Let me stand corrected—this is not a threat, but merely a statement.

Who doesn’t like to compete—everyone does, right? The left out segment, no App Developers want to target as well (surely, as they have attained Nirvana!)

Enough of small talk. Let’s understand Gamification:
This is what Wikipedia says- ‘Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics, in non-game contexts. E.g., competitive behavior, emotions – in order to engage players (e.g. users, customers).’

Got you thinking, right? Exactly! This relates to our prospects, customers, and users’ behavior.
Specifically, in context of Mobile Apps, Gamification (not limited to Gaming apps) would mean to use Leaderboards, Rewards, Gifting, Avatars, Buddy’s, Achievement, Review and many more, to keep our users engaged. For each of these, there always will be 2 perspectives—App Users and App Developers.
Yes Leader-boards Engage:

Users—Can see ranking across various demographics:

1. Gaming App—it could be their rank in a city, country, world, gender wise, age wise, among their friends and so on
2. E-Commerce app—users could check out the top selling products in a region
3. Social Media App—users could check highest number of shares from friends (All this surely, induces competitiveness)

Developers—Can see their top active users:

1. Gaming App—top users who are making in-app purchases, stuck at a specific level
2. E-Commerce App—top 10 products viewed, bottom 5 products purchased, top 3 regions with highest sales (revenue wise), top 3 products selling in a region

Gifting as a Game Changer:
Often, we keep incentivizing the user, but letting a user incentivize another user is what does the trick. It’s the feeling of having an upper hand, which keeps a user hooked. Whether it be gifting items in a gaming app, giving away coupons in an e-commerce app, add-on cards in a banking app—sure, works like magic every time, to keep the users busy on your app.

Avatars – What are you today?

The ability to be somebody else, is what everyone thrives for, right? Let’s put this user behavior to good use. Be it a Social Media app, Gaming App, E-commerce app—try allowing people to perceive, what they want to become and Avatars are means to make this happen. It’s always a good feeling to know you are the highest referrer, highest scorer or even the highest purchaser and are being recognized for that!

Power to Review/Recommend:

Think about it—what makes a customer feel best—when they are requested for a review or a recommendation. It is innate nature of people, to judge others, objects. So, don’t wait— create a module in your app to do this, and see the engagement with your app users rise to a whole new level.

Of course, knowledge is better gained when researched, than just read. Sign Up here and start Gamifying your app today.

Till next time.