Web shops, DTC experiences and creating value for players: Stash’s Archie Stonehill talks top tips ahead of PGC San Francisco

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Pocket Gamer Connects, the leading international conference series for the global games industry, is coming back to San Francisco on March 17th to 18th, 2025.

This must-attend event will unite more than 750 industry professionals for two days of learning, pitching and networking. Attendees will dive into expertly curated conference tracks exploring the latest trends in mobile, covering everything from industry growth engines, user acquisition, and HTML5 to the investment landscape, monetisation, and UGC.

One of our expert speakers is Archie Stonehill, head of product at Stash, who is set to host the talk How to Steer Players to Your Web Shop (Without Breaking the Rules!).

We spoke with Stonehill to learn some web shop tips and hear all about the value of bundles, player conversion and more.

PocketGamer.biz: What will you be discussing in your talk at PGC San Francisco?

Archie Stonehill: By now, the gaming industry largely understands all the benefits web stores bring – saving on the 30% fees, more revenue, deeper relationships with players, first-party data, et cetera. But there’s still one challenge we always get questions about how to tell users to start spending there compliantly.

In my talk, I’ll be answering that exact question – with tips, strategies and real-life examples. You’ll come away knowing how to market your web shop and get more players spending, without violating any app store rules!

What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?

The games industry has primarily focused its direct-to-consumer efforts on improving payment processing, such as lowering fees, expanding coverage and so on. While these are still crucial, we’ve reached a point where good payment processing is largely table stakes.

The real challenge – one that only studios who’ve been through it will fully understand – is how to create a DTC web shop that players enjoy so much, they actually choose to engage and spend in it.

That requires building what we call “DTC player experiences” – everything from incorporating compelling incentives and rewards to building out an entire web portal with content and community features that further the brand.

This is the narrative we’ve been trying to push at Stash, and it’s great to see more studios reframe their approach to web shops this way.

If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?

Invest in unifying your in-game and web shop catalogues. We often speak with studios who are struggling to grow their web shop, especially when their main KPI – web shop share of spend – has plateaued.

To break through, they need to either increase the amount of players in the shop (adoption rate) or the spend depth of those players (average order value). In both cases, it’s all about creating a web shop that feels valuable to players.

If adding extra content feels like too much of a lift, start by introducing more in-game offers. Focus on your high conversion rate offers like recurring bundles, event-triggered bundles and LiveOps bundles – not just basic resource packs.

The best way to do that is to connect your players’ game account to their web shop account and unify the two catalogues into one.

Yes, it’s possible!

Can people get in touch with you at the event? What sort of people would you like to connect with?

Absolutely. If you’ve got questions about improving your web shop, getting started from scratch or just want to chat about gaming in general, let’s connect. At Stash, we’re all about helping studios maximise their DTC profit, and we’ve got a ton of tips and strategies to share. I’m happy to pass it all on.

You can find me at the conference or set up a meeting on Meet to Match or LinkedIn. Can’t wait to talk.