the average stats of games using Regnow.
Is the Completed Products / Product Selected (1.7%) consider a low number?


There's not such thing as a low or high number, it's very subjective.

if you have 0.1% on 10 million downloads you still make more than 10% on 200 downloads...
The all CR theory and such is sooo arbitrary, there's just too many factors. You can easily have a 50% CR on a product that interest only 10 people in the world ( how about a southern dutch bee insect manager ? )

The real question should be something like are you satisfied with your sales ? or is the time spent/money worth it.

pat.

[Greg Squire]

From what I understand a CR of 1.7%, for an indie game, is generally considered quite good. You should pat yourself on the back. Long Live Cactus Bruce! :p

[Andy]

CR (conversion rate)=number of sales divided by number of downloads...

[ManuTOO]

>> -Product Selected: visits to the order page

If I read this correctly, 1.7% is not his CR from downloads, but from people who visited his order page.
As I have absolutely no stat about that on my games, I can't be sure, but it seems a bit low...

[Midnight Synergy]

Your 1.7% is

(a) neither high nor low

and

(b) not the same as a conversion rate.

The conversion rate is a measure of how downloads convert into sales. Regnow provides you with stats on how many people visit the order page and then complete the sale. I find it a fairly meaningless parameter. If you heavily drive traffic to your regnow order page (e.g. prominent "Buy Now" buttons in game, or even automatically opening that page when the game is exited) you will get a ton of visitors, and hence a very low % (since users will then visit many times, maybe just to "check out" the order page or because they pushed the "buy now" button accidentally or because they were forced to visit). On the other hand, you can have a very high % if your game/website is layed out to only guide people to the order page that are very certain of their order (e.g. because send them to a page on your own site with all the relevant info after they click "buy now").

This % also takes into account how many people will try to enter meaningless order info in the hopes of somehow getting the game for free. This number might be higher or lower depending on your audience - where did they download the demo, what are their ages, etc?

As others have noted, the sales to download is the more interesting bit (although as I have stated in other threads, I'm not a big believer in putting too much weight on CRs since they also tend to be influenced by far too many factors to be very meaningful).

Patrick

[Tom Cain]

If you also uses Regnow, can you show some insights on my figure or provide some of your own?
My RegNow stats for October:

********************************
Billing Page Hits: 80.4%
Confirmation Page Hits: 50.0%
Completed Products: 41.3%
********************************

Many times people go to the billing page to find out the software price if it isn't displayed elsewhere, but I see your site has the price beside the Buy Now button. Are there other links to the billing page that don't have the price displayed? If so, maybe people are clicking them to check the price.

When I went to your billing page, I first thought I'd been directed incorrectly and was about to leave until I recognized the RegNow logo. Perhaps customers are getting disoriented like I was? It may not be a large possibility, but it can be improved easily by taking advantage of RegNow's Style Manager to make your order pages look similar to your main site.

[SteveZ]

Here is a more accurate representation of Conversion Rate (Let me know if this logic is correct):

*********
Bandwidth used since game launched: 8.89 Gb
Game size: 8Mb => Downloads: ~1111.25

Conversion rate = 10 sales / 1111.25 = 0.8%
*********

Personally, I think that is quite low. However, since this game is new, potentially there are probably many people who is playing now and may buy the game.

Further insight?

[icosahedron]

One of the bigger things to remember is that this is the opening of the Christmas season. I don't know the overlap between the demographics of indie game purchasers and normal game purchasers, but there are a number of high profile games coming out (or have just come out), and those could be diverting a number of potential sales. I know for one that I wouldn't have bought anything in preparation for Half Life 2 or Bard's Tale. But that's just all speculation from my point of view. One of the best things about an indie game is the lack of shelf life. It can be as new as you want to make it again and again.

[simonh]

Yes, good point. There are a stack of AAA games out soon - HL2, Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2, MGS3, San Andreas, Pro Evo 4, the list is endless - so I don't think many 'normal' gamers will be buying indie games for a while.

[Jack Norton]

I just ordered my copy of PES4 indeed :D

A CR of 0,8% for a windows game is absolutely in the norm, if you want my honest opinion. I know lot of games that does worse and a few that does better ;)

[MrPhil]

The real question should be something like are you satisfied with your sales ? or is the time spent/money worth it.

Totally agree. I'd simply add, instead of trying to judge the sales level of 'goodness,' figure out what you can do to improve sales? Better website, better screenshots, etc? You have everything to gain!