Shopping on Amazon is efficient, but not fun. In the crowded world of online retailing, gamification can reignite consumers’ love of shopping, and turn the buying experience into a theme park ride that they’ll want to try again and again.

Sree Menon, head of strategy and global sales operations, Tophatter

Sree Menon, head of strategy and global sales operations, Tophatter

There’s a certain universality to games; as children, we use games to learn about the world and to make friends. And as we age, the appeal of play doesn’t fade. Case in point: The mobile gaming market will reach $138 billion this year. So it makes sense that 87 percent of retailers plan to add some aspect of gamification into their shopping experience by 2020.

To be successful, though, game elements must be more than a nice extra, something you tack on to an already existing platform. With the current e-commerce climate crowding around one major player—Amazon—competitors large and small must find a way to offer something that tops its catchall platform. That’s where gamification can really deliver.

Competing is part of what makes us human.

How Gamification Can Transform E-Commerce

Amazon has cornered the intent-based shopping market. Its site and app are designed with a single goal of ultimately driving consumers to purchase, maybe prodding them with a few similar products along the way. People are drawn to this type of e-commerce because it saves them time, but shopping isn’t just about making lives easier.

advertisement

Many people love the act of shopping—the joy of discovering an awesome deal or the perfect gift. Just like a great game, shopping has the power to give people a sense of pleasure and achievement. But in today’s world, where customers can easily choose and order whatever they need at the click of a button, the act of shopping as a pastime is lost; however, gamification can bring back the joy of shopping.

Gamifying the Experience

When people first hear the word “gamification,” they tend to imagine a colorful “Candy Crush” screen or hear the rattle of a pinball machine, but there’s a science to game mechanics. By reinforcing certain actions with rewards, you increase propensity toward those actions. The more people play, the more they’re likely to spend, whether that’s money or time. If done right, you can earn yourself a highly engaged user base.

And as the mobile era continues to evolve, opportunities for gamification will multiply. E-retailers that are able to capture this personalized, data-driven form of entertainment will reap the rewards. As you build your gamification strategy, consider incorporating these three tactics.

advertisement

1. Use data to draw people in.

Consumers have come to expect a highly tailored experience, and mobile offers a huge amount of data to help you personalize and improve it. For instance, 33 percent of mobile users ages 18 to 34 say they always opt in to push notifications, and those users are 88 percent more engaged than those who disable them, according to a study by Localytics. Gather data on what push notifications draw people back in and optimize from there. This kind of engagement correlates with other markers of loyalty further down the line, too. For instance, the same Localytics research found that app users who enable notifications are three times more likely to keep engaging.

2. Leverage the power of competition.

advertisement

Competing is part of what makes us human, and it doesn’t take much prompting to bring out our competitive energy. When researchers observed participants of an energy conservation initiative at Princeton University, they found that the element of competition catalyzed participants’ energy-saving behavior. Once the competitive element kicked in, participants immediately began saving more energy. After the competition ended, they were no longer interested in conserving energy and quickly returned to old habits. Tap into humans’ competitive instincts to spur engagement, but remember to keep raising and changing the stakes to avoid dropouts.

3. Celebrate the wins.

Badging is a successful strategy in many industries because it builds credibility and loyalty. When users complete a task, mark their progress with a tangible reward, like a badge, that they can keep and collect. Creating a system of rewards like this incentivizes customers to keep coming back. It offers them a sense of progress, and it gives you the ability to connect with other loyal customers.

In a ridiculously crowded space like e-retail, gamification has the power to make consumers forget about all the other noise, reignite their love of shopping, and turn the buying experience into a theme park ride that they’ll want to try again and again.

advertisement

Tophatter Inc. operates an online auction site and mobile app.

Favorite