Why Your Software is Not Selling attempts to answer the questions that almost all software startups ask. It’s a bit humorous, but it finishes with a list of reasons why indie companies have trouble with sales.
#8 is you made it too hard to buy. Recently I went to a soccer-themed store to purchase an Italian soccer jersey for my father. The cost was huge, but I was prepared to buy it. In fact, I was about to buy myself a United States jersey for the same price. It would have been a good day for them, and a bad day for my wallet.
Except I couldn’t buy the jerseys. The store only took cash as it didn’t have credit card processing setup. I didn’t have that kind of cash on me at the time, and for the prices they had, I don’t know of many people who would be willing to part with that much cash, either. They lost a huge sale that day because it was too difficult for me to buy what they were selling.
If it is too difficult to pay for your indie game, you can have the most compelling demo in the world with the best word-of-mouth marketing, but people would not be able to buy it. If you require the customer to register before submitting payment details, you will lose sales from people who don’t want to register just to buy a game. If your payment processor is specific to an American audience, how will someone from England or Germany be able to buy your game? How many barriers are you putting up for your customers?
I think #1 is the biggest issue facing startups: who are you? If your customer hasn’t heard of you, how can you expect that he/she might think to buy from you? It is a elaborate way to say that marketing is important.
