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In today’s competitive market, it’s not enough to have a good product or service. You need to build a loyal customer base to ensure long-term success. In this article, we will explore two important concepts that can help you achieve this goal: gamification and loyalty programs.

Gamification:

Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to non-game apps to increase user engagement. By adding tasks, challenges, and rewards, users are motivated to complete activities that would otherwise be considered tedious or boring. This approach can be particularly effective for apps that involve repetitive or routine tasks.

Loyalty Programs:

Loyalty programs are a retention strategy designed to reward customers for continually engaging with your brand. The more they purchase or interact with your company, the more rewards they receive. This approach creates a sense of loyalty and encourages customers to stay engaged with your brand over time.

Gamifying Loyalty:

Gamification can be used as part of a loyalty program to encourage customers to remain engaged with your brand. By creating games and offering prizes, customers have fun while returning to the app and being rewarded for their loyalty. This approach is based on the psychological theory of behaviorism, specifically classical conditioning. In this theory, a neutral stimulus (such as a purchase) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (such as earning the right to play a game and receive a reward), which eventually leads to a conditioned response (loyalty).

By combining gamification and loyalty programs, companies can create a powerful tool to build a loyal customer base. Users are engaged and motivated to continue interacting with your brand, which leads to increased sales and a more sustainable business model. Understanding these concepts and how they can be applied to your company is a key step in building a successful brand.Purchasing or completing tasks equals to play a game with a chance to earn prizes, this is the basic rule of gamification

Game structure’s

In order to create an engaging game experience that encourages loyalty, it’s important to structure the game in a way that provides clear goals and rewards for the player. In this article, we will explore the key elements of a successful game structure and how they can be used to build a loyal player base.

GOAL → CHALLENGES → WIN & REWARD

Game’s system

Gamification requires a successful game structure to encourage player loyalty. This structure comprises three key elements:

1. Goal: Establishing a clear, challenging goal that players must achieve. This goal can be related to a variety of actions such as earn a reward or save money on a purchase.
2. Challenges: Presenting players with a series of challenges that are related to the goal, or separate tasks that earn points or other rewards. These challenges can be related to purchases, inviting friends to use the app, or registering for a newsletter.
3. Win & Reward: Providing players with a proportional reward that corresponds to the difficulty of the challenges and the time and effort invested in the game. Rewards can be virtual (e.g. points, badges, or levels) or tangible (e.g. discounts, merchandise, or special offers).

Five Game Structures & Measurements

Five game structures

Games can track progress using four fundamental concepts to keep the user engaged, whether the game is a single, short experience or an infinite one.

1. Single Game: A game where the user plays and may or may not win a prize. The game may require multiple wins to achieve a final victory, making it longer than usual. This approach lacks continuity.
2. Challenges/Badges: Tasks or collections of small tasks that the user must complete within a set time frame to receive rewards. A variant of this concept is a ‘trophy,’ which is a reward the user obtains after completing a collection of challenges. This approach provides mid-term continuity.
3. Lottery: Users receive a participation in a prize draw each time they make a purchase of a specific product. Prizes can be awarded via a raffle, where the winner is selected from a group of participants, or through collection, where the user must collect a given number of objects or find a special object.
4. Levels/Points: These two concepts are similar, with levels presenting as a fictional progress bar and points acting as a fictional currency. Users earn points or complete challenges to progress through levels, with each level offering different benefits. Both approaches provide infinite-term continuity.

All these game structures can be combined to create a more complex game. The game can have one layer , two or three, so one typical combination is to use points, levels and single games.

End of the game

Players of games with extrinsic motivation often play with the expectation of receiving a monetary reward. These rewards can be given out during the game in different stages or upon completion of the goal with a larger prize. The type of reward can vary from virtual goods like badges or points to real-life rewards like discounts or merchandise. It’s important for game designers to consider the type and size of rewards as they can significantly affect the player’s experience and motivation to continue playing. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while extrinsic rewards can be effective at motivating players to complete goals, they can also lead to a decrease in intrinsic motivation, which is the desire to play for the enjoyment of the game itself.

Game’s attributes

Complexity

Games and gamification elements can vary in their complexity, from soft and easy to hard and complex. For instance, language-learning app Duolingo features a comprehensive gamification system that includes elements such as points, levels, challenges, and rewards, making it a more challenging and complex game. On the other hand, e-commerce apps often have simpler gamification features, such as simple games or long-term loyalty programs that offer points or levels.

The easiest and most accessible games tend to have simple rules, where a purchase or action results in points or other rewards. However, more complex games may require users to complete multiple tasks, such as signing up for a newsletter, referring friends, or engaging in social media activities. While complex games can offer more engagement and motivation for players, they also require more effort and may not be suitable for all users. Game developers must carefully consider the complexity of their games to ensure they provide the right level of challenge and motivation for their target audience.

Continuity

Overall, continuity is an important aspect of gamification as it helps to keep users engaged and invested in the game. While some games may not require continuity, most games are designed to have some degree of continuity, whether it’s through a long-term loyalty program or a series of mid-term challenges. Points and levels are popular structures for creating long-term loyalty, while challenges and badges can provide a mid-term focus for users. It’s important for game designers to consider the desired level of continuity for their game and structure it accordingly to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience.

Type of games depending its duration and complexity:

🎰 SHORT & EASY → one purchase or one action equals to a game.
♣️ MEDIUM & AVERAGE → multiple purchases or actions equal to a game.
📊 INFINITE & COMPLEX → the game never ends, the more you buy or the more actions you complete, the more you play.

Rewards

It’s true that monetary rewards, such as discounts and promo codes, are often the most effective motivators for users to participate in gamification and loyalty programs. However, non-monetary rewards can also be effective in certain contexts. For example, badges or other virtual rewards can create a sense of accomplishment and recognition, and can be particularly effective in games that have a social or competitive aspect.

In addition, some e-commerce apps may use gamification to enhance the user’s overall experience and increase engagement, rather than just as a means of motivating purchases. In these cases, non-monetary rewards such as additional features or content, early access to products, or exclusive experiences may be more appropriate. Ultimately, the choice of reward should be tailored to the specific goals of the gamification strategy and the needs and preferences of the target audience.

Motivation

Gamification uses two types of motivation to design games: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is driven by financial rewards; users play games to earn money or other economic benefits. In contrast, intrinsic motivation is driven by personal fulfillment and emotional rewards; users play games to achieve personal goals, such as forming new habits, learning new skills, or improving their health. E-commerce apps typically rely on extrinsic motivation, while regular apps often use intrinsic motivation to engage users. For example, a language-learning app may offer rewards such as progress tracking and personalized learning plans to motivate users to continue using the app.

Extra learnings

Gamification can introduce users to the concepts of failure and winning or create an environment that fosters winning. Effective information architecture is important to ensure that gamification features are highly accessible and visible to users. Users also expect rewards obtained during games to be easily accessible. Furthermore, many e-commerce games are designed to build loyalty among users. The primary goal of these games is to encourage users to return to the platform, as opposed to a competitor’s, by demonstrating that using the app’s services will lead to rewards. As users continue to use the app, they earn more rewards, which helps to reinforce the value of the platform and incentivize future use.

According to research, cognitively speaking, earning points, levels or similar generates in the brain similar sensations as the likes of Facebook or Instagram. Dopamine fuels an addiction to seeking gratification, in this case, the gratification comes from winning “points” after doing something. — The Brain’s Reward System

Create your own game

To create a gamification strategy for a digital product, you must follow a few steps to structure the game itself. Here, you will find simple steps or questions to answer.

Business Goal & User’s Goal 🤝

What metrics do you want to improve in your business? It is essential to have a clear understanding of the metrics you want to improve. Typical business goals may include:

• Loyalty (in an economic segment with lots of competition)
• Sales
• Motivating users to try a new product or service

Business goals must align with user goals, meaning the user must find something valuable by playing the game. If the user doesn’t find the reward attractive, they won’t engage in playing.

Elements to be assessed to create a game

1. Game Structure: We previously presented five different game structures, and each one will fit better depending on the business goals. Remember, you can mix different structures.
2. Tasks: To play a game, the player needs to complete a few challenges. Generally, these challenges involve making a series of purchases that will help the business reach its “business goal,” and the user will be rewarded as well (user’s goal). Sometimes the tasks may not be related to purchases, such as sharing the app with friends or adding a review. It’s important to determine the number of repetitions the user needs to make to finish the game.
3. Continuity: The idea is to have the player continuously gaming, but the game may have shorter or longer plays depending on the tasks the user needs to complete. Once one game is over, a new one should start.
4. Prizes: The user can either win or lose a game, but make sure that if the user wins the challenge, you need to reward them with a monetary incentive that can come in different forms. Common forms of reward include coupon codes, free items, or discounts.Great apps to learn from

User experience has lots to say and do regarding gamification and loyalty programs.

Recommendations

I recommend to explore the following apps and games to get to now more about gamification on ecommerce apps:

• Honest Greens and the Stamp Card.
• McDonald’s and the Monopoly game.
• Lidl Plus and the Casino game with the roulette.
• Booking and the Levels club
• Burger King or Mc Donald’s and its Points Club
• Foodpanda and its Badges and Points Club

Learn more from gamification in the following articles:

https://yukaichou.com/gamification-book/