Class Activity: Gamification and the Online Retail Experience
While Online shopping and retailing has become more popular over the years, retailers barely pay attention to how customer experiences are created and managed. Converting from a brick and mortar store to an online business definitely comes with its own challenges most especially handling the customer experience journey.
This is why online retailers have attempted to incorporate gamification into the online shopping experience. Gamification can be defined as applying game design principles in non gaming contexts. Social networks and brands like Facebook, twitter, linkedin etc have employed these methods to keep their community engaged and also make them come back for more which is what every online retailing business needs. (Insley and Nunan, 2013).
For example in the fashion retail industry, business owners are faced with the challenge of giving online customers that experiential feel of trying on the clothes when they go to the store (Hansen and Jensen, 2009) where they are able to feel the fabric, test product fit and quality and have an overall sensory experience. This goes to show that it’s harder to convert to sales online than in the store therefore other processes have to be adopted to make shoppers more interested in buying products online.
The question of how games can be incorporated into the online shopping experience still remains prominent. (Insley and Nunan, 2013) In their paper on Gamification and the online retail experience give a few examples of online retailers that are incorporating gamification into their online shopping experience to further engage customers. ASOS, Fashionova and other online fashion retailers use gaming processes like online flash sales, pinterest games, early bird sales and discounts. For my fashion brand, I incorporate the gaming experience into the social network Instagram where we do Instagram live giveaways and competitions.
All the above processes suggest that the gamification process has been introduced into the online retail industry as another form of promotional content done to only push sales without carrying the customer along through the journey that is why (Roger Callois , 1959) in his study of games identifies that for the games to be implemented in the online retail sector, people must play it out of choice and not out of necessity (cited in Insley and Nunan, 2013). This way it doesn’t seem forced and the role of the consumer in creating and adapting games is not missed. The whole idea is that consumers have to feel like they are having fun as they would if they were playing regular games while shopping.
Conclusion
A study conducted by (Insley and Nunan, 2013) show that there has been criticism against the use of gamification in the online retail industry. First is that it is some sort of manipulation process to generate sales (Gopaladesikan, 2013), another is that it is a digital snake oil that makes little to no difference in the online shopping experience.(Robertson, 2010) While I agree with these critics, it doesn't take away the fact that it’s still a fun experience to incorporate into the customer journey. However other methods such as 3D modelling of clothes, 3D videos of the clothes and fabric can be incorporated together with the gamification process to give the customer a wholesome shopping experience.
References
Gopaladesikan, S., 2013. Where does gambling fit in gamification: legal issues and a success story.
Insley, V. and Nunan, D. (2014). Gamification and the online retail experience. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 42(5), pp.340–351.
Robson, K., Plangger, K., Kietzmann, J.H., McCarthy, I. and Pitt, L. (2015). Is it all a game? Understanding the principles of gamification. Business Horizons, [online] 58(4), pp.411–420. Available at: https://beedie.sfu.ca/sms/admin/_DocLibrary/_ic/61976d8138b1836b54c39934144147da.pdf [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
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