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I am developing an iOS app and I would like to receive payments within the app. I am selling a "real" good/service, so my profit margin on each sale is only around 20%. I can't afford to pay Apple 30% on each purchase made within the app.
What are my options for accepting payment without giving Apple a 30% cut?
Disclaimer: I have created and offer a standalone solution payment acceptance solution for small businesses.
The actual answer to the question you asked is, "select and integrate any of the various payment processors", but that's not very helpful.
I would second the other answer about looking for canned solutions unless you absolutely need to control the whole experience.
If you do still want to go down the roll-your-own route, you will need an enhanced vocabulary and some time to research on your own. First suggestion: look for relevant questions/answers on the net for "iOS app payment processing". The search engine of your choice should lead you to many possible answers from which you can refine your question or even, perhaps, find an outright answer that works for you.
You'll need to understand how you expect to capture payment information, process that payment into "money", and how you will manage your back-end. For example, you could use Apple Pay, but that by itself doesn't actually solve any of your actual payment processing issues (not to mention very likely unfavorably restricts your customer base if that's all you do).
Do alternatives like Stripe, Braintree, and more have their own APIs? Yes. Can they be used with Apple Pay? Yes. You could try implementing them then coming back here with specific questions.
Separate out questions like "How do implement Stripe payment processing?" from questions of the type "What are some of the options for knowing when an item needs to be shipped, where to, and when it has been accepted?" (Which won't be appreciated here -- you'll also need to research/write at least an attempt at this before asking.) Each type of question will need to have a "show your work so far" component as well as a clear (as much as possible) problem description in order to get responses that are pertinent.
Real world goods don't need to be set up through in-app purchases. You can use other services such as Stripe or Authorize.net to set up payment flows in your app that way.
Note that you'll most likely also need a web service and server backend aspect as you'll need a centralized location to keep track of your real goods inventory and perform the actual transactions of charging your customers, updating the inventory and starting the process of fulfillment. Of course, this isn't true if you're creating an app to manage payments of your flea market sales, but in that case, you really should be looking to use an existing app solution like Square since you'll still be subject to charges when using Stripe and Authorize as well.
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I’m making an application for iOS, I plan to release it in the App Store soon. The question arose - how to promote it correctly? Catch up with the audience? How to form the content initially, given that the application is something like a message board, respectively, if people download it, but it is empty, it does not fit. And is it better to launch it first in one city or in several? If anyone has such experience, I will be very grateful for the advice and answers.
The App Store
Apple’s App Store is a vast and complex ecosystem containing millions of apps across dozens of categories. But this vast selection is only valuable if users are able to find the apps they’re looking for. To that end, Apple has designed the App Store to promote discoverability.
How do people discover apps?
There are two main ways users discover apps in the App Store: by searching for keywords and by browsing featured and top charts. Surveys have shown that between 20 and 50% of users find apps by search, while another 14 to 20% discover them by browsing categories or looking at Apple’s featured selections.
App name and keywords
According to Apple, nearly ⅔ of app downloads result from searching. Therefore, it’s worth spending some time thinking about how to optimize your app for search. Your app’s search relevance is determined mostly by your app name and keywords, so let’s take a look at each of those in turn.
Apple once permitted app names to be more than 200 characters, leading to “names” that were chock full of SEO-gaming keywords, metadata, and the names of rival apps. Today, App Store guidelines limit developers to 50 characters and prohibit terms and descriptions that are not the name of the app.
When it comes to keywords, developers are limited to just 100 characters per app. With so few characters to work with, developers need a deliberate strategy. Ask yourself: What keywords are most important to you, and what are the keywords that will set you apart from your competitors? The best keywords are both relevant to your app and frequently searched, but the former outweighs the latter.
Remember: Users are much more likely to go with the top search results. Therefore, it’s generally better to be ranked #2 or #4 for a keyword that’s searched fifty-thousand times a month than to only be ranked #345 for a keyword that’s searched a million times a month.
Lastly, some brass tacks:
Separate keywords with commas.
Break down phrases into individual words (i.e., “photo, editor” not “photo editor”)
Save characters by not pluralizing your keywords (i.e., “calendar” not “calendars”)
Getting featured
Getting an app featured in the App Store is the dream of many developers. Not only does it confer special recognition on your app, it also gets you more prominent placement in the App Store. To add icing to the cake, getting featured also permits app developers to customize both their app and developer pages, further enabling them to stand out from the crowd.
A survey by Applause found that 40% of awareness of apps comes from browsing the App Store. In raw terms, that means getting featured on one of the dozens of lists, which are themselves created by a combination of popularity and editorial curation by Apple. Since users in general are more likely to trust (and therefore download) an app that they’re already aware of, having a recognized presence in the App Store is a major asset.
So how do you get your app into this elite group?
Obviously, there’s no substitute for quality. The best way to get an app featured is simply to build a great app. Apple’s curators are always looking for new apps that their users will be excited about. To that point, having a world class user experience goes a long way.
Beyond that, it helps to understand how the App Store works. A former App Store manager has revealed that the App Store isn’t a monolithic app supermarket, like Walmart or Target, it’s actually more like a bustling mall with dozens of small stores specializing in different areas. Each of these editorial teams is dedicated to a specific category or region, and each makes its decisions about what apps to feature internally. That said, developers can pitch their apps to Apple’s marketing team, who may then choose to advocate for an app within Apple. Going to events like WWDC and chatting up Apple representatives can also be a good way to raise awareness inside Apple about your work, especially if you’re a small or first-time developer.
Another thing that Apple’s editorial teams consider when choosing what apps to feature is whether an app takes advantage of Apple’s newest and most exciting tech. Remember, promoting an app in the App Store is also about promoting features that set iOS apart. Taking advantage of the newest APIs and functionalities can make your app more timely and relevant when Apple is choosing what apps to feature.
App Store search ads
A relatively new product from Apple allows developers to promote their app at the top of search results. Given that nearly ⅔ of app downloads come from searching, Search Ads can be an effective way to give an app the bump it needs to get found.
Search Ads are built around an automated auction process similar to Google AdWords. Developers set a maximum price they’re willing to spend per tap, which is then compared against the bid of the next most relevant competitor. Developers only pay when a user engages with one of their ads.
As with organic search results, relevance is the main determinant for whether an app is likely to appear on a given page of results, not how much a developer is willing to pay for placement. Relevance is determined by a combination of App Store metadata and user response.
That’s just a broad overview. Search Ads also includes some advanced features, like the ability to target specific groups based on demographic and location data. It also includes services to help you target your ad spend by recommending keywords based on your app’s metadata.
However you promote your app, it’s important to make sure you’re doing it in a cost-effective way. Marketing analysts and SEO experts may be able to help you optimize your marketing spend to ensure that your app gets in front of the right users based on your business objectives.
I am looking for a billing platform that I can integrate into my Web Application(MVC).
Tried: PayPal and Braintree
PayPal: They dont seem to support South Africa.
BrainTree: I got a Sandbox working, test transactions work well and could change to ZAR, but their FAQ states the countries you need to live in to use Braintree and South Africa doesnt fall in any of them.
Tried: I have contacted a local company that has come sort of billing platform, but no one is replying...typical.
Looking for: I am looking for a billing platform that I can integrate into my Web Application that I can use running from South Africa, and later international traffic, that can allow one or all of the following: Once-off Credit card Debits, monthly recurring debits, debits allowed via bank details.
I appreciate any help in the right direction..
Thanks!
I have found a billing platform that seems will work : PayGate.
Regarding stack overflow, I have been very disappointed with how this forum operates and will no longer make use of it. Posting questions gets more negative comments than people actually helping, which is very unfortunate. I have asked some questions in a manner that is not always 100% correct, but I have tried many different ways of asking my questions and followed others recommendations, but the result is always the same. Take this question as an example - Sure, the question might not have fitted the standard 100%, but not one comment that was made was to try help with my actual question, but rather on how wrong I asked it. Guys, this isnt how it is supposed to be. In any case, I will most probably also receive harsh and negative feedback for this, but, that will just prove my point even more. Good luck to those who are seeking help on this forum. Cheers
Is it is possible to make users pay for digital points so that they can use them for real-world services outside of the app?
Take for example 'Uber', assuming we have the same model, can users purchase 'bundles' of 'points' and then use these points to order a taxi service?
Will this be allowed on the app store?
This is basically the "digital wallet" problem. All kinds of issues exist, from security, to convincing vendors to accept it, to convincing customers to trust and use it, to figuring out how you're going to take a fair profit out of it..
Frankly, Apple has claimed to be working in this space themselves, as are the credit card companies. Given your question, I have to assume you have nowhere near the resources they can afford to spend on this effort, and their efforts are still vaporware.
If you really have a way to make this work, I suspect you could sell it to one of them for a few million. If you just have the idea... well, it's premature to try to guess whether Apple would try to lock you out or not, and only they can answer that question in any case.
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I understand that in the App Store rules :
-3.9: Developers are responsible for assigning appropriate keywords for their apps. Inappropriate keywords may be changed/deleted by Apple
-8.5: Use of protected 3rd party material (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content) requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request
I want to use the name of a competitor app as a keyword for my app, but the competitor is complaining that I am doing so (though many other people are also using it too).
For instance(not the real case here), my app is a photo app, I have put "instagram" as keyword.
I believe it's fair to use competitor's name as keyword as long as I don't outrank it. Apple also seems to suggest people to use trademarked name as "descriptors".
What would you suggest?
You are bound to US rules and those of your own country. Assuming rules of the USA and of the UK (I am from the UK which is why I include it here) you can use their trademark as long as you are only using it to draw a comparison or to describe your product, which you are doing here. You cannot use it in such a way that it causes confusion between your product and theirs. By the sound of things here you should be okay.
The only thing to be worried about is that if the other company complains there will be a period where the complaint is reviewed, during that time your app may be blocked from the app store so be prepared to wait while that is resolved.
After writting this I did a quick google and found the link below, it does a better job of explaining this than I have done. Be aware that the information below and in my own answer may not apply in your country. I am not a lawyer, I am only an app developer myself.
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2011/11/08/ip-using-a-competitors-trademark-in-marketing
I don't think it's fair to use competitor's name especially trademarks, copyrights and etc. Apple is doing so to protect your competitor's interest. And many other people succeeding in using it don't implies that you can use it.
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I wish to track a set of data my educational app generates based on user challenges. Every nth challenge I want the app to send these metrics to my server so I can observe various things about the app.
Further, and most important, I need to uniquely identify each instance of my app so that I can watch the trends of a single user. I wish to persist this number through the life of the user's interaction with my program in an anonymous kind of way, and persist over multiple removal / installations on the same device.
Bonus points for what your opinion of the standard method of reporting these metrics to a web server are. XML? JSON? Simple NSURL's?
Bonus points for links to relevant Apple Documentation.
DISCLAIMER: (due to past experiences...)
I am relatively new to stack overflow. If this post doesn't conform to the standards of this site, please explain why before voting me off of the island.
You can't tie a device to a user unless you set up a username password combination. Nothing else will work if you expect to handle app removal, installation, or device upgrades.
As for preferred data-type. My preference is JSON. But that's just a preference and you'll get lots of other differing replies. Hence it's a sort of pointless question.
Take a look at this link. It explains what identifiers are constant when and in what situations they are not. He talks about the identifierforvendor and advertisingidentifier that are now the only supported unique identifiers you can access. They took away the UUID tracking as well as the MAC address method. You can still get the device serial number, but that method uses code that will get your app rejected by apple's app store review process.