By Lauren Shanesy

Enhancing retailers’ loyalty strategy was a key focus this week at PDI Connections Live in Denver, and gamification was a big topic.

It’s not necessarily new, but an emerging loyalty strategy that a handful of early adopters are seeing success with is gamification within loyalty apps.  

Jeffry Harrison, cofounder and president of Rovertown, said that based on apps the company has created that have gamification features, it has seen a 15% overall increase in active app users and a 33% increase for Gen Z users within 90 days. He added that the top smartphone app store searches today are for mobile games more so than any other category of app, during the session “Effective Mobile App Strategies: Insights from Rovertown.” 

“Today, we have higher expectations from consumers than we ever have. They expect personalized experiences. They expect rewarding and engaging experiences. And that really puts pressure on you as a brand to try and find new ways to become relevant and make sure that you stand out. Gamification is a great way to do that—gaming really takes that engagement opportunity up a level and taps into motivational, intrinsic aspects of consumers’ psyche,” said Melissa Willis, senior director, strategic partnerships brands and consumers, PDI Technologies, during the “Gaming Your Way to Customer Hearts and Wallets” session.  

Weigel’s, a Tennessee retailer with 85 stores, first launched Dairy Dash, a racing game that allowed users to collect coins that could then be redeemed for a free milk and Oreo in store, and saw an average of 7,400 users per week. Its instant Scratch & Win game, which it launched last summer, generated a 9.5% increase in usage from Gen Z consumers after the launch, said Jessica Starnes, director of loyalty at Weigel’s during the session.  

“We also had 1.9 million scratch games in 2024, and we also saw redemption rates for prizes exceeding 50%. Overall, it increased app engagement, helped us boost active user rates and drove in-store traffic,” said Starnes.  

The retailer launched its Weigel’s Arcade, built with Rovertown, in March, which allows users to select games and earn points that can later be redeemed as coupons in store. “Within three months of launching, we hit 1 million plays,” said Starnes.  

Starnes said that one of the reasons its launched gamification within its app was to attract and appeal to Gen Z customers. “But what we found was that we captured consumers from all generations—customers of all ages consider themselves gamers.” 

With its gamification strategy, Weigel’s zeroed in on key behaviors it wanted its customers to do, like opening the app, and developed gamification around those. It’s streaks feature launched earlier this month and awards members extra points if they open the app every day for seven days straight, which Starnes said has been a success in the three weeks the feature has been active.  

“There are multiple ways to implement gamification, but it’s really about getting people to do something that they normally wouldn't do, and creating an emotional, motivational relationship with the end goal of increasing customer lifetime value and overall profitability,” said Willis.  

Read about other strategies for leveraging loyalty and enhancing engagement in previous coverage of the 2025 PDI Connections Live.