"Not In Stores" - does it work?

[JiriNovotny]

I've noticed that some indies place something like 'These games are not available in stores' on their order pages.

Does anyone know if it have positive or negative effect on the sales? What is your opinion?

[Red Marble Games]

I have no idea, but I expect the answer you'll see from most people here will be: test it and find out. Randomly show people a page with that legend and a page without and see which gets more downloads.

[Fost]

I've had quite a few people email in and ask which store they could buy Starscape in. A fairly high proportion of those ended up buying the game anyway. I never thought about it that much, but for every email you receive about something there's probably a hundred people thinking the same thing who don't have the time in the day to email you.

It's hard to tell though - the people who emailed us may have ended up buying the game because they received a personal reply - I'm sure some people email in just to check there's going to be a friendly person on hand to help out if they get stuck.

[Mike Boeh]

I'd say it has little or no impact on sales either way... But I have never tested it...

[svero]

My suspicion is that there is maybe a very very very very slight effect. There may be some odd cases where someone says to themselves.. ill just pick this game up at my local computer shop not realizing that's impossible and then you've lost the impulse buy. However.. I think its probably so minor that when you test it (which is the obvious thing to do in a simple either or scenario like this) you won't notice any difference until you have huge sales numbers to make the percentage noticeable. For most indies they probably dont have enough sales to even see a result.

[Hamumu]

I've had quite a few people email in and ask which store they could buy Starscape in.

I get these too (odd that they'd ask me about Starscape, huh?), and it shows an interesting phenomenon that might make a "Not in stores" logo meaningful. The people who contact me always ask this the same way: "I live in XXX, and have looked in this store and that store with no luck, where can I buy your game?"... they don't realize that you can buy online! They see it on the web, and they actually go to stores and see if they can find it.

How many sales are we missing to the online-shopping-illiterate? I doubt a large proportion of them are actually sending these emails.

[baegsi]

The people who contact me always ask this the same way: "I live in XXX, and have looked in this store and that store with no luck, where can I buy your game?"... they don't realize that you can buy online!

That's amazing! See, that's the result of all those fake product boxes one can see lately.

I guess, some of those customers also don't like paying online because of security considerations so they ask for a store.

So the answers probably is: it won't hurt to mention it.

[Savant]

Well, honestly, that attitude can be applied to anything. It wouldn't hurt to mention that no animals were hurt during development of your game but why would you put that on your site unless it was going to help drive more downloads/conversions? The less clutter in the customers face, IMO, the better.

[baegsi]

The less clutter in the customers face, IMO, the better.

The problem: what is clutter to you is valuable information for the other. The art is to build a site that appeals to both kinds of customers. Also depends on what your target customer is.

[Savant]

Attempting to appeal to everyone will likely result in annoying them instead. Just my opinion.

[ErikH2000]

The problem: what is clutter to you is valuable information for the other. The art is to build a site that appeals to both kinds of customers. Also depends on what your target customer is.

That sounds good, but how do you know what matters to your target customer? There's really too many things that could be said on sell and order pages.

* what kind of game it is
* why it's fun
* testimonials
* awards & game reviews
* money-back guarantee
* your privacy guaranteed
* order form is secure
* cross-selling other products
* blah blah blah

You have to pick the ones that are more powerful. It's no use having a large collection of statements, each one seeking after a tiny minority of prospects. Eventually, more important points are lost in the clutter and they aren't working as effectively.

-Erik

[baegsi]

That sounds good, but how do you know what matters to your target customer?

I meant: if you offer some hardcore miltary strategy game, your customer is probably e-commerce savvy. Match-three games audience is probably not.

Eventually, more important points are lost in the clutter and they aren't working as effectively.

I don't mean to put everything on the first page. A site containing lots of information doesn't have to result into clutter. Reveal the info on demand. Put it into the help section. If your customer even considers going to a store buying your game, he will likely be willing to do some more clicks. For example, just add a faq entry. Or on your order page offer a "cancel order" button and on the target page put relevant questions.

There should be more ways possible. Basically I'm just saying to do everything not to lose a customer between the first page and order confirmation. There's a reason why a customer leaves your site, and if it's not your game you should try to offer as much helping hands as possible.

* what kind of game it is
* why it's fun
* testimonials
* awards & game reviews
* money-back guarantee
* your privacy guaranteed
* order form is secure
* cross-selling other products
* blah blah blah

Except the last two I find all points very important. I can fully understand that you personally can't read all this stuff again and again anymore, but you shouldn't expect the same from your customer.

Just my opinion.

[Greg Squire]

"... But wait there's more - If buy now, we'll throw in a set a Ginsu knives absolutely free. This is a limited time offer and not found in stores, so hurry and call now ..."

Sounds like a bad TV ad to me. Not sure if it would help or not to state that fact. I would suspect that most of your potential market (online game buyers) is already aware of that fact. Also, I'm not sure if stating this could help educate the "online shopping illiterate" or not; there are probably still more barriers to a sale (such as trust) with that group.

[soniCron]

I would suspect that most of your potential market (online game buyers) is already aware of that fact.

Not necessarily. WalMart carries numerous casual titles like Bejeweled, Collapse, and Drop. Online games are bleeding into the physical retail markets, and because of this, many users may actually expect a game sold online to be at their local Carry Everything store.

EDIT:

"... But wait there's more - If buy now, we'll throw in a set a Ginsu knives absolutely free. This is a limited time offer and not found in stores, so hurry and call now ..."

You laugh, but that's actually one of the best selling pitch lines out there. No joke. It really works.

[Greg Squire]

Not necessarily. WalMart carries numerous casual titles like Bejeweled, Collapse, and Drop. Online games are bleeding into the physical retail markets, and because of this, many users may actually expect a game sold online to be at their local Carry Everything store.

You might be right. I've seen some of those casual titles in WalMart myself. I can see how this could confuse some people.

[Promaginy]

You might be right. I've seen some of those casual titles in WalMart myself. I can see how this could confuse some people.

Not just casual titles either. Positech has Starship Tycoon selling in my local Wal-Mart. It says that Take Two is the publisher. Selling for $9.95 CDN which undercuts the web-price. Typically Wal-Mart.

[James C. Smith]

As other have stated, I don’t think “not available in stores� will make your game sound any more or less appealing. But it may avoid confusion from customers who see the game on-line and plan to buy it in the store.

I have also received the occasional e-mail from someone who played the demo of one of the games I worked on (such as Ricochet) and then searched every retail store she could think of and could not find any place to buy the game. Sometimes they are opposed to buying on-line, sometimes they just prefer retail if it’s available (not knowing it wasn’t) and sometimes they don’t even realize you can buy on-line.

Adding the “not available…� line may help with some of this. But my opinion is that it is very rarely a problem and the web space is better spent promoting features of the game or testimonials.

[Sirrus]

Even I've had trouble with this a few times...who would honestly think Dope Farmer would be avaliable at Best Buy?

[soniCron]

...who would honestly think Dope Farmer would be avaliable at Best Buy?

It's...it's not?

[Battleline]

I've had quite a few people email in and ask which store they could buy Starscape in. A fairly high proportion of those ended up buying the game anyway. I never thought about it that much, but for every email you receive about something there's probably a hundred people thinking the same thing who don't have the time in the day to email you.

It's hard to tell though - the people who emailed us may have ended up buying the game because they received a personal reply - I'm sure some people email in just to check there's going to be a friendly person on hand to help out if they get stuck.

I wonder if this is because your selling a boxed version. Whenever I see software that has a boxed version, I usually check to see if it's sold on Amazon. I usually feel more comfortable purchasing software from a larger company like Amazon than I do from a smaller web site (weird hang up, but I bet I'm not the only person out there).

[Greg Squire]

I wonder if this is because your selling a boxed version. Whenever I see software that has a boxed version, I usually check to see if it's sold on Amazon. I usually feel more comfortable purchasing software from a larger company like Amazon than I do from a smaller web site (weird hang up, but I bet I'm not the only person out there).

You're far from being the only one out there. I bet most people are in this boat; I know I am. It's all a matter of trust. I don't order anything online until I can verify that the source is legit and trustworthy. I believe, most people are leary of companies that might look like "fly-by-night operations", and usually they'll stick to the companies they trust.