Content
How Gepetto embedded Glassfy’s SDK for better insight into in-app purchases
The Customer
Gepetto is an exciting young start-up centered on a core offering of an app powered by AI that helps estate agents, designers and property owners redesign interiors in more than 30 different styles. Gepetto has a broad range of users from the simply curious seeking inspiration on how to improve the interior of their property to the ambitious property designers plotting how they can best commence a renovation project.
The Challenge
Coming from a background in web development, Simon Brami, Co-founder at Gepetto, knew the pivot to developing a mobile app would be a challenge, that’s why the task of finding reliable tools to ease the transition would be key. Having enjoyed much success with their free web version, the team knew the need to diversify and build on that initial success would lie within the growing mobile space. Users demanded greater flexibility and ease of use offered by a mobile app, coupled with a more accessible way to redesign and rethink interiors on the move.
Going from no app to a fully functional app in less than a month was no mean feat, but of course it would have been a different ball game without essential 3rd party tooling to ease the complexity of building a mobile app from scratch. During the development period, it became quickly apparent that one of the most time consuming and painstaking processes would be embedding in-app purchases into the product, not to mention the challenge of then having to manage payment infrastructure in the event of failed payments and complexity resulting from an array of differing offerings.
However, equally crucial for Gepetto as building payment infrastructure, was simplifying the complex task of tracking in-app purchases and securing real-time visibility into user acquisition. Using existing tooling in Storekit, the team would have undoubtedly been limited by a lack of real-time analytics and customer data drawing on key trends in user behavior, critical data needed to understand where customers are interacting with the product the most.
Gepetto also faced a further headache when building their mobile app. Having already launched their product on the web, Gepetto would need to ensure that payment infrastructure fell under one roof at all costs. Amalgamating data into one platform from multiple stores would ensure receipt of clear and concise data into all customer acquisitions as well as naturally highlighting areas for improvement in terms of go-to market strategy.
The Decision
Glassfy became a no brainer from the get go. Simon Brami was instantly hooked by the ease of integration of Glassfy’s SDK coinciding with the simple connection to the Stores facilitated through the platform. Equally significant for the Gepetto team were Glassfy’s tutorials and documentation that made the whole process a walk in the park.
The Solution
In the end it boiled down to three factors that made Glassfy a must have for Gepetto:
- The easy and straightforward integration of the SDK and the Stores.
- Combining web and mobile purchases under one roof - Having one tool as the single source of truth for all payments.
- The countless days saved in development time, getting to market faster by leaving in-app purchase infrastructure to Glassfy.
By now it may sound cliché, but Glassfy’s simple set up left Gepetto in no doubts early on that it would form a crucial part of their tool chain going forward, not only as a result of the time it saved in getting to market but also beyond the remit of payment infrastructure; as Glassfy is firmly encompassed within its long term strategy of accelerating user acquisition aided by real-time analytics within a wider spectrum of Glassfy’s growth tools.
In building in-app purchases through Glassfy, Simon Brami, claims ‘it’s likely I saved hours of debugging my production launch as well as avoiding hours of customer support for failed payments and errors in webhook handling’.
Glassfy was also able to satisfy the teams’ natural curiosity surrounding security requirements given the highly sensitive nature of financial payments, another checkbox ticked off that ensured the timely integration of Glassfy in conjunction with their tight release schedule. When it comes to monetisation tools, for Simon Brami, it boils down to a matter of ‘stability’ and ‘trust’ with the partner provider, ‘payment is what fuels any business so I am very concerned about safety and platform up-time’.
Beyond building IAPs, for Gepetto the value has more recently shifted into Glassfy’s growth analytics and tooling provided in-platform. The team can now, in real-time, monitor monetisation events and analyze vital data to adapt their product offering in line with trends in customer acquisition and behavior.
Although not currently optimized to date, the team are also excited to dive into Glassfy’s no-code paywall feature, allowing them to easily present a new offering to a user at any time.
