Traditional shopping around the malls, participating in some lucky draws, winning at a few games at your favourite store at the mall is a really fun experience. Well, when shopping becomes an online thing, do customers miss out on the “fun” element? NO! Ecommerce has evolved and online shopping can now be equally fun for customers and profitable for businesses too. The word you are looking for is – Ecommerce Gamification.
Everyone loves to “win” something, or has a desire for competition, or a sense of achievement. This is exactly what ecommerce businesses can turn into a business opportunity. This will definitely make your site lively and full of activity. Ecommerce has evolved and so has ecommerce development, and today, there are various types of gamification you can use for your ecommerce websites.
Here are the basic types:
Rewards:
Customers who accomplish certain tasks can be rewarded either points or badges or stars etc. For example a purchase of a certain amount and above entities the customer points that can later on be used. Or, purchase of certain products for the first 100 items sold gives those customers a badge that has further advantages while shopping a second time at your ecommerce store. Well, ideas are plenty – limited only by your imagination!
Progress bars
Providing users a progress bar to show how close they are at winning! Either a discount, or a free goodie or something at your store. This is a great way of persuasion as users generally are motivated by looking at how close they are to achieve their goals.
Using virtual money in games
Virtual money games are awesome, as users are already used to playing online games with virtual money, it’s great to have a few on your estore. Innovative ideas can be added for Winners getting discounts or some free goodies.
Encouraging participation via competition
Competition is what keeps us going. If we can see what others are achieving at their games, we are automatically encouraged to do better at ours. Ecommerce stores can create such competition and announce winners so that more and more participation is encouraged.
Simple fun games:
If not anything simple games that are just fun to play are also great means to attract customers to your store.
There are some stunning examples of big brands using ecommerce gamification and have seen great benefits in such an arrangement too. eBay provides customers an option to bid. When customers are buying from eBay, they feel they have “won” something not actually purchased it. They feel a sense of achievement. This is enough motivator for the purchase! Woot.com has a daily deal system where the next deal is announced only after the first deal is exhausted. This creates a curiosity in the minds of customers and encourages them to make purchase if the deal is good and wait for the next deal. They will definitely visit your store to find out what the next deal is!
Well, revolutionizing ecommerce and reaping the benefits in terms of greater profits is only limited by how wild your imaginations can run!
