Hello everybody!
Colleagues, I’m sure you all have noticed that the global galaxy store has been updated and now looks differently, not as user-friendly as before.
I see a lot of negative comments from users on social networks, they complain that it is very difficult to find a category (watches) and also there is no category (popular watchfaces)
I hope the global team is aware of this issue and is already working on a solution.
All these changes also had a very negative impact on sales.
I’ll move this to Samsung Developer Program as it is not a Galaxy Watch issue.
Samsung started migrating to the new store look in November of 2020 and it has proven to be an improved sales method. the Top category is now a banner at the very end of the Galaxy Store Watch Tab, There is the Popular Watch App and Popular Watch Tab which are equivalent to the top list. Basically only sellers care about this.
You will probably find the complaints about finding the category were old ones, originally the “Themes” tab was Customizations and the length of if pushed “Watch” to where it didn’t show.
60% to 70% of the people that open the Watch store come from the Wearable App, very little come from opening the Galaxy Store and then going to the watch tab. Again this is something more of interest to sellers than actual buyers.
The number of downloads and sales since November have significantly increased over same period a year ago.
I hope that explains the reasons and rationale for the changes.
Ron
Samsung Developer Team
Yes, I also read negative reviews on social networks about the latest Galaxy Store update, it became very inconvenient for me and for users. My sales fell again after the last update of the store, this is due to the fact that developers who at the moment are only raising their popularity and do not have huge sales, do not have the opportunity to place their banner in the store, and only 2-3 dials are published to participate in promotions … How can a developer who is gaining popularity increase their sales if the user does not see his work? Previously, the “new” tab was saved to appear at least a little in the “top” list, which was in plain sight, but now the user cannot find it, and the “popular watch faces” section is now located at the very bottom of the page. Accordingly, sales will be made only to those whose banners are placed at the very top of the store page, and these are the same developers. I hope Samsung is already working on this problem and everything will change soon.
I think it is necessary to bring back the dials rating, including the “new dials” section, sales have fallen by more than 2 times since the updates. The section with dials is hidden in the galaxy store.
The Sales dropped more than 50% with this update. The sellers that are not affected by this are the ones that have always visibility in the Wearable app and that are featured in the Galaxy Store constantly.
For the rest of us, there is very little chance for our work to be seen. I know there is a program to get your work promoted in the Galaxy Store. But to get a spot there you need to wait for months sometimes.
Maybe this update does not affect the end-users, but for sure it affects us!
I moved this to the Samsung Developer Program forum.
The sellers with the highest sales are those that have the most badge clicks and social media marketing. Relying on Samsung to market your product is not practical.
Ron
Samsung Developer Team
I know this, and I am actively doing marketing on social media, but the real sales come from the Wearable App and Galaxy Store.
Are you saying that if you have a lot of badge clicks on social media you will be more visible in Galaxy Store and Wearable App?
What I am saying is most buyers do not open the watch store from the Galaxy Store app but from the Wearable app.
The Galaxy store only shows on Samsung Devices. Most watch owners do not know you can go to the galaxy store to get watch faces they learn that they can do it from the wearable app when they pair their phone.
This came up last year when the US changed and it was just fear and not an issue.
Ron
I understand and it is a valid point of view. My question is how can we explain the big drop in sales? and by this, I do not mean the sales from the overall store, But the sales of the sellers that do not have much exposure in the Wearable App.
This means the few sellers that have exposure in the Wearable app will have bigger sales, and that is alright.
My concern is that even if you are doing the best marketing possible you will not have exposure in the place where the most sales are coming from.
If you are saying March sales was down.
Samsung had several promotions that gave an Active2 watch with the purchase of Galaxy S21
Historically March is the worst selling month of the year.
Or are you saying that one day was your sales dropped?
Ron
Not the sales from March dropped. The sales dropped 50% after the Galaxy Store Update this weekend.
Hey! The global store after the update is not the same as in the United States, since there is no “New” tab and there is no “popular watch face” banner at the end of the main page, I provided a screenshot, using the example of a German store, the same in other countries except the USA, I also confirm big drop in sales and downloads over the past weekend following the global store update. It turned out that users simply cannot find their usual list of TOP “popular watch faces” that they constantly used.
Yes change could affect in the short run and it can shift the sales away from top sellers to other sellers.
I think it took a while to get the banners for Popular Watch Faces and Popular Watch Apps when it first launched in both the US and the UK. Until then the buyers would have to open each category to get Top Paid and New… for example Top Watch Face Categories - Digital will show this.
I’ll look at the store stats tomorrow and see if this is broad or not.
Ron
I too confirm that I have noticed a significant drop in downloads after the latest updates.
Hello everyone!
I also confirm the huge drop after the store update! In my case, this is more than 50% !!!
The store downloads for march were doing better than in February and there was a much higher than normal peak March 20 - 25 and this probably makes the end or Month sales drop seem more extreme.
This is probably something that is affecting top sellers much more than normal watch face designers.
Ron
Samsung Developer Team
Strange, but I had much better downloads in February … (dashed line) … but if you look at the last days (after updating the store), there is generally a failure …
Banner ads are prominent now and highlight individual sellers - their sales are going up I’m sure but everyone else is going down 
When I look at the store total it was down but it was pretty much the same level as the first of the month. It may be too soon to tell if this is cyclical or a result of the new layout and if so will it last.
Ron
I faced similar kind of issue last time, I am still searching for some proper solution!
