80% of first-time web store visitors come back again

• Miikka Louotio shared lessons learned in DTC after Appcharge has processed $500 million in transactions.
• 80% of first-time visitors end up returning to a store again.

"The gradual shift on the player side is that they’ve started to understand what web stores are," said Appcharge VP of business development, Europe Miikka Louotio.

“You have to engage them. You have a couple of days to really grab their attention.”

Louotio spoke on stage at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki this October to share lessons learned in DTC after Appcharge has processed $500 million in transactions. In particular, he emphasised the importance of receiving a quick initial payment from players, as their first time spending in a web shop helps ensure it isn’t a scam.

Naturally, this then builds confidence in future payments.

Louotio noted that the median average from first visit to first purchase on a web store is 2.6 days, and 80% of first-time visitors end up returning to a store again.

Furthermore, 50% of repeat buyers make their second purchase in the next seven days, and 63% of those buyers go on to make a third purchase in the week after that.

"Once they learn that loop once, we’ve seen that they are very likely to buy again."

Tracking and guiding

Players need guiding towards their first web shop purchase, according to Louotio, and personalisation is key. Recent legislative changes mean that in countries like the US, welcome offers can be promoted in-game to draw players towards a web shop.

Through personalisation, games can craft "irresistible" offers to the right cohort of players at the right price. Louotio suggested this will encourage players to come back in the future.

"This is really something you’ve got to focus on in terms of the player journey, and really focus on different vehicles to do that - whether that’s in-game or outside of the game."

He proceeded to discuss player behaviour and tracking users beyond their first visit to the store. Just because a player doesn’t immediately spend, doesn’t mean they never will, so tracking data around engagement, or starting an order session but backing out, can be beneficial in retargeting efforts.

And, Louotio discussed successful campaigns - the strategies that work best in enticing players to spend.

"Seasonality is super important. We’ve seen amazing sales from our partners, especially tied to different seasonal events, and the best performing web stores really dance on the wave of these events. It really increases the monetisation, and I would say that for web stores it’s probably one of the main ways to monetise at scale."

Last year, he spoke at PGC Helsinki about "why your players hate your web store".

We also spoke with Appcharge chief marketing officer Gil Tov-Ly about the latest tools bolstering conversion.

Pocket Gamer Connects’ flagship London event will return on January 19th and 20th, 2026. The conference will be bigger and better than ever, expanding to two venues with major partner summits.