Gamification In eCommerce: How To Entice Returning Customers
Featured Image: iStock/krugli
In today’s day and age, eCommerce has been experiencing quite a boom as the purchasing habits of consumers shift towards online buying. During 2020, online sales saw a 129 percent year over year growth throughout the US and Canada. As the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in physical retail shopping, eCommerce had one of its best years yet. With digital sales projected to hit a high of 6.5 trillion dollars by 2022, the future seems promising for online businesses. If you are running an online business, this may be the right time to invest in your eCommerce strategies.
Sometimes, businesses can become too inclined towards engaging new customers and ignore the potential of enticing returning ones. According to a report, returning customers make up for 43 percent of the total revenue for small to medium-sized businesses. This percentage can go even higher when businesses start focusing and spending more on attracting returning or repeat customers.
With new and innovative techniques like gaming and gamification in eCommerce, most online businesses are able to entice returning customers successfully. Here are a few ideas that you could use to your advantage.
1. Introduce Points & Levels
Basically, this is about enhancing user experience by taking inspiration from the gaming industry. When you gamify or add elements from games to your ecommerce website, you might increase engagement and increase the conversion rate. Progress trackers, rewards or points for different levels or incentives for referrals are just some ways to encourage consumers to keep coming back.
Take Teleflora for instance. It has added an interactive game to their websites, which give users points for activities. So if anyone makes a recommendation, writes reviews or comments and makes multiple purchases, they get points according to the actions. These can be later claimed for discounts.
For educational, healthcare and well-being websites that catalog related products, you can look into incorporating trackers within the website which allow users to monitor their progress. Similarly, websites can engage users by offering rewards to unlock various fitness or health levels. You can also add animations or quick games which take the user from one page to another after completing a level. All of these strategies may work very well in getting the customer to spend more time on the website and return frequently as well.
2. Introduce Auctions Or Bidding
When it comes to using gaming in eCommerce, eBay has got it right since its creation. In the 1990s, it became the first ever website to support online auctions with direct transactions between people. There is an option for joining an auction for every category and a range of products from electronics to clothes. So each time a consumer bids on a particular item, they participate in the auction and then return to check on it until a winner is decided.
Image Source: eBay
At the end, it might be another purchase, but to a number of people, it can come off as a competition through which they can win something. For enticing returning customers, introducing auctions or bids might prove useful for your eCommerce platform.
3. Make Fun Quizzes Or Questionnaires
This could make for an interactive activity and encourage the audience to come back and explore more products or services. Create personality quizzes or ask fun questions based on preferences or likes that result in product recommendations based on their answers.
For instance, a question could ask a user if they prefer the cold weather or warm, or what animal would they be, and then come up with a choice of products at the end. You can also design quizzes and questionnaires for special holidays such as New Year or Christmas.
Take a look at Claire’s product recommendation quiz that narrows the search for their audience and is a good way to bring customers back too. It is on their website and you can take it now as well!
Image Source: Claire’s
4. Start Loyalty Programs
If you think about it, one of the best ways to appeal to repeat or returning customers is to give them loyalty rewards. This will not only make them feel appreciated, but provide an incentive to keep coming back. Big brands such as Starbucks have introduced loyalty programs such as My Starbucks Rewards, which is an engaging game that allows customers to get free beverages in return for stars. It was introduced on the website in the 2010s and then extended to the official application.
So when a person registers for the rewards program, it awards them points or a star for each drink that has been bought. Those can later help them in getting a free beverage any time. It is actually a highly interesting game where consumers can go up to different levels of loyalty and get more stars. Anyone can join the program and earn the rewards by signing up on the website or through the app. The stars will then collect with specific purchases in your account.
You can look into rewarding your loyal customers in a similar way as well. Engage them with a game for loyalty points or give them special access to new items, as Gilt has done.
5. Add Virtual Reality Options
In gaming, virtual and augmented reality is becoming quite popular with users. Ecommerce businesses can also use these technologies. There are quite a few stores which choose to give their customers a virtual tour on their websites such as Happier Camper and Rockford.
Businesses are also choosing to add 360 degrees images and videos of products, which can help customers get a better idea of the items like BMW has done.
To make your website more interactive and fun, you can use virtual and augmented reality to allow the audience to visualize and experience different products. Clothing stores such as Gap provide consumers a choice to mix and match various clothes without having to visit the stores physically.
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6. Link to Social Media Games
Another way to gamify your ecommerce business is to link it to a popular social media game website. If done right, it can be a huge payoff. Basically, there are quite a lot of popular games one can find on social media networks such as Facebook. Cityville and Farmville attracted quite a lot of attention from people who actively played the city and farm building games.
In 2011, Best Buy saw an opportunity to promote itself and collaborated with Cityville. Players could basically add Best Buy stores and items in their virtual cities. By linking to more such games on social media and then promoting it on your website, you could gain success with returning customers.
Image Source: aol.com
7. Use Spin-the-Wheel
An interesting way to keep customers engaged in your website and stay on it for a longer time is through Spin-the-Wheel. It allows businesses to get information about their target audience, as some wheel games may require sign-ups and basic contact details. With Spin-the-Wheel, you can pitch discounts, promotions, and special offers to customers who want to take part.
Some spin-the-wheel games also focus on reducing cart abandonment and encourage the customers to come back and finish their tasks. In the example below, you can see how Ravpower, one of the leaders in making high-powered battery devices, is enticing its new and returning customers with its game on the website. By spinning the wheel, you may win different discounts on various products or avail a buy one get one free deal.
Image Source:ravpower.com
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8. Give Avatars To Regular Customers
This one very interesting way to engage customers and make them into long-term ones. You can actually build customer loyalty by assigning various avatars to customers who return more than twice or have made certain big purchases from your eCommerce platform. Facebook recently generated a lot of interest by letting people design and come up with their avatars based on their personality.
Similarly, you can encourage your customers to create accounts and unlock their avatars after returning. For startups and small businesses, this could be an excellent strategy for converting leads, keeping customers, and spreading awareness.Style.me is one platform that has gained an edge over the others in these times. It allows people to create an avatar based on their size and appearance and then try out different combinations of clothes.
Image Source. style.me
9. Customization
You can incorporate a customization feature in your eCommerce website and allow customers to add their own designs, colors, or patterns to the products. Converse has a “Make it Your Own” option for its Chuck Taylor collection that lets people pick a base design and make edits to it. The audience can also keep track of their progress and feel like they have won a game at the end.
Image Source: converse.com
This customization encourages their customers to try different products and personalize it according to their preferences. When consumers feel appreciated and valued, they want to come back. As the owner of an eCommerce platform, you can try adding such options to your website. Make it fun and engaging, so that your target customer is convinced to return and try something new.
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10. Testing
There are a few online shopping websites which give their customers the option of trying out various styles or products before making a purchase. Stitch fix is one such example where consumers do not have to figure out which items would match their personality and look good on them.
Image Source: stitchfix.com
They can simply answer a few questions, give an estimate of their budget, and pay a minimal fee to get several options delivered to their homes. The fee can be later adjusted to future purchases and for shipping as well. These testing options are interactive and grab the interest of the consumer immediately. They can be useful for enticing returning customers and generating more quality traffic.
Wrapping Up
According to Alex Schultz, Vice President of Facebook Growth, “If you can get 20–30% of your customers coming back every month and making a purchase from you, then you should do pretty well.” So try to make your eCommerce platform as interesting as possible by adding gamification techniques to your ecommerce business. By doing so, you can maintain a steady bottom line and slowly and gradually grow your business.
