It’s not all fun and games: gamification in e-commerce on consumers’ impulse buying of retail food products

Purpose This study aims to look into the role of gamification as an effective marketing tool to engage with consumers and influence purchase behaviours. As there are a plethora of gamified elements, it is crucial to determine which of them can significantly facilitate consumer purchase behaviour. Therefore, a unique stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework which encompasses four popular gamified elements (i.e. fun, rewards, competition and badges) was employed to investigate consumers’ engagement. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was utilized to collect the data which yielded 307 responses. Subsequently, partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data. Findings Among the gamification elements assessed in this study, fun was revealed to be the strongest facilitating antecedent of shopping engagement. However, reward was revealed to have an insignificant effect on shopping engagement. In addition, it was found that consumers undergo a processual development with regard to their impulse buying of retail food products. More precisely, shopping engagement is a significant facilitator of customer satisfaction which subsequently motivates impulse buying. Originality/value This is among the pioneering studies to provide detailed insights into the effect of different gamified elements on consumer engagement. Furthermore, a number of practical and theoretical implications for the relevant stakeholders were discussed.