Nowadays, the competition in the ecommerce industry is brutal. And every business owner is looking into ways of increasing customer engagement and ramping up their sales.
Naturally, gamification in ecommerce has become more and more popular in the past few years. And this works because it leverages our desire to play or compete while bringing in more revenue.
So, let’s see what gamification in ecommerce looks like, how you can implement it in your store, and why it works so well.
What is Gamification?
Gamification is all about integrating game-design elements into non-game contexts. Designers work with aspects like points, rewards, and competition to boost enjoyment and motivation in performing tasks. In ecommerce, this involves leveraging the psychological appeal of gaming to make the shopping journey more pleasant and engaging.
The principles of gamification come from behavioral psychology. At its core, it’s a way of taking the pleasure that humans derive from being rewarded for actions and using that to drive deeper and more frequent engagement with a brand.
There’s something almost primal about how much we love a sense of accomplishment, rewards, and progress tracking. Your goal is to balance these elements well enough in your customer’s shopping experience. If you can achieve this, you will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The Benefits of Gamification in E-commerce
Gain Valuable Customer Insights
Quizzes and surveys that have been transformed into games provide a fresh and fun way to obtain valuable customer data. They offer a prime opportunity to collect and refine all sorts of customer information. This is “deep data” that can profoundly change the nature and quality of the relationship you have with your customers.
Poring over this data can help you understand both the individual customer and the larger customer base. It can help you work out the prime customer segments to target, both in terms of service delivery and when pushing marketing initiatives.
Increase Social Media Engagement and Brand Awareness
Social media challenges can be a great way of creating user-generated content and boosting engagement and brand awareness. For example, you can ask your users to post photos or videos with your products as part of a challenge. If the brand identity allows it, you can even encourage your customers to share unconventional ways your products can be used.
Not only will such a campaign generate organic traffic, but it might also build a sense of community and belonging. Also, these campaigns have the potential to go viral and attract new customers that you might have wouldn’t reach otherwise. Moreover, you will also have the opportunity to create user-generated content ads from your gamified campaign.
Boost Brand Trust and Reputation Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Making your corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives more engaging could help turn them into something meaningful for your customers that makes them think more about your brand.
And gamification might be a way to do this. You could introduce gamified or game-like elements where customers earn points or rewards that have actual value (think of loyalty program points/currency).
Some ideas for this would be planting a tree for each review your customers leave, and matching their donations for their chosen charity or community project. If you want a more elaborate system, you can introduce loyalty point thresholds where the customer can choose a certain CSR action.
These initiatives will increase brand trust and the customer lifetime value (CLV). Shoppers will remain loyal to brands that align with their values.
How Gamification is Used in E-commerce
Engaging Customers
Capturing and retaining customer attention is what gamification is all about. Particularly in e-commerce, where the average conversion rate is hovering around 2.5-3%, brands need to find ways to stand out and keep customers engaged until they make a purchase.
You can try interactive elements like a spin-to-win wheel. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of them and don’t see their appeal. But some stores claim they work wonders. So, if you’re in doubt, you can just test the idea and see if it works for you.
Additionally, you should try any other way that will create memorable moments for your customers. This will make them associate your brand with positive emotions and become advocates.
Driving Sales and Conversions
Gamification in ecommerce businesses can be a great driver of conversions. If you give your customers the opportunity to win some sort of time-limited reward, you can almost be sure that they will use it. That’s because the pain of losing something is stronger than the pleasure of winning something.
Also, if the rewards are tied to the dollar amount spent in your shop, you will get more repeat purchases. When you reward your customers for reaching milestones or coming back to complete a challenge, you get consistent engagement and revenue over time.
Real-World Examples of Gamification in E-commerce
You might say: ‘OK this all sounds great, but you still didn’t talk about any specific examples’. And you would be right. So, here are some examples of gamification companies use. They are not all about ecommerce, but they might spark some ideas on how to think about gamification in ecommerce.
Sephora’s Beauty Insider Program takes advantage of points, badges, and tiered rewards. They have 3 tiers: Insider (free), VIB, and Rouge, based on the annual spending. Members earn 1 point per $1 spent, redeemable for products or perks. The benefits include exclusive discounts, birthday gifts, free shipping for some tiers, and early access to events.
Starbucks’s Rewards program is a little bit simpler and offers stars for purchases, which can be redeemed for drinks, food, or merchandise. However, they create opportunities for bonus points through challenges or promotions.
Duolingo is considered the king of gamification amongst educational apps. They have developed a system so good that keeps users coming back each day. They do this through streaks, badges, and leaderboards. The combination of push notifications, leveraging the loss aversion bias, and daily challenges, drives incredible levels of engagement.
Dunkin’ often employs gamified promotions in their app, rewarding users for sampling fresh menu additions and taking part in seasonal activities that keep both their app and brand top-of-mind.
Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign encouraged its customers to find bottles with their names on them and to share their experiences with the company on social media. This campaign created a viral, interactive experience that increased customer engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is Gamification Effective for All Businesses?
While it’s not for everyone, most companies can benefit from gamification, provided it is aligned with their objectives and their audiences’ preferences. Still, it must be tailored for the individual industry and business model. For instance, gamification in ecommerce looks very different from gamification in SaaS.
How Can I Measure the Success of a Gamification Strategy?
Some metrics you can look at are:
- User Engagement: time spent on the website, interactions with the gamified elements, or returning customer rate
- Conversion rates: tracking conversions influenced by gamified features vs the rest and comparing the rates.
- Net promoter score (NPS): track the NPS to determine if customer satisfaction changes over time.
What Are the Potential Pitfalls of Gamification?
Gamification in ecommerce should be straightforward and simple to understand. If you create an overly-complicated system or have intrusive elements will frustrate your users. Try to keep things simple, and make sure the gamification elements enhance the user experience, rather than creating distractions.
Conclusion
Gamification in e-commerce is more than a passing trend. That’s because many companies have already proven that it works to boost sales, engage customers, and build loyalty.
Also, gamifying a business is not about turning a not-so-fun online store into a digital arcade. It’s about thoughtfully and strategically creating memorable moments in the shopping experience.
