How does gamification affect customer behavior and revenue?
Open accessAbstract
Many e-tailers use gamification to boost engagement across the customer journey, yet it remains unclear how specific gamified actions influence customer behavior and revenue. In this study, we use quantitative methods to explore the impact of various gamification actions, such as subscribing to newsletters, adding items to a wish list, liking, sharing, and commenting on social media. Our field study reveals distinct effects: subscribing to newsletters and writing product reviews shorten the time between purchases but do not increase revenue. Adding items to a wish list is associated with lower purchase frequency and reduced spending. In contrast, liking and sharing content increase purchase frequency and lead to greater spending. These findings highlight the importance of designing gamification strategies to engage customers and support revenue growth.
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Socially gamified behaviours significantly increase monetary outcomes, based on quasi-experimental field data from 4,896 e-commerce users over two years.
“The study (Farace et al., 2025), based on quasi-experimental field data from 4,896 e-commerce users over two years, reveals that socially gamified behaviours significantly increase monetary outcomes”
From An Experimental Analysis of Gamification’s Impact on Customer Engagement and Retention in Subscription-Based Business Models (2026) · cites this paper as Farace et al., 2025
Engagement-driven interactions influence purchasing behaviour.
“highlighting the role of engagement-driven interactions in influencing purchasing behaviour”
From An Experimental Analysis of Gamification’s Impact on Customer Engagement and Retention in Subscription-Based Business Models (2026) · cites this paper as Farace et al., 2025
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Sorted by citations
Israfilzade, K., & Pathania, D. (2026) · Management of Organizations: Systematic Research · doi:10.2478/mosr-2026-0005
“The study (Farace et al., 2025), based on quasi-experimental field data from 4,896 e-commerce users over two years, reveals that socially gamified behaviours significantly increase monetary outcomes, with liking and sharing activities leading to notable increases in spen ding per purchase occasion…”
- Authors
- Farace, S., Montaguti, E., Valentini, S., & Zammit, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Bologna (IT)
- Bocconi University (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Farace, Stefania
- Venue
- Italian Journal of Marketing
- Published
- 2025-10-15
- Volume
- 2025
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 331-354
- ISSN
- 2662-3323 (ISSN-L)
- 2662-3331
- OpenAlex
- W4415230741
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 3.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Italian Journal of Marketing (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
- Keywords
- gamification, consumer behavior, e-commerce revenue, customer engagement, purchase frequency, consumer spending, wish lists, social media engagement, product reviews, customer journey
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