Back in 2007, Game On became a brick and mortar store with around 1,000 square feet of space which was quickly outgrown and replaced in 2009 with a new location of more space and better visibility. Soon after, we launched our first attempt at a fully integrated online store to go along with our physical store. This was an intense learning curve as we quickly found out that there was nothing that really did what Game On wanted our online store to be, so we custom developed it.
Custom developing took us to hiring foreign development teams which had its own set of problems from language barriers to full on scams. It was frustrating and took years to perfect the vision of a Game On website. It lasted for awhile but soon died off as the coding didn't work quite right and the tools for fulfilling and smoothly integrating between online and in-store became more of a problem than the store and employees could handle. During this time, we also opened a 2nd store so our attention went to improving the online to allow more connectivity between our two locations.
A lot of stuff went right including a trade-in games calculator and fully developed website that allowed us to simplify our trade-in policies and make it easier for customers in the store to be able to trade-in their merchandise much faster and allow us to be better at buying items that customers would bring in. But, with all the stuff that went right - there were lots of unexpected expenses and setbacks. With a sturdy working beta of a fully integrated site - Game On pushed headway into becoming a full fledged online retailer by custom developing not only a site for our main merchandise but a site for comics. One that we had immensely high hopes for and that never quite got off the ground even though we ended up having two full page ads in national magazines for it. Yeah, national magazine ad campaign for a site that never really launched. Game On has always pushed forward towards making our stores and our online as best as it could be for all of our customers and we continue that today.
After many more years of trying different things, we've finally got another version running. This time, with 13 years of technological advances, it's been much easier and our list of new features that we can offer customers is growing. From in-store pickup to shipping across the US and integrated gift cards that can be used across any of our physical stores or online - we are happy to begin a new online era that promises more ease of use for our customers -whether you want to shop in-store or online - Game On is here to help!