The gamification market is set to triple by next year, and is projected to reach a market value of 30 billion dollars! With the surging popularity of gamification, there’s no better time to implement gamified eCommerce marketing solutions.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of e-commerce gamification and give you our best tips on finding a gamification solution that engages customers and grows your revenue.
What is eCommerce gamification?
Gamification is the process of integrating games or game-like features into marketing and sales processes. With gamification you can grab the attention of potential buyers through engaging, interactive games, gradually pushing leads through your marketing funnel and eventually converting them into paying customers.
Gamification is the perfect fit for eCommerce because eCommerce companies interact with potential customers digitally, making it super easy to offer simple and fun games. You can add games directly to your eCommerce website, send them via email, or promote them through social media campaigns.
Plus, by giving away prizes you can convert visitors into customers and upsell or cross-sell products. Through eCommerce gamification you can offer discount codes, vouchers, and bundles as prizes, helping you increase sales in the short and long term.
See also: Gamification in retail
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Examples of eCommerce gamification
Here are some examples of how Adact has helped businesses successfully implement gamification in eCommerce:
- Tele 2 Estonia: this Estonian telecommunication company partnered with us to deliver customers a digital Wheel of Fortune. And fortunately for them, the campaign was a massive success! They collected as many as 10,069 leads from this single campaign, making it an instant hit.
- Ballzy: Sneaker eCommerce store Ballzy was looking for a game that would help connect with its target audience, raise brand awareness, and get more newsletter subscribers. And they did just that! With the help of Adact, they created a successful drop game. It was so appealing that people played it more than nine times on average, with play time per customer averaging nine minutes. Huge congrats on such a Ballzy move!
- Adažu: this chips manufacturer decided to pick Adact to promote their limited edition product and increase engagement by insisting on the historic background of that limited line. To do that, they chose our “Swipe” game where customers like/dislike an image shown on the screen with a swiping motion. Results? Their Chip Tinder attracted more than 3,863 people on the first day. A massive brand awareness success, to say the least, with so many people chipping in to play.
- Smartpost: Smartpost, a leading delivery service in the Baltics, used gamification to drive its audience to purchase school supplies from local eCommerce stores. To achieve their goals they teamed up with Adact to create a gamified quiz based on the popular TV show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”Local eCommerce stores took notice of the campaign and player feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The number of quiz players and newsletter subscribers as a result of the campaign blew away expectations!
For more inspiration, check out our 12 top gamification examples.
Comparison table: eCommerce gamification platforms
For a quick glance at our top gamification platforms of the year, check out our comparison table:
| Platform | Ease of use | Game selection | Brand customization | Analytics | Overall |
| Adact | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4/5 | 4.62/5 |
| dot.vu | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4.50/5 |
| Qualifio | 5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4.37/5 |
| Mambo.IO | 3/5 | 4.5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4.37/5 |
| Gametize | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.50/5 |
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Choosing the best eCommerce gamification solutions
Here are some tips on what to look for when choosing the best gamification software:
- Ease of use: Let’s face it, you’re not a video game developer – you run an online store. So no matter how advanced the tool is, it’s no good if it is not simple and easy to use. Pick a tool with an intuitive interface and a variety of templates to make getting started easy.
- Lots of game choices: You might already have a particular game in mind for your next eCommerce campaign, but don’t limit your options. Gamification can become integral to your marketing and sales activities, and therefore a gamification platform should adapt to your needs. Choose a tool with a variety of games to keep your marketing campaigns fresh for years to come.
- Customizable to include your brand: Having a wide selection of eCommerce games is important, but the overall goal of gamification in eCommerce is to promote your brand. Even if you don’t make an immediate sale, a branded campaign can raise brand awareness, increasing conversions in the long run.
- Various product promotion options: The gamification marketing platform you opt for should come with various prizes for winners, including vouchers, discount codes, and similar promotions. Prizes trigger sales, even in the short run, making gamification extremely valuable.
- Analytics: Your eCommerce marketing solution should not only let you create and execute fun games, but should also let you analyze the results of your gamification campaign. Analytics can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign and learn how to make your future gamification efforts even more successful.
Best eCommerce gamification software
Now that you have a better idea of what to look for, let’s look at five of the best eCommerce gamification solutions you can try today:
Adact
First on our list of the best gamification solutions is Adact. Here’s why:
Ease of use
Adact games are not only fun to play, but also easy to build. Adact comes with a template for every type of eCommerce game, so you won’t have to design anything from scratch. The platform’s menus are very intuitive, and you can make all the edits you need without searching through endless help pages.
But just because Adact is super easy to use doesn’t mean advanced configuration isn’t available – on the contrary. Adact lets you design your campaigns from top to bottom, so you can make them exactly how you want.
Games selection
With as many as 35 games available, you’ll never run out of gamification ideas. Adact has all the favorites on their list too, from wordle, trivia and puzzles to personality tests. You can also implement surveys outside of your promotional activities to collect valuable customer feedback.
Brand elements and customization
With Adact, you can incorporate your brand into any eCommerce game. Easily include your logo, change backgrounds and use your brand’s colors to increase brand visibility and recognition.
Promotional options
Include promotional items such as vouchers, discounts, and gift cards in the form of eCommerce game prizes. With Adact, you can also set the probabilities of participants winning each game, making games as easy or challenging as you want.
Additionally, you can distribute your game through several channels:
- Add it to your website
- Use Adact to host it
- Send it via newsletter
- Display it on banners
- Let users play through apps
Because Adact makes it so easy to create and tweak game mechanics, this gamification platform is a perfect companion for your sales and marketing efforts.
Analytics
As for analytics, Adact provides insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns so that you can improve as you get more familiar with gamification. By analyzing the number of players, those who complete it, and the number of winners, you can gauge the success of your games and identify necessary improvements.
Pricing
You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to see if the app meets your needs. Adact offers different plans, including Single, Limited, Full, and Enterprise. The Single plan starts at €1,500. Book a call for a quote on Adact’s other plans.
dot.vu
Image source: GetApp
Dot.vu is an interactive content designer and sales gamification platform. It lets users create interactive content for their marketing and sales campaigns, without any coding experience. It has a sleek interface, is very intuitive, and can serve as the foundation for many marketing and sales efforts.
Ease of use
dot.vu has a very modern design and is straightforward to use. There are plenty of templates to choose from and since they are all categorized in different groups, everything is easy to find.
Games selection
Their eCommerce games library is very rich and includes 50+ templates. With so many templates it’s easy to get going and hard to run out of ideas. The only trouble with so many changeable elements is that it can feel overwhelming. For example, it can be hard to implement brand elements without disrupting the feel of their templates.
Brand elements and customization
While dot.vu games look great even without changes, the gamification software offers many customization options. You can choose your brand elements, change backgrounds, and alter the entire look and feel of the game.
Promotional options
The platform has several promotional options, which means you can use interactive content in several parts of your sales funnel. Promotional options include scratch cards, discount coupons, hourly surprises, and more.
Analytics
dot.vu analytics provide users with plenty of info about their campaigns, including conversion rates, drops, and insights about each interaction. With so much data, you’ll be able to understand every click.
Pricing
dot.vu offers a free version with very limited features to give you a feel for the platform. Beyond that, pricing is based on unique monthly visitors. Paid plans range from $200/month up to $1,600/month, with enterprise plans available upon request only.
Qualifio
Image source: GetApp
Qualifio is a data collection, customer engagement, and customer loyalty suite that helps even the biggest companies attract attention and convert leads. It’s a very capable eCommerce marketing solution but could improve its customization features.
Ease of use
Qualifio lets you set up your gamification eCommerce campaigns quickly and easily, without any technical knowledge, making it a good option for running marketing campaigns at scale. The interface is clean and there are many predefined resources you can easily configure.
Game types
There are 30+ e-commerce games in the Qualifio library. This excellent selection will give you plenty of material for future campaigns.
Brand elements and customization
While you can customize games and incorporate your brand elements with Qualifio, the number of changes you can make is somewhat limited by the predefined layouts. There are issues with customizing some of the games, which can limit you to cookie-cutter solutions and make it impossible to create a unique, branded eCommerce game.
Promotional options
Qualifio has a whole feature set for developing customer loyalty programs, which will help you retain customers for longer and increase earnings per customer. You can also include ads, use website pop-ups, and share your campaigns on social media, apps, and emails.
Analytics
When it comes to analytics, Qualifio does a decent job. The eCommerce marketing solution connects to Google Analytics to obtain advanced traffic information. It also comes with a convenient loyalty program dashboard where you can see in-depth stats about your customer loyalty campaign, allowing you to make live adjustments.
Pricing
With Qualifio you can choose either an Essential or Plus plan. Pricing is available upon request only.
Mambo.IO
Image source: Capterra
Mambo.IO is an enterprise gamification software solution built for even the biggest companies. It’s a super complex, yet incredibly powerful platform that lets you set up gamification e-commerce campaigns of all kinds. However, you must have the capacity, technical knowledge, and budget to do so.
Ease of use
Mambo.IO is very flexible and powerful, but setting it up is complicated, compared with the other gamification solutions on this list. This is especially true if you run Mambo.IO on-premise, meaning you run it on your own computers/servers. This is something big companies prefer because it gives them full ownership over the collected data. However, there’s also a cloud version that is better suited for smaller businesses.
While the cloud version is simpler, it’s still difficult to run Mambo.IO campaigns without technical knowledge, which could be a deal-breaker for people who want a simple way to design eCommerce games for their audience.
Game types
Mambo.IO has a broad spectrum of applications, allowing you to integrate games into all aspects of your business. For example, you can use Mambo.IO for staff training, onboarding, and call center engagement. You can also nurture a healthy competitive spirit among your employees by creating leaderboards for your games.
Brand elements and customization
Because Mambo.IO can run on-premise and with enough technical knowledge, users can fully configure the look and feel of any eCommerce game. However, Mambo.IO’s main focus is on improving performance within teams, so there are not many options to include brand elements.
Promotional options
Mambo.IO has many ways of fostering team competition, including leaderboards, award systems, and more. The gamification platform also lets you offer incentives to customers. For example, you can create a coupon system and in-app rewards, and even grant VIP status to your most loyal customers.
Analytics
Because Mambo.IO is an enterprise-level solution, detailed analytics are a given. Mambo.IO’s analytics allow you to see the effectiveness of your gamification activities on all levels, with impressive segmentation and tags that give you a detailed overview.
Pricing
Mambo.IO offers three plans, On-demand, On-premise, and Dedicated Cloud. Pricing for On-demand starts at $400/month, with prices for the other plans available upon request.
Gametize
Image source: SaasWorthy
Gametize is another enterprise gamification solution that lets users incorporate games into several business aspects, including employee engagement, learning and development, talent acquisition, and customer engagement.
Ease of use
Gametize does offer plenty of gamification eCommerce templates to get you started. However, the interface is clunky and you’ll need to put in some work for your campaign to look and feel exactly how you want.
Game types
Because Gametize supports so many different use cases, there are plenty of game types to choose from. You will find everything from the best eCommerce video games to engage your store’s visitors to intra-team competitive games for training customer support staff.
Brand elements and customization
Gametize does offer customization, as you can start with templates and incorporate your brand elements along the way. However, finding options that you want to work with can be challenging.
Promotional options
You can use Gametize to promote your products and services and engage with customers, but also for employee training, onboarding, and even talent acquisition. While it has many use cases, Gametize falls behind some other gamification solutions on this list when it comes to marketing and sales.
Analytics
Gametize performs well when it comes to analytics, as it collects user data that lets you see the participation and completion rates of your games. You can also see discussions and comments by users, giving you better insight into the performance of your gamification e commerce campaign.
Pricing
Gametize offers a Light ($100/month), Regular ($200/month), Premium ($500/month), and Premium Plus ($1000/month) plan. You can also sign up for a 7-day free trial of the Premium plan.
eCommerce gamification FAQ
What can interactive eCommerce marketing do for your business?
Using interactive games as an eCommerce marketing solution has many benefits for eCommerce::
- Increases customer engagement: Free-to-play games that give your audience a chance to win prizes automatically increase engagement, which is always a big plus.
- Raises brand awareness: If you design your eCommerce game right, players will remember your brand. Even if they don’t buy from you now, they will be much more likely to buy the next time they come across your brand.
- Attracts new leads: While it’s true that offering prizes and games will attract people who couldn’t care less about your brand, it will also attract potential customers that will convert into sales.
- Boosts eCommerce sales: The prizes you offer, such as time-limited discounts, vouchers, and gift cards, will likely transform into sales shortly after your campaign ends.
Builds loyalty programs: Gamification is the perfect way to reward loyal customers. With eCommerce games, customers can compete, collect loyalty points, and interact with your brand, which can be especially useful for special events and holiday campaigns.
How does gamification impact eCommerce?
Gamification is an eCommerce marketing solution that can benefit online stores in many ways, including:
- Attracting leads
- Improving conversions
- Increasing customer loyalty and retention
By building interactive games that your audience enjoys, gamification allows businesses to connect with customers and create a positive, memorable experience. Offering games that resonate with your audience is also a great way to show them you understand their needs.
Gamification can help eCommerce stores gain the attention of potential customers, which is especially important given people’s short attention spans today. Fun games can grab the attention of potential customers, and more importantly, keep them engaged.
How can gamification increase sales of my online store?
Gamification can increase sales through the discount codes, vouchers, and gift cards you can give as game prizes. When businesses offer these promotions, it’s easy to convert winners into happy repeat customers.
Gamification in e commerce is also an excellent way to promote your brand. By offering engaging, rewarding games, your customers will associate your brand with their positive experience. While this might not create immediate sales it will help grow your brand, leading to more sales in the long term.
What is gamified shopping?
Gamified shopping is when video game elements are integrated into the shopping experience. This is particularly easy for eCommerce shopping, because the customers’ shopping experience already takes place online.
Gamification for e commerce shopping can take many forms. The best method of eCommerce gamification depends on your target audience and the goal of your marketing campaign. Gamified shopping could be an engaging game that gives customers the chance to win discounts or quizzes that reward knowledgeable customers with loyalty points.
What is gamified shopping?
Gamified shopping is when video game elements are integrated into the shopping experience. This is particularly easy for eCommerce shopping, because the customers’ shopping experience already takes place online.
Gamification for e commerce shopping can take many forms. The best method of eCommerce gamification depends on your target audience and the goal of your marketing campaign. Gamified shopping could be an engaging game that gives customers the chance to win discounts or quizzes that reward knowledgeable customers with loyalty points.
What games work best for eCommerce?
The best eCommerce video games depend on your business, audience, and goals. If your main goal is to give away discounts and vouchers, then you may want to opt for games that give away prizes instantly, such as scratchcards.
A trivia game can be an effective way to get customers to answer questions about your brand. This can get people thinking about your brand and boost brand awareness.
A branded mini-game may be best if you know your audience loves playing traditional video games.
To get some ideas for what games work best for your online store, take a look at Adact’s eCommerce gamification examples.
Does eCommerce gamification just mean playing video games?
Gamification in eCommmerce is more than just playing video games. It involves incorporating game elements into non-gaming contexts, such as online shopping, to make the experience more engaging for customers.
eCommerce gamification takes game mechanics like leaderboards, badges, challenges, and achievements to engage customers and motivate them to continue playing your game and interacting with your brand.
Gamify your online store with Adact
There are many reasons to incorporate gamification into your eCommerce sales and marketing tactics. And there are plenty of apps that can help you do it!
Adact is a fun, simple-to-use, and powerful gamification platform. With a variety of templates, effortless customization, and 30+ games, Adact lets you create astounding gamification campaigns, engage customers, and keep them coming back.
More and more companies are seeing the power of gamification. Try Adact today and see for yourself how gamification can take your customer engagement, brand awareness, and sales to the next level!
