Annually, consumers spend on average $5,000 only on impulse purchases. Sounds nice to have a share of those sales, right? For this, you’ll need an effective point of sale marketing. Point of sale (POS) marketing is not a new concept and when leveraged, it can boost sales pre-checkout. But as business goes online more and more, and digital marketing evolves every day, you may wonder what tools you could use today for an efficient online POS marketing. Among the variety of these tools, gamification stands out. Why? Let’s look at the nature of POS marketing first.
Initially, point of sale marketing implied the strategic placement of low-cost products near the point of sale, in hope that customers would purchase additional items. And the majority of consumers did make impulse purchases. The reason for that lies in inferential suggestive selling. If a customer is already purchasing something, they’re more inclined to buy additional, less expensive goods as well. This marketing trick works just fine for both brick-and-mortar and online stores.
So how do you connect that subconscious desire to make one more purchase with gamification? Easily. The main point of gamification is combining people’s love to play and get rewards. People love being rewarded, whether we talk about points, discounts, or physical stuff. Rewards are a natural part of retail since making a purchase may already feel for the shopper like winning a prize. In this way, you may boost customer engagement and brand loyalty by creating a rewards program, in which customers can perform specific actions to reach a desired milestone. Though it may take some effort to set up and execute a game, the benefits of gamification for you POS marketing certainly outweigh the effort.
Perhaps, everyone heard of or even used a stamp card, one of the simplest gamification examples as regards the point of sale marketing. Such stamps are especially popular at coffee houses. A customer receives a stamp on the card when they purchase a specific item in the store, and once the stamp card is full, they may receive their rewards. The rewards may vary, but these cards effectively perform their main function: rewards easily encourage customers to return again and again. Similarly, digital retailers can create a virtual stamp card, which allows customers to keep their cards right on their smartphones.
Another rewards program for POS can be developed by giving the customers loyalty points for purchases. For instance, Microsoft Rewards is a loyalty program that lets customers earn rewards for buying games and apps, among other activities. In Microsoft Rewards, the users can unhide virtual cards which they first need to make purchases with their points. Sometimes users win nothing, sometimes they get a ticket to play again for free, but if the user is lucky enough, they can win such valuable goods as XBOX ONE, for example. Obviously, users are eager to engage in those virtual gambling games to not only make purchases but also to win one of the prizes.
A reward may be presented in the form of VIP status too. For instance, exclusive membership may only be available to the most loyal customers based on past purchases, and at each point of sale, a customer can see how many points he/she has to earn yet to become an exclusive member. This is similar to what Gilt Groupe, an online shopping site for clothing and accessories, did with its Gilt Noir in 2009. With VIP status, exclusive members could preview sales before regular members could do it. Even though they could not make purchases earlier than regular members, they could already know what things they might want from upcoming sales. This VIP status gave the members the sense of exclusivity and encouraged them to be loyal.
The benefits of using gamification for the point of sale on your website are obvious. The primary benefit is that in this way gamification contributes to higher sales by growing the number of items a customer purchases. But what is more, you can create robust profiles out of the details the customers leave and use customer email addresses in email marketing campaigns, offer customers personalized recommendations and messages based on their order history, and develop promotions on the basis of collective shopping habits. Data from order histories can help you get rid of the guesswork in many of your promotions and marketing campaigns.
If these examples of gamification used at the point of sale have made you wonder how your business can benefit from the introduction of games on your website, just ask us now. We have answers to all your questions about gamification and are ready to help you to succeed in your POS marketing.
