eCommerce Gamification: Everything You Need To Know With Examples

Who does not like to play games? 

This is a rhetorical question, as we know that everyone likes to play games. Playing games brings lots of fun and entertainment to the players. In addition, it adds a sense of escapism as people escape the stress of work and life while playing. 

No wonder people enjoy playing games. 

Nowadays, people’s attention and concentration span is becoming shorter than ever. So, grabbing your customers’ attention is not an easy task. So, marketers started to think of creative ways to grab their customers’ attention. 

So, they started thinking. What about linking games with e-commerce? This is undoubtedly a jackpot!

Such a marketing tactic is known as eCommerce gamification. Even though this might seem novel, e-commerce gamification has recently gained attention.

Excited to know more? Keep reading the upcoming paragraphs to know more about e-commerce gamification, why, and how to use it. Finally, we will provide you with some examples of e-commerce gamification. 

Table Of Content:

1. What is E-commerce Gamification?
2. Why Use E-commerce Gamification?
3. How to Use E-commerce Gamification?
4. Examples of E-commerce Gamification

What Is E-commerce Gamification?

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Generally, gamification is the application of game activities and elements, like rewards and competition, to non-gaming contexts. Therefore, it ensures that users are more engaged and entertained. 

E-commerce gamification has been accelerating in the past years. It is regarded as adding gaming activities to people’s online shopping experience. Hence, exploring a website or purchasing products becomes more attractive, making customers more likely to purchase products. 

Why Use E-commerce Gamification?

So, you might wonder why your e-commerce store should use gamification. Keep reading the following paragraphs to know the benefits of e-commerce gamification. 

1- Improves Customer Engagement

Everybody loves gaming; literally everybody. 

So, gamifying your shopping experience will make your customers more engaged and attached to your e-commerce store. As a result, it will become much easier for customers to checkout and purchase your products.

Emails with gamification elements get 74% better engagement (Omnisend,2021).

A more engaged customer will eventually become a more loyal customer. Also, having loyal customers will increase your e-commerce customer retention. So, it is certainly a winning situation.  

2- Increases Brand Awareness

One of the significant benefits of e-commerce gamification is increasing brand awareness. Customers have positive and memorable experiences when they play a game. 

Therefore, people share their gaming experiences and scores on social media platforms. Thus, it leads to more awareness and visibility for your brand. 

3- Increase Sales

A recent study showed that 60% of customers are more likely to purchase products from brands that they enjoy playing their games (Times of India, 2022). 

E-commerce gamification actually increases sales when used correctly. For example, you can add games to your e-commerce experience and give your customers rewards or discounts to encourage them to purchase your products. Hence, increasing sales.  

How To Use E-commerce Gamification?

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You are undoubtedly excited now to start your e-commerce gamification. But let us fill you in on how to use gamification for your e-commerce.

• Understand Your Audience

The first thing you need to consider before gamifying your e-commerce is understanding your audience. You have to comprehend their interests and preferences; as this will assist you in understanding the type of games you should include in your online store. 

For example, if your audience is mostly Gen-Z, their game preferences will ultimately differ from millennials or generation X. In addition, it will vary in the type of appealing rewards for every audience. 

• Identify Your Goals

Identifying your goals is essential before gamifying your e-commerce. You need to determine the goal of your game. Your goal might be increasing sales, raising awareness, increasing engagement, generating leads, or simply educating your customers on your products. 

When you identify your goals, gamification will be a piece of cake. 

• Include The Necessary Factors For A Successful Game

For successful e-commerce gamification, you need to include three main factors:

• Trigger: There are plenty of games found online. Therefore, you need to motivate your buyers to encourage them to play your game. The trigger might be points or tokens gained in return for playing.
• Investment or effort: Any game needs time and effort to be invested by your buyers. Therefore, you must ensure that your game requires moderate effort and time. Ultimately, the game needs to be fun, not hectic and time-consuming. 
• Reward: A reward or profit must be offered to customers at the end of the game. Yet, there are two aspects to be taken into consideration regarding the reward. First, it must be compatible with the time and effort invested by the customer in your game. Second, the reward has to be meaningful and valuable to your customers. It will mean nothing when customers become invested in your game and receive a not-so-worthy reward. A reward might be a discount, free shipping, or free products.

• Finalize Your Choice

Now is the time to choose a suitable game for your e-commerce. There are several options available for e-commerce gamification:

• First, you can create contests around your brand by asking questions to measure how much people know about your products. Then, you can offer gifts as a reward. 
• The second option can be scratch coupons through which your customers scratch the coupon and win a discount or promo code as a reward. 
• Third, the wheel of fortune, widely known as spin the wheel, will never get old. It works by placing several offers, discounts, or free shipping on the wheel, and your customers will spin the wheel to win any of the gifts. 
• Fourth, slogan competition is a smart e-commerce gamification that encourages interaction, creates awareness, and spreads word of mouth. Indeed, a reward is offered for the best slogan for your e-commerce.

Examples of E-commerce Gamification

In the upcoming paragraphs, we will show you some of the e-commerce stores that were innovative in using e-commerce gamification for their online stores. 

1- Casper

Casper is an e-commerce store selling sleep products. Casper realizes the importance of e-commerce gamification. Accordingly, it creates a Casper quiz in which customers will know the mattress that suits them best.

In addition, Casper makes a puzzle page with riddles for customers to solve. Therefore, the puzzle is engaging and educates customers on Casper’s products. 

2- Gucci

Gucci has taken e-commerce gamification to a new level. It decided to grab the attention of Generation Z, and it did!

It created the Gucci sneakers garage through which customers can customize their digital sneakers and share their creations on social media platforms. 

In addition, the Gucci arcade is another gamifying strategy used by the giant fashion house to encourage users to play its arcade games with virtual characters. 

Gucci was able to appeal to a large number of shoppers, especially those of the Gen-Z, through its e-commerce gamification.

3- Maison Karl Lagerfeld

The widely known fashion house, Karl Lagerfeld, took its inspiration from the famous game Pac-man. However, Lagerfeld created its version of the famous game to grab people’s attention and to add a gamification vibe to its online store. 

Customers visiting Lagerfeld's online store will be able to play with its famous cat, Choupette, to navigate through the famous store of Maison Karl Lagerfeld in Paris. 

Lagerfeld makes sure to include a reward for its customers. Thus, winning users will get the chance to have an exciting shopping experience in Lagerfeld stores in Europe and UK. Lagerfeld gamification led to around 21,000 visits to its online store within one week (Segmentify,2021). 

4- L’occitane

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L’occitance raised the bar for e-commerce gamification. It is a skincare brand widely known for being made from natural ingredients. 

Therefore, it created the seeds of a dream game in which customers water the seeds and bring them sun. Hence, it shows its customers the relationship between its products and seeds. 

L’occitane also added a reward for its customers. The more they engage, the more rewards they will receive.