In the wild and wonderful world of grocery retail, gamification isn’t just about fun and games — although we do love the fun and games! It’s also about serious business like increasing customer engagement, boosting app traffic, enabling new revenue streams, and getting more customers into your store. And we love all that too. In fact, gamification offers key advantages to everyone involved in grocery retail. Customers can play fun and engaging games and win attractive prizes.
Suppliers can target segmented customers with relevant campaigns. While stores can grow their digital ecosystems, increase media revenue, and ultimately, motivate their customers to spend more. And you’ll be happy to hear, successfully incorporating gamification into your own loyalty program is easier than you might think.
Below we take a look at key ways grocery retailers of all shapes and sizes can embrace gamification. (And make sure that it brings them some big wins!).
Use different game types in different ways
The great thing about games is, they come in endless variations, and can be easily tailored to different customer preferences and situations. Some customers might love slot machine games. Others might prefer scratch cards or spin the wheel. To maximise customer engagement, it’s best to keep things interesting by mixing up the types of games on offer.
Adding variation to the winning odds is also a clever way to keep customers engaged. During a customer lifecycle marketing campaign (CLM) for example, if a customer is showing signs of lapsing, sending them a game with a 100% win rate is a very effective way to keep them interested.
And when customers do win, they tend to spend more. On average, customers spend 17% more in weeks they win a game, driven by 22% more trips, and 9% more even in weeks where they lose a game (compared to weeks they do not play). On campaign products specifically, winners spend 115% more in months after a campaign, with losers spending 53% more. This really highlights how beneficial gamification is in grocery retail. Win or lose for the customer, it’s a win for the store.
When it comes to prizes, don’t be afraid to play (excuse the pun!) around with those too. The prize doesn’t always have to be a physical item. Coupons, bonus points, or discounts on a customer’s next shop are also very popular, and they encourage customers to keep coming back.
Tap into supplier funding to increase customer engagement
What if we told you that you can enjoy all this increased gamification-related customer engagement without having to spend a penny? Sounds like you’d be hitting the jackpot doesn’t it?
Well, this jackpot is there for the taking. It is actually quite common for grocery retailers to have all their games fully funded by suppliers. Sometimes 6 months to a year in advance. The suppliers pay the marketing fees and fund the product prizes, and in return, they gain access to relevant customer segments through the games.
This works particularly well if a supplier has a new eye-catching product coming out, like a new flavour of drink or chocolate bar. A campaign like this can grab the customer’s attention and raise awareness very quickly, while keeping customers engaged through the games. And all at zero cost to the retailer.
The power of segmented gamification
To make sure you get the best results possible, you should use segmented games. It’s possible to tailor gaming experiences to different customer segments based on factors like demographics, shopping behaviour, or game and reward preference. This kind of targeted approach enhances customer engagement because each game is more relevant and desirable to the individual customer.
When customers feel that the game is designed specifically for them, it makes the experience much more personal. This can help to build stronger emotional connections with your brand and increase customer loyalty.
Use games at key times of the year to cut through the noise and drive customer engagement
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day. Everyone goes marketing crazy during these key holidays, so how do you cut through the noise? Enter, gamification!
By using segmented, themed games at these key times of the year, you can grab, and keep customer’s attention. At Valentine’s day, how about some cupid\love-themed games with discounts on chocolates or flowers as prizes? Or at Christmas maybe you could run a ‘Christmas calendar’ style game, where customers receive a personalised Christmas-themed game each day of the month. This would keep people coming back to your app regularly at a time when the ‘big Christmas shop’ is at the forefront of their mind.
It would also get a lot of the game winners into your store and spending money. 48-65% of winners come to pick up their prize in-store, and in ~99% of weeks where players win and shop, they also buy something when picking up their prize. As 95% of players visit the app the following month after playing a game, using games at key times of the year like this brings benefits even after the event has finished.
Incorporating gamification into your own loyalty program is easy with Lobyco
If you feel it’s time you started reaping the benefits of gamification yourself, Lobyco is here to make the process seamless.
We can incorporate any kind of games you want into your existing loyalty program, completely tailored to your needs. In no time, you’ll be able to offer your customers immersive, personalised brand experiences that keep them coming back for more. You’ll increase your supplier funding, while driving traffic to your app and stores, and money into your tills.
We don’t play around when it comes to delivering results for you. How about we leave the playing to your happy customers instead?
