With a rise in popularity of virtual worlds and a vibrant buzz around the term “Metaverse”, gamification is becoming a recognised resource in retail to create exciting and engaging experiences for customers, but what exactly is gamification and how is it best used to maximise effect in commerce?
Gamification can be defined as the application of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts. You can also define it as a set of activities and processes to solve a problem by using or applying the properties of a game element. Esteban Contreras, the Social Media Manager at Samsung USA describes gamification as being “not about buzzwords and mechanics, but better and more meaningful experiences.” According to the Harvard Business Review, an increase of 5% in customer attentiveness generates a 25%-95% growth in profit, showing gamification to be the new strategic tactic within the retail sector in enhancing sales, brand awareness, and customer loyalty. Humans are generally, naturally competitive, a trait which allows for gamification to play on our behaviour as we are motivated by the incentive of rewards or bragging rights.
General interest in gamification has increased over the past few years, with businesses investing in digital, and this, along with the growing penetration of smartphones, makes gamification a key priority focus. As a result, the gamification market is expected to reach a valuation of $30.7 billion by 2025. In the retail sector, gamification is used in a variety of ways, primarily to increase customer engagement and serve as a stepping stone to other outcomes. Integration with social networking platforms enables users to share their experiences with friends, acquaintances and colleagues, improving the reach and effectiveness of the resource.
Gamification is used in retail to enhance the user experience with rewards, progress bars, challenges, in-game currency and virtual environments. The rewards are in the form of prizes such as discount codes or free items, received for accomplishing a task.
One company utilising gamification technology in retail is BrandLab360, a company of ground-breaking innovators and global pioneers of V-commerce. As one of the earliest adopters of Metaverse-style technology, their platform enables companies and corporations of all sizes to elevate their businesses using virtual reality and gamification. Within their virtual reality environments, using gamification, there is the ability to build and download assortments, manipulate products and customise the environment. Products can be picked up, changed, moved around and purchased, directly within the environment. The environments available include an assortment builder, this is an interactive digital fixture, where buyers from a B2B perspective are able to explore, pick up items and add them to an assortment rail, instantly visualising selections which once confirmed, can then be sent straight to an order.
A recent project by BrandLab360 in partnership with Estée Lauder’s Too Faced is the Maison Too Faced, which launched this year and provides shoppers with a first-of-its-kind retail experience, consisting of a 360° virtual environment with a fully functioning economy, and the transferability of avatars and digital assets. All events inside the virtual store occur in real-time and are fully accessible via a link, with no apps or downloads required. Created entirely by BrandLab360, with the latest innovation in CGI, the gamified beauty world is a sight to behold.
Shoppers are invited to experience a fully branded, gamified world of beauty shopping, complete with interactive gardens filled with hero products, brand mascots to interact with and the opportunity to play games to capture discount codes. One game featured is the concealer card game where players must turn over cards to find three concealers to win a discount code. Another game is located in the Chocolate Kitchen, which has users collecting Too Faced chocolate products into a bowl to create a dessert and win a discount code, but be sure to avoid collecting any unwanted chocolates! All the products available mirror their real-life counterparts, and shoppers are encouraged to invite their friends to meet them virtually and enjoy the experience together. The store can hold thousands of shoppers at any one time. Explore the Maison Too Faced here: Too Faced Maison
Estee Lauder continues to break boundaries in both the beauty and tech industries working with BrandLab360 again, bringing you a world's first immersive Omni-marketing game: Repair Rush. Bringing together the two channels, this new game is available to play in selected stores across the world or can play online and you will receive a complimentary sample of the Advanced Night Repair Eye Supercharged Gel-Creme. Defend your radiance now at Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Game
Have you experienced gamification when shopping? Let us know below!