How to overcome today’s shopping mall management challenges: Part VI

Use trend of growing gamification

Game-thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context used to engage your customers in certain activities, inform them, teach, entertain, gather particular data and measure various indicators, is becoming very popular. During the last few years, gamification has become more common for everybody, since producers use it widely and for various purposes: awareness, promotions, engagement, sales, data collection, etc. Since 2010, 350 companies have launched gamification projects, and over 70% of Global 2000 organizations have at least one gamified application, driving 50% of all innovation.[1] According to M2 Research, the gamification industry is expected to grow to over $2.8 billion in the U.S. by 2016[2] and it will be worth $5.5 billion by 2018[3]. Motivation is the main objective of using it: customers become involved in game activities and are motivated to continue, since they get something out of it. Players get rewards for accomplishing tasks or achieving some certain level to drive action. It is a perfect tool for customer engagement; it plays on people’s competitive instincts and involves them deeply. Socializing, learning, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure are part of human nature, and gamification techniques strive to leverage these desires. Gartner forecasts that gamification will become a standard practice designed to drive marketing and consumer loyalty by the end of 2016.[4]

SOFT4 Ideas:

 In addition to loyalty programs, create games and include gamification in your marketing. Games that offer customers a reward in the form of discounts, attractive offers, gift checks or something similar after they achieve some levels or finish some tasks, could work even better than loyalty cards or special discounts for your loyal customers.

Start using gamification in your shopping center. Involve physical presence in the shopping mall as the “must” or “bonus” for some levels, hide some treasures in the mall that consumers can find and use, combine social media together with gamification, and use posting or photo uploads as a task in the game. Add extra points for playing when being in the mall.

You can also let the players compete, show them point tables and share them on your social networks or allow them to share their score on their own social media channels, allowing players to show off in front of their friends about how successful they are; if your customers can also compete with their friends and family, they would be involved in the game even more.

SOFT4, as a provider of software solutions for shopping centers and commercial property management companies, created the whitepaper which explains shopper behavior today, the trends, tendencies, and challenges, and give suggestions as to how shopping malls could react to the changing environment in order to stay competitive.

You can find the entire whitepaper athttps://www.slideshare.net/SOFT4/whitepaper-how-to-overcome-todays-shopping-malls-management-challenges and I will be over-viewing parts of it on LinkedIn Pulse.

[1] Digital Chalk, ?8 Surprising Gamification Statistics“, Septembet 18, 2014

[2] GameIndustry.biz “Gamification market to reach $2.8 billion in 2016”, 21 May, 2012

[3] Markets and Markets, “Gamification Market worth $5.5 Billion By 2018”

[4] Main Street Host, ?Gamification, social media and success: 4 prime examples“, September 30, 2014