Online Game Renting and Buying Website – Design and Features Details

After featuring the gym membership portal that we are working on, we are out with the details of another interesting project that is keeping our team busy. FATbit is currently designing and developing an online video game renting and buying website “GoGames” which is similar to portals like www.GameFly.com, www.Gamerang.com and www.Redbox.com.

This website is not exactly a GameFly clone script but runs on a similar business model. There are many other websites and portals which require a similar web platform to operate; movie or books renting websites being some of them.

When FATbit Technologies was approached for this project, the client was not well aware of the required design and features. The required research about design and technical requirements was carried out by our team. Here are the details of what we have promised to deliver to our client;

Website Design and User Experience

GoGames website’s design and user experience was planned after extensive research on user needs, browsing behavior, and study of other online gaming and renting portals. Our past experience of designing online games portals like www.eSportsMoodle.com helped us a lot. The website’s information architecture and navigation have been simplified so even a first time visitor can easily browse the website.

• The entire website’s color scheme and design is vibrant and attracts its young target audience. The look has been planned in such a way that it is able to establish a unique identity when it competes with similar game renting service portals like GameFly, Gamerang and Redport.

• The website’s header is descriptive, engaging and clearly highlights the website’s primary value proposition. A quick glance will inform the visitor that the platform invites visitors who wish to buy or rent games. A bold call to action diverts the visitors to the registration option.

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• All major gaming consoles have been highlighted through their logos on the home page so that a visitor instantly knows what he will find. Displaying games under categories like New Releases, Top 5 rentals and Coming Soon encourages a visitor to browse further and builds interest in what the website has to offer.

• There is an option to browse games by searching for keywords directly or through advanced search for: game consoles, categories, user rating, availability, etc.

• A distinct section “How GoGames Works” has been planned for the home page so that a new visitor knows how they can easily rent a game through this platform. An inner page has also been dedicated to this, where the entire process is explained graphically.

• All unique services offered through the website have been explained very clearly so that a visitor knows what he is paying for and does not hesitate while trying something new. For eg. ‘Fast return’ is an uncommon feature which is explained very well here.

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Features List and Technical Details

This online games buying and renting website has all features that are necessary to generate sales online. Every feature has been planned and executed keeping user needs in mind and after studying similar company websites.

• Any user landing on the website can view the featured games available for buying or renting, based on his personal preference.
• New users can register for free, overview their account details and update their personal profile anytime.
• Subscribed users can rent & buy games for a regular price or member price (a discounted price for paid members).

• Subscribed users have the option to choose a rental membership and manage their Membership Subscription. They can view their current subscription along with all renewal transactions.

• They can easily manage games rental queue, games availability percentage, and games’ reservation priority in their games queue.
• Each user is awarded points from time to time depending on their on-site activities. They are then ranked and given special privileges depending on the points they have gathered.
• In the dashboard, subscribed users can view all rentals and recently shipped games.
• They can view their purchase history and the respective points earned.
• Users can also pre-save their postal addresses to make the checkout process faster and more convenient.

FATbit has an experienced team of HTML and PHP developers and programmers, highly skilled at launching complex portals.
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Admin Controls

Such platforms need strong management from the backend so that the admin can keep track of users, inventory management, sales, shipping, etc. If you are looking for a GameFly clone script, these features can help in managing and improving online sales as they enable the admin to take more informed decisions.

• Multiple Admin Accounts can be created with different privileges for every admin.
• The admin has the ability to view all members, their subscription plans & renewals. He also has the rights to cancel & reactivate membership plans.
• The admin can view site wide Reports & Statistics about sales, searched keywords, user data, etc. He can also Backup and Restore the database anytime.

• Activate/Deactivate Games Categories. He can easily set seasonal discounts, ‘member price’ and ‘keep it’ price for subscribers.
• He can line up games in the ‘Upcoming Games’ category which will get activated for rent/buying on the specified release date.
• The admin has the option to view and edit Orders and Pending & Complete Games Queue.
• He can manage countries served, tax zones, shipment, etc from the admin panel.
• He can add featured games, related games, add more Customized categories, product pages, their description, images, etc through the CMS.
• All Comments posted for games are to be first approved by the admin to avoid spamming in the reviews area.
• The backend has been programmed to categorize and manage subscribed customers in Customer Groups. Each group can then be treated differently depending on their buying behavior.
• The admin also has the option to export Customers CSV & Print/Download Orders Invoice.

User Interaction

Any web portal built for Web 2.0 needs to be interactive and not just display information. It must be user engaging and prompt visitors to communicate with each other. If any video games buy and rental service platform wishes to improve its user engagement and sales, it must incorporate a reviews system or discussion forum where people can share their views. We tried to do the same by integrating a reviews and rating system into the online games rental website.

If you wish to start something similar, you can also import reviews from other related reviews websites. www.TargetTicket.com and www.Vudu.com, popular movies rental websites import movie reviews from www.RottenTomatoes.com.

SEO friendly

If a website is able to rank well on search engines for relevant keywords, it builds a reliable source of recurring traffic for the website. A number of amateur designers plan websites that look good but fail to develop a website that generates organic traffic, because they lack expertise of an SEO team. The admins of such websites are left with no option but to pay for every visitor the website gets or to hire a team of SEO experts who will correct the faults of their developer.

• The website supports an SEO Friendly URL structure because the website is powered by an SEO friendly custom developed CMS at the backend.
• All the games are listed under relevant, descriptive and keyword specific categories like action, adventure, sports, simulation, role playing, etc. This makes the search both user and search engine friendly.

• To make the featured games rank better on search engines, it is necessary that the relevant pages carry enough information about the games. Hence the website admin has the provision of adding relevant description and screenshots to each products page which makes the platform more marketable. All this content can be added and modified in real time by the admin through an easy to use CMS.

• To increase the visitor’s time on site and increase the probability of sales, all pages can be easily linked internally. Adding options like view Similar Games, read reviews, etc links one page to the other. This also brings down the website’s overall bounce rate and exit rate.

Do you have a portal that runs well but fails to drive traffic from search engines?
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Social Media

Building a website without integrating it with popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc makes the website act as a standalone entity. Instead if it is well connected to social media networks, it helps the platform build a community around its core proposition. To enable this games renting service portal to connect to a wider user base, FATbit’s design and development experts have connected the website to all relevant social media platforms.

To incentivize users to share details about new or upcoming games they wish to buy/rent, they are awarded bonus points every time they share website content.

Mobile friendly

To extend the website’s reach to mobile users, the entire website’s design and content has been optimized to perform well on both desktops and mobile devices. A responsive website (designed using HTML5 and CSS3) ensures that a website has a superior user experience on both desktops and mobile devices. This seems basic for any website but still majority of old and new designed websites are not responsive.

A games rental website targets younger audience which is very active on mobiles, tablets, etc. Thus the website’s look, content and functionality were optimized for multiple screen resolutions.

Conclusion

FATbit has the combined expertise of business developers, analysts, designers, developers, programmers and marketers. If hired at the right time, they can guide you from the project initiation phase to the launch and even after that.
Are you planning to setup a rental portal for movies, books, cars, bikes, golf items or anything else?
FATbit can deliver you right solution