Ecommerce is not as simple as creating a website, offering products and services, and incorporating a payment system.
Today’s customers expect much more from online websites. Think personalization, interactivity, and other such engaging experiences.
A factor that has become a must-have is gamification. This blog focuses on how you can gamify Shopify store experiences for your brand.
Why should you gamify your Shopify store experience?
While increasing conversion with gamification might seem like a difficult task and something that doesn’t generate enough ROI, when you consider the many benefits of gamification, it’s definitely an aspect that online stores must invest in. Here are some of the benefits of gamification for eCommerce stores.
1. Enhance user experience
Gamification adds elements of gaming into the shopping experience. This improves interactivity and engagement. eCommerce brands have noted a 100 to 150% increase in engagement through gamification. It makes the process of shopping and exploring products more enjoyable. Elements such as challenges, rewards, competitions, earning points or badges, etc., help attract customers and keep their attention.
2. Encourage repeat visits
Gamifying Shopify store experiences also increase repeat visits. Many aspects of gamification are engaging, such as the element of fun, competition, winning rewards, etc. These factors make customers want to come back to your Shopify store. These elements create a sense of anticipation for rewards and fun experiences, creating a habit of repeat visits.
3. Increase customer loyalty
Offering points, rewards, and other incentives such as vouchers or discount coupons, gamification helps bring customers back to eCommerce stores. Customers either come back to use their rewards or to earn more by engaging with different features and activities on the site. These aspects lead to customer retention and loyalty. Gamification can reduce customer churn by up to 63%.
4. Boost conversions
When customers have a good experience and enjoy shopping on eCommerce sites, they are more likely to complete purchases, and less likely to abandon their carts. The engaging element of gamification helps increase conversions. Moreover, it can also help increase the average order value (AOV) as customers end up spending more to earn more points.
5. Collect customer data
Most gamification features require customers to share their details and data. For example, they have to share their contact details to enter into contests, quizzes require them to answer questions, etc. This data can be useful for future marketing and promotions. Moreover, the more customers interact and engage on your site via activities, the more data you can gather about their behavior.
Different ways to gamify Shopify store experiences for health and wellness brands
Health and wellness brands have the benefit of customers making repeat purchases for the same products, and short shelf-life of certain products. When planned strategically, retailers can do much more to increase engagement and sales. Here are some unique strategies to increase conversion with gamification.
1. Loyalty programs with points and rewards
Most brands offer loyalty and reward points when customers make purchases. But this simple reward points system doesn't cut it anymore. Brands need to offer something more exciting for customers.
For example, Sephora’s loyalty program, Beauty Insider, offers different reward points for different tiers, creating a competitive and more rewarding customer experience. Moreover, a tier-based gamified loyalty program also offers a feeling of community and belonging to members who share similar health and wellness interests.
Here are a few ideas for loyalty programs:
- Tier-based loyalty programs
- Offer badges for accomplishments
- Include leaderboards and rank members based on achievements
- Spending-based loyalty points
2. Spin-to-win discount wheels
An engaging gaming strategy for eCommerce stores, spin-to-win discount wheels add interactivity and provide an opportunity to brands to offer exciting rewards.
For instance, health and wellness stores could offer rewards such as, free shipping, same-day delivery, discounts, free products to try, etc.
Here are some ways to engage via spin-to-win wheels for gamification on health and wellness stores:
- Ask customers to share their email address; build your contact list
- Ensure every participant wins something every time; encourage repeat visits
- Think of health and wellness related rewards; keep it relevant to customers
- Incorporate personalization to keep customers engaged
- Install Shopify apps for gamification that enable advanced features
3. Step-tracking challenges with rewards
One of the most exciting and effective ways to increase conversion with gamification is to incorporate step-tracking challenges in your Shopify health and wellness store.
For instance, create 21-day fitness challenges where customers can participate and track their progress. Many brands do this via their app or WhatsApp groups (for small brands). Participants earn points for reaching milestones and specific goals.
Here are some ideas you could incorporate to gamify your Shopify store experiences:
- 10,000 steps per day walking challenge redeemable for discounts
- Start a running group for members to build a sense of community
- Create social media campaigns to encourage participants to share their progress on social channels
- Create online groups where like-minded customers can discuss about new challenges
- Use leaderboards to promote healthy competitiveness
4. Gamified product quizzes
A market study shows how an optical brand, Zenni, generated $1 million in revenue and almost 30,000 leads through a customer quiz. The quiz matched consumers with the pair of glasses that matched their style and budget.
Quizzes for gamification of health and wellness stores can be used in a similar manner, but be focused on health and wellness. For instance, wellness brands can ask questions about consumers’ health goals and preferences.
This sort of personalization is essential in the health and wellness industry as each individual has different needs and preferences. It also helps enhance customer experience and sales. Moreover, quizzes add interactivity, engagement, and repeat customers.
Here are some quiz question ideas:
- Questions about health and body needs
- Understand body type, shape, etc.
- Skin type and individual problems
5. Wellness goal achievement badges
Fitbit, a fitness tracker app, has a badge system to reward users for reaching milestones; and Headspace, a meditation app, has badges for consistent practice. Both these health and wellness brands use this gamification tool to encourage users to achieve their goals.
Using badges is an effective way to gamify your Shopify store experience, as it targets customers’ emotions. When customers achieve a milestone, receiving a badge ignites positive emotions.
Here’s what you can do with badges on your Shopify health and wellness store:
- Offer badges for various different achievements and milestones
- Enable sharing on social media and other channels so customers can share their achievements with others
- Offer rewards when customers collect a specified number of badges
6. Limited-time scavenger hunts
A strategy used to gamify Shopify store experiences is incorporating limited-time scavenger hunts. These are games where customers have to hunt for products or services on the website. These games lead to higher engagement and a sense of urgency to explore products.
For instance, for your health and wellness Shopify store, you could use these tips:
- Host a scavenger hunt where customers must find products hidden throughout the site within a specified time limit
- Each product could belong to a different category, for example, vitamins, fitness gear, etc., so that customers discover new products from all sections
- Organize a challenge where customers are tasked to complete wellness challenges, such as finding healthy recipes or tracking steps within a specified time frame
- Allow customers to share their scavenger hunt progress on social platforms to encourage competitiveness and engagement
7. Calculators
Another way to gamify your online health and wellness store experience is to include calculators on various pages. For example, when it comes to health and wellness, a lot of things are measured - from how much protein one must have to how to calculate body mass, and more. This provides an opportunity for brands to include calculators on the site.
Adding calculators helps retailers in many ways, for instance, it helps collect personal data from customers, which can be used to personalize product recommendations.
Gamify your Shopify store experience to increase conversions
We’ve shared unique and effective strategies to gamify your health and wellness Shopify store experience that will help you engage customers and understand them better. However, you will also require efficient Shopify apps for gamification on your site.
That’s why you need XgenTech - experts in Shopify and Shopify Plus providing skills and expertise to incorporate elements such as gamification, personalization, and engagement. XgenTech provides a range of services to create appealing and customer-centric Shopify stores.
Get in touch with us to increase your Shopify store conversions!
