Gamification in Payment Apps

There’s no shortage of payment apps available in the market.

Users have tons of options to choose from, starting right from low-cost options to apps laden with fancy features and functionality. It has become extremely easy for users to drop an app and the reasons are as tiny as an excessive number of permissions.

With the sea of options, user engagement and retention take a dip. That’s where gamification comes in.

In this post, we’re sharing how payment apps can use gamification to keep users engaged.

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Challenges in user engagement for payment apps

Here are the major reasons why payment applications are having a tough time with user engagement:

User disinterest

You do not want your users to use your app passively for a limited set of intervals and needs. Passive usage can result in slipping from the user’s mind and leading to them exploring other options in the future.

Make your app interesting, enhance its usability, and add more elements like tools, exclusive features, community support, deals and discounts, animations, and more to keep users coming back more frequently.

No unique value

While your payment app is making transactions easy, you need to do more to stand out. Instead of just tackling traditional payments, consider offering features like setting up recurring payments for utility bills, offering rewards per transaction, incentives for spending and gamified challenges to win more cashback.

Robotic not personalized

When interaction with an app feels robotic, customers are more likely to drop off. This includes  sending out irrelevant suggestions, messaging, notifications, and other in-app communication that is templated and generic.

A better and more liked approach to it is personalization. Receiving promotions and service offers that are according to their individual spending habits is a delight to customers and helps with user engagement.

Difficult user experience

A complicated application is a nightmare, and no amount of user instructions can fix it. There is no substitute for UX problems.

If it takes users 10 steps and a bunch of extra verifications to make a simple payment with an app, users will abandon it in a heartbeat. Apps should be easy to navigate, fast, secure, and seamless for users to make the most of every single feature.

Ensure your app’s UX is clean, simple, and needs fewer steps, eliminating any possible friction along the way.

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What is gamification in payment apps and why is it important

Gamification is using game-like elements outside of traditional gaming apps. These elements range from rewards such as point systems for payments to challenges such as leaderboards and milestones for financial betterment.

The end goal is to make a user’s experience more engaging. Here are some benefits of gamifying payment features:

• Transaction frequency - Adding incentives and challenges to financial transactions motivates users to make frequent transactions, for needs as well as wants.
• User engagement - When routine transactions become fun, user engagement improves drastically. It also encourages users to explore your app features and their use cases.
• Retention - Gamification in payments makes users return for rewards and achievements and continue to transact using your application.
• Competitive edge - Apps with gamified experiences, interesting challenges, and rewards often stand out from the crowd.
• Loyalty - Personalized offers and rewarding experience creates a personal connection with users, transforming users into brand advocates.

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Key gamification strategies that work for payment apps

Here are some gaming-inspired strategies that you can plug into your payments app:

Points and badge concepts

Here, users are incentivized with points for making transactions or referring friends. You can also choose to offer badges for completing financial tasks or using features like financial tools and checking out educational resources.

These badges entail cash back or points that users can then redeem for future purchases, extended access to premium features, gift coupons, or more.

Make your own concept stand out, but ensure it is easy, engaging, rewarding, and frictionless.

Milestones concept

You can adopt the level-based concept from gaming apps. The tier-based concept goes directly with the number of transactions made while the leaderboard concept goes with rewards earned. You can also add milestones for specific tasks and challenges like achieving savings goals.

Plan the leaderboard board strategically, such as designating top users' badges according to the number of transactions done. You can creatively gamify the number of referrals made, savings done, financial goals achieved, and other unique activities of the app.

Plan the entire process according to your app features and business goals.

Quizzes and tutorials

As a FinTech brand, you can introduce a fun twist to financial education with gamification and foster financial wellness among your users. You can also introduce tutorials to educate your customers about your app features and its benefits.

They can be used as a marketing tactic to help users navigate the process of availing discounts, and functionalities like auto payments for recurring expenses, and more which in turn increases application usage.

If you can keep your users excited and eager to explore your application, you will have secured repeat customers.

Offers and discounts

User engagement in FinTech apps is directly proportionate to the availability of offers and discounts. Cashbacks and discounts are a hit among users and the more offers they get, the more they will transact using your app.

Take a step ahead and offer tailored discounts and offers that are in line with user preferences and behaviors. Personalized offers that users can avail of will foster brand loyalty over some random coupons.

Social sharing rewards

Humans live in communities so coming up with community-themed engagement initiatives works wonders. For example, tasks users can do with their family and friends, earn badges, and share them on social platforms.

You can come up with initiatives like group savings goals that are designed to play among families or groups of friends. Such initiatives are bound to bring in users and drive engagement among existing ones.

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Behavioral psychology behind gamification in FinTech

Studies show gamification can lead to a 48% surge in customer engagement.

The first reason for this remains the same, gamification in FinTech apps makes financial chores exciting. Secondly, there’s a dopamine boost in users when payments are gamified like a game that stimulates users to keep playing.

When users reach a milestone, they experience a dopamine rush, a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. This keeps them hooked till the next milestone, keeping them hungry for more.

Gamification also encourages a healthy sense of competition and the satisfaction of winning. Completion and collaboration are the motivating factors for engagement.

Achievements and the sense of winning calm our nerves and feed our need for validation and accomplishments, human traits we all experience.

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Conclusion

Gamification is no longer optional for payment apps looking to grab an early move advantage over their competitors. Gamification is the way ahead of the path of driving repeat sessions and building up a pipeline of loyal user base.

Platforms like Payby have implemented these strategies effectively, achieving the highest number of active users in the industry.

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