Gamification in E-Commerce: A Survey Based on the Octalysis Framework

Relying on social connections, online recommendation engines and other enabling technologies, consumers have constantly been increasing expectations and seek experiential value in online shopping. Since customers have more places and ways to shop than ever before, retailers - in order to be successful - must find ways to make online shopping pleasant and enjoyable. They have begun to enhance the online customer experience by incorporating game elements into their business processes, making online shopping not just attractive with innovative products and low prices, but also fun. This concept is known as gamification - a trending topic in both academia and business - and generally defined as the use of game thinking and elements in non-game contexts. In our study, we used a state-of-the-art framework (Octalysis) to analyze a sample of retailers from different industries operating on the European market. Based on an octagonal shape, Octalysis comprises 8 core drives that seek to explain the influence of certain gamification techniques on consumer motivation. Our study focused on determining (a) each retailer’s position in the octagon and (b) whether retailers in the same sector target the same core drives. Further, we suggest guidelines for academics and practitioners seeking to convert results into more and better ideas for online shopping.