At the InternetRetailing Expo, Ingenico were demonstrating a payments innovation which caught my attention. It’s a way of keeping customers engaged on your site immediately after they’ve completed payment and encourages social sharing.
Question: Would you be willing to give away one in ten orders on your website for free?
Bear with me, you’re probably thinking “No” and Chris has gone mad, how many retailers would be willing to run a 10% discount on their website – Probably a lot more than would give one in ten orders away for free… but as Rebecca Troth, Ingenico Channel Manager UK explained when she gave me a demo of the checkout, it adds up to the same thing.
So what Ingenico have done is the gamification of payments. Once you’ve completed payment by your chosen method in the normal way, you are given an opportunity to win back the cost or your order. Imagine your delight if you win and get your order for free, and even if you lose, by sharing on social media you can be given another spin of the wheel if the retailer chooses this option.
“Discounts alone aren’t enough to build loyalty. Consumers want a great user experience to go along with their rewards and discounts. At Ingenico, we’re always looking for new ways to help our merchants achieve their goals, leveraging our expertise and technologies. Gamification is one trend that we have found can add excitement and value to an otherwise very functional process, and this helps both merchants and consumers get what they want.”
– Ludovic Houri, Vice President, Products at Ingenico ePayments
Gemefication of payments has been shown to increase checkout conversion, stickiness and grow customer loyalty. Think about it – if a retailer offers say 10% off across their website you might buy a product while there’s a deal on. However if you have a chance to win your entire order for free, there’s a good chance that you might add a few more items to your basket before you pay just in case you win a refund for the lot.
Ingenico ePayments’ innovation team partnered with Belgian startup Luckycycle to develop Ingenico Gamified Checkout. Giving consumers an opportunity to win back their basket amount has been shown to increase checkout conversion, stickiness and grow customer loyalty.
Ingenico Gamified Checkout for your physical store
Ingenico Gamified Checkout is available both as an online as well as an instore solution. For online merchants, Gamified Checkout is integrated into Ingenico’s MyCheckout hosted payment pages. The instore solution leverages Ingenico’s Telium Tetra marketplace to enable gamified checkout on payment terminals.
Available Games
Ingenico Gamified Checkout is based on patented technology from Luckycycle and enables Ingenico clients to easily integrate a series of fully customizable games and associated visuals into their payment confirmation pages.
Available games include a scratch card, a slot machine and a wheel of fortune, all of which give the consumer an opportunity to immediately win prizes related to their purchase. This means that instead of offering 10% discounts on an item or basket, merchants can offer a 1 in 10 chance to win that item or basket for free. Games are fully customizable with merchants able to define the parameters as well as look and feel.
3 Responses
Genius
There is no doubt that the rise of gamification continues in every part of our lives. This is yet another leading example of its success.
The next challenge? Keep it fresh and interesting.
Not 100% convinced by this one. It sounds a little too much like buying loyalty by tapping into gambling rather than nudging behaviour (which is what gamification is about).
It would also be interesting to look at the regulatory aspects as well given a competition is being run.
One to watch and willing to be pleasantly surprised.