Gamification Market

Gamification is a process of combining game mechanics and non-game environments such as online communities, websites, and learning systems, among others, to enhance participation. The central aim of this process is to involve the employees, customers, and other participants for collaboration and interactions. Gamification is primarily conducted to increase customer engagement to influence business outcomes and is considered as a strategy to motivate and influence customer behavior. Gamification initiatives at the workplace can enhance the engagement of employees, further optimizing the company’s performance.

Smartphone Penetration: A Key Market Driver

The escalating penetration of the smartphone has created ample opportunities for the gamification market. In North America, smartphone users check their phones at least 80 times per day. The gradual shift of employees and customers from desktop or laptop to a smartphone provides financial organizations with enormous data and insights regarding customer behavior and interests. Additionally, users are sharing their experiences in gamification platforms with co-workers and friends through social media sites, which also help the brands to conduct surveys to collect immediate results from the targeted customers and customize efforts accordingly.

Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty: A Key Market Driver

Currently, companies from various sectors are struggling to strive in the cut-throat market competition and are leveraging gamification platforms to enhance their customer experience. The technology is also used in product exploration, bilateral communication, customer loyalty programs, and game-based marketing. Customized quizzes and games and reward and discount based promotions aid in increasing brand loyalty and customer engagement. Below are some of the examples of brands that adopted gamification platforms.

• Starbucks: Starbucks is well-known for its customer loyalty and engagement. For instance, My Starbucks Rewards uses gamification technology to convert conventional card loyalty program into an interesting customer engagement technique. After the registration, customers can gain stars with every purchase, which can be used for free food and drinks.
• The U.S. Army: A recruiting tool was developed by the U.S. Army known as America’s Army. Candidates can sign-up and download games for free to analyze their skills in a multiplayer shooter environment.
• Nike Fuel: Nike Fuel is a campaign launched by Nike, in which customers can compete with each other in physical activity and applications on their mobile phones. The activities performed are later converted into points.

Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: A Key Market Opportunity

The incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning with gamification is considered as a key opportunity for market growth. The companies use such technologies to understand the success rate of the gamification solutions and customer behavior insights extracted from the platform, which can be examined with the assistance of business intelligence tools. For instance, in 2018, Tritium Software S.L, located in Spain, acquired Sellf S.r.l, a CRM company located in Italy. Tritium Software S.L developed an intelligent personal assistant by incorporating its artificial intelligence capabilities into the Sellf S.r.l’s gamification solutions.

Impact of Coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak is spreading at an unprecedented rate, compelling governments to perform extensive research to develop drugs for the disease. Currently, gamification is assisting the discovery of the COVID-19 disease. It is a drug discovery contest, which aims to apply deep learning to discover innovative medicines, further boosting the market growth.

Gamification Market: Segmentation:

Software Segment to Hold the Largest Share in the Market

On the basis of components, the gamification market is bifurcated into solutions and services. The software segment is estimated to hold the largest shares in the market. Software aids in designing, creating, and managing game learning techniques and enhancing user experience. Gamification primarily entails two approaches: enterprise-based and consumer-based approaches. The enterprise-based approach focuses on employee training, product enhancement, and sales progression, among others. The consumer-based approach targets customers with attractive offers, rewards, points, and cashback, among others.

Low Maintenance Cost to Drive the Cloud Segment

By deployment, the gamification market is divided into on-premises and cloud. The cloud deployment segment dominates the market due to its widespread adoption in small and medium enterprises. The overall setup and maintenance cost for cloud deployment is comparatively less, further driving the segment growth.

SMEs Segment to Hold the Highest Market Share

Based on organization size, the gamification market is classified into large enterprises and small & medium enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs segment holds the highest shares in the market. SMEs are adopting cloud deployment-based gamification platforms to drive business growth. The high cost of gamification platforms is reduced by cloud deployment, further propelling the market growth.

Retail Industry to Grab Lion’s Share in the Gamification Market

By end-user vertical, the gamification market is categorized into education, healthcare, retail, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, and telecom & IT. The retail industry holds the lion’s share of the market. The retail industry is growing at a rapid pace since 2013. The below figure shows the global retail sales (in USD Trillion) for the years 2016–2019.

Regional Overview

Rising Penetration of Smartphones and the Presence of Leading Players to Drive North America’s Market

North America leads the gamification market due to the rising penetration of smartphones and the internet, coupled with the presence of significant players such as Microsoft and Cognizant, among others. The region is expected to showcase the highest implementation of gamification platforms and a transition towards advanced methodologies for consumer engagement systems in the coming years.

Leading brands in the U.S., including Threadless, eBay, Adobe, Walgreens, NBC, and Panera, have introduced gamification solutions since the beginning of the industry. Additionally, B2B companies such as Salesforce, Cisco, and Oracle consider gamification as a primary element to increase their customer base. In addition to customer engagement, the revenue gain of gamification is remarkable. For instance, Autodesk, a multinational software corporation located in California, increased its conversion rates by 15% and trial usage by 40%.

Key Players

• Ambition (the U.S.)
• Aon (the U.K.)
• Axonify Inc. (Canada)
• BI WORLDWIDE (the U.S.)
• Centrical (the U.S.),
• Hoopla (the U.S.)
• IActionable (U.S)
• Influitive (Canada)
• IO (the U.K.)
• Microsoft (the U.S.)
• SAP (Germany)
• Scrimmage (the U.S.)
• Tango Card (U.S)
• Verint (the U.S.)

Recent Development

• In February 2020, Geopointe LLC, a geographic mapping service provider, merged with LevelEleven LLC, a software developing company, and formed Ascent Cloud LLC. The newly formed company will provide solutions and services for sales enhancement and customer relationship management.

Gamification Market Segmentation

By Component

• Solution
• Services

By Deployment

• On-premise
• Cloud

By Organization Size

• Large enterprises
• SME

By End-User Vertical

• Education
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI)
• Manufacturing
• Telecom & IT

By Region

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• The Middle East & Africa