What keeps people motivated to take the desired action – and repeat it over and over without tiring out? Rewards, a sense of progress, and challenges are the top mental elements that come to mind.
In other words – these are the elements of every game that there is. And, to add these elements into any paradigm is called ‘gamification.’
But, what does gamification has to do with e-commerce?
Everything!
Gamification is a less known, underused, but overwhelmingly powerful method of engaging, converting, and retaining your customers.
As the term itself suggests, gamification adds a game’s elements (challenge, progress, reward, and sense of achievement) to any user-experience paradigm. Once the user discovers the ‘rules of the game’ and figures out his/her reward incentive in playing it – the gamification is said to be successful!
This blog will explore what Gamification Marketing is all about and how it can skyrocket your e-commerce sales.
Let us get going!
What is Gamification in Context of E-commerce Marketing?
E-commerce marketing is all about targeting the right audience, exposing them to your brand and its products, and then converting these customers in hopes that they will engage with you again to buy more.
A customer’s e-commerce journey (from initial targeting to conversion) is riddled with multiple obstacles. From lack of engagement to broken communication, every hurdle reduces an e-tail brand’s chances of converting a particular customer.
However, if suitable gamification elements are introduced along this customer journey, he/she will be motivated to cross the communication/engagement hurdles in pursuit of new rewards and benefits (the by-product of the game).
Applications of Gamification in the E-commerce Domain
Boosting Customer Loyalty
Reward points and customer loyalty bonuses are apt examples of gamification in the e-commerce world. It is the simplest yet most effective method of retaining the customers who buy from you and rewarding them with a bonus incentive for continuing to be your loyal customer for a long time.
Gamification for customer loyalty makes sense because acquiring a new customer can be five times costlier than just retaining an existing one. Moreover, retaining your loyal customers can boost your profits from 25 to 125 percent.
Here, the reward points can be anything – from virtual points to exclusive coupons that only select customers get after repeatedly buying from your brand. These points are synonymous with the ‘Game reward,’ the player (customer) ‘s desired action is to ‘buy from you, and the more they buy from you, the better incentives they unlock, i.e., more discounts and multiplied reward points (sense of progress).
Supercharging Engagement with Contests
Running out of effective ways to add more subscribers and keep them engaged? It would help if you considered gamification for your customer engagement outreach.
Online contests, trivia, and quizzes are not out of fashion, and they never will be. Contests are powerful motivators that compel the audience to compete for a bigger value prize in exchange for their personal information or perform a small desirable action.
Online contests can be as simple as posting a quiz (even about your own product or brand) on your social media handle or follow a more complex setup by coding a trivia module where you can regularly engage your audience for freebies and cash prizes.
However, many marketers believe that contests eat-up their budgets without any significant returns. The truth is far from this. Contests can be leveraged for any desirable customer action – and not just signing up!
For instance, you can create a product hunt on your e-commerce website and give your audience some clues to the product’s characteristics and pricing. The right guessers can be rewarded with the product itself or a custom reward of your liking.
Lucky Draw At Checkout
Many brands have been doing this, and it has worked wonders for them in boosting overall sales.
Placing the famed ‘Spin the Wheel’ or ‘Hat Draw’ games in front of the customer as he/she checks out is a fabulous strategy to encourage them to buy more from you. This gamification strategy works well than others because it is post-purchase, i.e., the customer has already invested in your product. And, now, when you give them a chance to earn the reward, chances of them becoming your loyal customer are multiplied greatly.
To leverage this post-purchase gamification strategy, you can pop the gaming module right after the customers’ checkout with their products and allow them to win small novelty products or gift hampers.
This will create a ‘purchase-reward-purchase’ cycle for them – they’ll buy more from you to win more and more at the lucky draw module when they do so.
Tips to Make Gamification a Success for your E-commerce Brand
You are only limited by imagination when it comes to adding elements of a game to the whole shopping experience.
However, many retailers and marketers implementing gamification for the first-time stumble over some common pitfalls. Follow these tips to avoid them, and crack your marketing goals;
- Your focus should be on the ‘fun’ side of the gamification element. Do not focus too much on the product promo or returns. You must pay attention to creating a delightful and memorable experience.
- Don’t sell your brand too hard.
- Your users will have a truly memorable experience when they enjoy your brand’s game and will reward you back for your creativity.
- Clearly state your gamification goals, objectives, and milestones.
- It would be best if you did not forget to incorporate a point/level/challenge sequence to keep things interesting and give the players (your customers) a sense of progress.
Closing Note
If you manage to incorporate elements of fun, reward, and a little challenge during different stages of your customer journey with clarity, gamification is bound to give you great returns. We are all humans, and humans are not always rational. Yet, we form deep bonds with the things we love.
Focus on providing a delightful & memorable shopping experience to your customers via creative gamification marketing. You’ll thank us later.
