Uncovering the gamified customer experience in the retail environment

Abstract

PurposeRetailers increasingly are using gamification to make the customer experience (CX) more exciting and encourage favourable customer outcomes. This paper aims to conceptualise the gamified customer experience (GCX), including relevant affordances, and investigate its effects on key customer outcomes, as well as its influential factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a qualitative interview study with retail customers and gamification experts, plus a scenario-based experiment to test the hypotheses.FindingsFive distinct affordances induced by game elements in retail have led to a more exciting CX. The connections between these affordances and the holistic CX have led to a GCX that influences customer engagement, satisfaction and brand attitude. This effect is dependent on different factors, e.g. retail brand personality, customers' shopping motivation and fear of manipulation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to retail research by conceptualising the GCX phenomenon and providing a summary of relevant affordances. It further provides insights into the GCX's effects on customer outcomes and influential factors, some of which have been ignored in previous research.

Gamification in Retail: Enhancing Grocery Customer Experience with Location-Based Strategies

“…The results indicated that gamification is associated with an improved CX, which supports the second hypothesis of this study. This finding is also consistent with the previous studies [25]. Using game elements in a non-game context can increase a desired behavior [68].…”

“…Customers are easily able to check their status and redeem the rewards as well [22].Recent research has examined how gamification can affect the real -world shopping experience, as seen in studies by Olsson et al [23] and Högberg et al [24]. A recent study [25] showed that game elements can lead to a more exciting customer experience (CX). This study used these finding to conceptualize "Gamified Customer Experience" that influences customer engagement, satisfaction and brand attitude.…”