Why Paying Online Feels Different in E-Commerce and Gaming

Customer Experiences, Expectations, and Motivations in Payments for E-Commerce

Customers often begin their e-commerce journey with a specific need in mind, prompting them to search and search online for products that meet their preferences and requirements. Online shopping involves a longer decision-making process as customers dig through options, compare products, and gather information from reviews, detailed product descriptions, and ratings to make an informed choice. In the highly competitive e-commerce market, providers and platforms vie for customer loyalty through convenience, pricing, discounts, and delivery options. Upselling and cross-selling strategies are utilized to increase order value, achieved by recommending upgrades, tiered discounts, complementary items, or bundled offers.

This significantly impacts the payment process, the final step in the shopping funnel:

• Seamless payment flows are becoming a critical competitive advantage. Offering a variety of customers’ preferred payment methods, saving delivery information and payment details for future purchases might influence a customer’s choice of an e-commerce platform.
• Higher-value purchases often require the availability of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services (e.g., Klarna, Afterpay) alongside traditional credit card payments. These options allow customers to pay for expensive items in installments, reducing hesitation and lowering cart abandonment rates.
• Additionally, cash-on-delivery (COD) options can appeal to customers questioning a purchase decision by enabling them to pay only upon receiving and inspecting the goods.
• A smooth integration of discount codes, promotional offers, and upselling suggestions during checkout—along with a clear display of the benefits—plays a crucial role in driving conversion rates up.
• Furthermore, e-commerce transactions, which include both digital and physical goods, necessitate hassle-free refund policies to meet customer expectations for handling defective items, unmet quality standards, or delivery issues.
• However, fraudsters often exploit refund policies and initiate false chargebacks on high-value items, creating challenges for businesses. To mitigate these risks, platforms may implement stricter verification processes, which can introduce friction for legitimate users. Striking a balance between security and convenience is essential for maintaining customer trust while minimizing fraudulent activity.

Is Gaming Any Different?

The gaming industry undoubtedly adopts some e-commerce mechanics to drive purchases and facilitate successful payments. Similar to e-commerce, gaming payments perform best when a variety of preferred or previously used local payment methods are available at checkout, catering to local audiences around the world. Even BNPL options are becoming relevant for gamers, as high-spending players may prefer installments for high-value or premium-priced items. Discounts, promotions, and loyalty programs are powerful tools in both industries to boost engagement and encourage repeat transactions, while transparent and well-communicated policies are essential for building trust, ensuring players feel confident and secure when making purchases.

However, compared to e-commerce, gaming payments are rarely driven by a pre-planned purchase decision. Instead, gamers' motivation to pay is usually spontaneous and deeply tied to the specific game they are playing and the in-game mechanics that encourage such decisions:

• Keeping up with friends, participating in multiplayer events, or engaging with gifting mechanics.
• Acquiring exclusive items or skins that stand out and enhance individuality.
• Unlocking faster progression or skipping tedious gaming phases.
• Pay-to-win mechanics that offer a clear edge over other players

The reasons gamers choose to pay can vary significantly depending on the game genre and audience profile. The focus in gaming isn’t on a prolonged, e-commerce-like decision-making process. Instead, it’s about whether gamers will pay now – and if they’ll pay again later – which means that payment flow has to be integrated smoothly into the gameplay experience to minimize disruptions.

Can Paying Really Feel Like a Part of the Game?

When payments feel like a natural extension of the game rather than a disruption, players encounter less friction. Here are some strategies game developers can employ:

1. Integrate Payments Into Gameplay

• Link the game store and “Buy Now” CTAs directly to in-game scenarios, events, and player behavior.
• Incentivize payments with rewards such as in-game bonuses, time-limited drops, or exclusive items that are tied to the game’s storyline.

2. Align the Payment Experience With Game Branding

• Design the game store and checkout interface to match the game’s visual identity. Use consistent colors, art, typography, and imagery to make the process feel native.
• Adapt the UI to the gaming platform (mobile, console, PC) for a seamless experience.

3. Simplify the Payment Process

• Enable one-click payments by allowing players to save their payment details securely for future use in their preferred payment methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, Alipay, or other digital wallets.
• Support native mobile checkout methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay for frictionless transactions.
• Pre-select the previously used payment method to minimize the need to browse through the whole payment methods portfolio.

4. Encourage Pre-Payments for Microtransactions

If your game relies heavily on microtransactions, consider offering players the option to pre-purchase a larger amount of in-game currency. This approach reduces the number of transactions needed for smaller purchases and keeps players engaged without constant payment prompts.

Frictionless payment flows, fully embedded into the gaming experience, become one of the most viable aspects in the gamers’ engagement. However, in the pursuit of creating the most seamless payment process, game developers may overlook potential challenges related to regulations, compliance, and security – issues that are highly specific to the gaming industry and turn up differently in e-commerce.

Gaming Regulations, Security, and Compliance

The gaming industry operates within a complex framework of regulations, security requirements, and compliance standards that differ significantly from those of other digital industries. These rules are shaped by the unique characteristics of gaming, including its diverse player base, global reach, and innovative monetization models like randomized drops and microtransactions.

1. Compliance with Parental Controls

For many games, a significant portion of the player base consists of minors, which introduces specific challenges.

• The use of in-game purchase mechanics can be perceived as exploitative or manipulative when targeting minors, which could lead to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegations resulting in fines and refunds to affected customers.
• Unauthorized purchases made by minors without their parents’ approval, called Friendly Fraud, leads to the increased amount of refund requests and chargebacks initiated by the parents.
• Some jurisdictions impose specific policies related to the number of hours minors can play or the amounts they can spend. For instance, the Chinese government has established limitations on spending and playtime for online games.

 2. Use of Randomized Mechanics for Monetization

Many games incorporate random reward mechanisms which are increasingly scrutinized globally.

• In countries like China, South Korea, and Japan developers must disclose the probabilities of obtaining specific items from randomized mechanics.
• Some nations, such as Belgium or the Netherlands, classify items obtained randomly as gambling and prohibit their use entirely.

For developers operating globally, this means they must rethink their monetization strategies in regions where loot boxes are restricted, focusing instead on alternative incentives to drive in-game spending.

3. Resale and Regional Pricing

Gaming is often targeted by resellers exploiting regional pricing disparities when games offer reduced prices in emerging markets. Developers should implement clear regional locking policies to prevent abuse, such as limiting cross-region purchases or restricting account transfers.

To Summarize

At the intersection of e-commerce and gaming payments are the shared principles of convenience, flexibility, and trust. By adopting best practices from e-commerce, the gaming industry can elevate the user experience, simplify payment processes, and effectively cater to a global audience. However, optimizing gaming payments also requires an in-depth understanding of how to make them feel native to the gaming environment while addressing industry-specific regulations and threats. Striking this balance is essential to driving seamless, engaging transactions for players.

Natalia Sobakina, Global Director of Product Marketing