Gaming is nothing new. Archeologists not long ago unearthed a 5,000-year-old dice set, and psychologists have documented how gameplay meets basic human needs like socialization, exploration, and achievement. In other words, humans are wired to play games. What is relatively new, however, is how businesses are using game-like structures to meet their goals.
“Gamification can be applied at every stage of the marketing funnel,” says Adrien Pin, founding partner at gamification studio Merci-Michel, “so it’s a good idea, whatever your problem: lead generation, user retention, comprehension of product, conversion rate, highly competitive business, etc.” By turning shopping into a game, you can capture your audience’s attention and ultimately increase sales.
Here’s an introduction to gamification for ecommerce business owners, including types, benefits, and examples of real-world companies revolutionizing shopping with gamification.
What is ecommerce gamification?
Ecommerce gamification is a marketing strategy where an ecommerce business creates game-like experiences to engage customers and promote loyalty and sales.
Gamification strategies can replicate familiar games or incorporate standard game elements into your sales and marketing materials. Many ecommerce websites use gaming elements like points, achievement levels, and progress visualizations to engage customers and boost ecommerce sales.
Essential gamification techniques
Here are six common gamification techniques:
1. Win-a-discount
A win-a-discount gamification strategy gives browsers the chance to earn a promotional offer by playing a game on your ecommerce site. Spin-to-win is a popular example: Shoppers spin a virtual wheel to win incentives, like a percentage off a purchase, depending on where the wheel stops. Common variations include choosing a mystery gift box, rolling virtual dice, or scratching off a virtual lottery ticket.
2. Quizzes
With quizzes, customers answer questions to earn rewards or receive personalized product recommendations. You can use trivia-style quizzes to engage users on a particular subject, like the life cycle of a coffee bean or proper saltwater aquarium maintenance.
You can also deploy personality test-style quizzes to collect users’ data: Quizzes like “Find your haircare archetype” or “What’s the best watch for your lifestyle?” can boost engagement and provide valuable insights into customer preferences.
3. Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs reward customer loyalty with points, discounts, or other incentives. You typically award points for actions like making purchases, referring new clients, or reviewing products on social channels. Many loyalty programs also use game-like user interfaces and elements like customer achievement levels, badges, and progress visualizations.
4. Challenges
Challenges reward users for completing specific actions, typically within a specified time period. An early bird challenge, for example, might offer a free gift to the first 100 customers who purchase a product, and a referral challenge might provide discount codes to customers who refer three friends in one week.
5. Competitions
Use competitions to encourage social sharing and increase brand awareness. Social media photo contests are a common example: Instruct users to post their best product photos, and the photo with the most likes or engagements wins.
Competitions can also encourage creative engagement with your products. A sandwich cookie company might hold a contest to see who can build the tallest sandwich cookie stack, and a makeup company might offer an award for the best new makeup style using its product line.
6. Progress visualization
Use progress visualization to motivate customers to reach a specific goal. They’re often part of quizzes or loyalty programs but can be used independently to gamify specific aspects of the online shopping experience. Free shipping progress bars are one example: These visualizations entice users to reach free shipping thresholds by tracking progress as customers add items to their carts.
Benefits of ecommerce gamification
- Increases customer engagement
- Improves customer loyalty
- Boosts sales revenue
- Enhances brand awareness
- Supports marketing personalization
“Gamification is very effective at increasing user engagement and loyalty, as well as brand awareness and preference,” says Adrien, adding that implementing gamification can increase new customer sign-ups, generate more sales from existing customers, and more. Here’s how:
Increases customer engagement
Gamification can boost user engagement by adding value to your online customer experiences and incentivizing engagement with your shopping site.
Improves customer loyalty
Gamification can boost loyalty, helping you earn more repeat customers and increasing your average order value. Loyal customers are also more likely to make referrals, allowing you to connect with potential customers for a lower customer acquisition cost.
Boosts sales revenue
Gamification strategies can encourage referrals, boost average order value, attract customers, and increase customer lifetime value, all of which support sales and increase profits.
Enhance brand awareness
Gamified shopping experiences can encourage word-of-mouth marketing and even generate PR buzz, boosting brand awareness and helping you access new customer groups.
Supports marketing personalization
Gamification can improve personalization efforts by helping ecommerce brandscollect customer data. Popular strategies include creating gamified quizzes or game elements that encourage customers to sign up for marketing communications.
10 ecommerce gamification examples
- KENZO Shopping League
- Farfetch Access Rewards
- Casper mattress quiz
- Starbucks Rewards
- Sony PlayStation Stars
- Studio Shed Design Your Own
- Charlotte Tilbury’s metaverse avatar
- Sephora’s spin-to-win
- Wendy’s Cyber Search
- KFC Shrimp Attack
Here’s how leading ecommerce companies are using gamified loyalty programs, interactive campaigns, contests, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to increase engagements and boost sales:
1. KENZO Shopping League
Adrien Pin and Merci-Michel created the multiplayer online game Shopping League to promote fashion brand KENZO’s limited edition Sonic sneaker. “We created Shopping League to mimic what can happen when there’s a rare pair of sneakers being dropped,” Adrien says. “Users had to queue virtually before entering the online store, and, once inside, they had a limited time to buy the product.”
KENZO strategically admitted more customers than they had product, requiring shoppers to compete for the right to make a purchase. “To actually buy the product, participants had to battle in one-on-one duels via a fairly simple clicker mini-game,” explains Adrien. “We created an event that generated even more desirability around the project, which was already intended to be exclusive. All the pairs were sold out within 12 hours and there was huge PR coverage, which gave a big exposure to the brand and the product.”
2. Farfetch Access Rewards
Ecommerce fashion retailer Farfetch rewards customers with a tiered loyalty program, Access Rewards. The program has five tiers: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and private client. New customers earn bronze status, which unlocks a welcome coupon and a birthday month discount.
Customers earn points for purchases and can qualify for exclusive sales and discounts, free shipping, priority customer care, and even a personal stylist. Gamification elements include rewards, achievement levels, and progress visualization features. Farfetch’s customer status resets each year, encouraging customers to spend consistently to maintain their status.
3. Casper mattress quiz
Casper uses a mattress quiz to help customers find products that meet their needs. Prospective customers answer questions about budget, mattress firmness, sleep position, and sleep issues to receive a personalized Casper product recommendation.
4. Starbucks Rewards
Starbucks’ gamified rewards program and app uses a points system to increase customer loyalty and boost engagement. Customers earn loyalty points (known as Stars) on purchases and can redeem them in specific increments: 25 Stars earns a free drink customization, 200 earns a free brewed coffee or bakery item, and higher point values earn more expensive items, like a pound of coffee beans or branded merch.
5. Sony PlayStation Stars
PlayStation’s reward program allows customers to collect points through purchases or in-game challenges and redeem them for games or digital wallet credit in the PlayStation Stars app. Customers can also win digital trophies and branded digital collectibles and display them in the brand’s digital display case. PlayStation Stars includes four status levels and uses progress visualization to incentivize customers to advance through levels.
6. Studio Shed Design Your Own
Accessory dwelling unit company Studio Shed uses a virtual reality design tool to encourage users to experiment with products. Customers can select from one of four starting models and customize floor plans, fixtures, interior and exterior finishes, and door and window placement.
7. Charlotte Tilbury’s metaverse avatar
Makeup company Charlotte Tilbury uses a 3D volumetric avatar to immerse users in a fully virtual world. AR and VR technology guides users through metaverse environments like virtual cities, dance floors, slumber parties, and shoppable 3D spaces. The app also includes live makeup masterclasses and a “Shop with Friends” function.
8. Sephora’s spin-to-win
Sephora periodically uses the popular spin-to-win ecommerce gamification strategy to boost engagements and incentivize purchases, offering promotions like 10% off an order, free makeup gift sets, and $15 off in-store.
9. Wendy’s Cyber Search
In 2020, fast food chain Wendy’s sent customers on a social media scavenger hunt, boosting engagement with the brand’s site and social media channels. Wendy’s dropped clues on Twitter each day to help users find discount codes on Twitch, Spotify, and Wendys.com. Customers sent the codes to Wendy’s for a chance to win gift cards with values of up to $1,000.
10. KFC Shrimp Attack
In 2020, KFC Japan promoted its new shrimp-based menu item Ebi Puri with Shrimp Attack, engaging customers with an online game that offered vouchers for defending a cartoon KFC building from incoming shrimp. The campaign was so successful that KFC struggled to keep up with demand. Nearly a quarter of players redeemed their vouchers in-store, and sales figures more than doubled compared to the previous year.
Ecommerce gamification FAQ
Does Shopify offer ecommerce gamification apps and integrations?
Yes. The Shopify App Store includes multiple gamification and game mechanics integrations, including a spin-the-wheel app that lets you quickly add a spin-to-win module to your ecommerce platform.
What is gamification in ecommerce?
Ecommerce gamification refers to the practice of using game-like experiences to influence online shopping behaviors. It’s an ecommerce marketing strategy that includes replicating familiar games online or incorporating standard game elements into sales and marketing materials.
Does gamification increase sales?
Yes. Gamification marketing can increase brand awareness, drive customer engagement, incentivize shopping behaviors, and encourage referrals—all of which can boost sales volumes and increase profits.
