- Gamification - What Is It?
- How To Benefit From Gamification In E-commerce?
- The Curious Case Of Gamification
Gamification - what is it?
Gamification is about using video and board game mechanisms for non-game purposes such as sales, marketing or motivation. However, it’s not a game in itself, it’s a kind of a tool that improves engagement with the help of new, attractive activities.
It's not about taking a random game element and turning it into a thing that fits your marketing strategy. That's not the goal.
Every game comes with separate dynamics and characteristic mechanisms. The same applies to each business. Proper planning and combining strategic goals and determination will result in future success, whereas ill-considered actions will lead to a total disaster.
You want to improve engagement, not discourage people, it’s obvious. Appropriately selected mechanisms can bring you positive effects in the long term. What game mechanisms are there and how to implement them to your company operation? Think about:
- points,
- rankings,
- levels,
- challenges,
- gifts.
Advantages of e-commerce gamification
E-commerce gamification can help you:- attract more customers,
- inspire trust,
- show that your company has an unusual approach,
- improve sales,
- learn about customer behavior, expectations, and desires.
How to benefit from gamification in e-commerce?
Getting to know customers and their preferences is a very important step of e-commerce gamification implementation. Keep in mind purchasing decisions made by people to create an appealing and engaging strategy. Below you can see a few examples showing how to benefit from gamification in your online store.1. Loyalty Programs - keep customers for longer
Yes, loyalty programs are also part of gamification. Customers can collect points, stamps, or other rewards to receive a prize (it’s also a game-based mechanism). It’s important to engage customers so that they want to come back and exchange the earned points for a reward. Let's do it in an interesting and non-linear way to achieve lots of benefits.Bonito, one of the greatest bookstores in Poland, advocates such a system. The more you buy, the more points you get. Each subsequent purchase results in a bigger discount on books.