11 Best Gamified Loyalty Programs & Why They Work

Modern shoppers crave fun, achievement, and variety, not just loyalty points. 

When you’re seeking repeat purchases from shoppers, you need an effective retention strategy. A gamified loyalty program supports such a strategy, ensuring buyers feel excited to demonstrate their loyalty to the brand. 

Gamification in the form of adding progress bars, badges, quests, or bonus spins hooks users into habit loops. It results in higher engagement and a stronger emotional bond. This is a hot trend in loyalty marketing for global brands, especially in the retail, F&B, and D2C sectors.

What Is a Gamified Loyalty Program?

A gamified loyalty program is a rewards program designed with game-like elements, such as badges, levels, and challenges, so that earning rewards feels like play. Instead of static loyalty points, members see a progress bar indicating their progress toward the next reward. They unlock digital badges for milestones and compete on leaderboards. 

There are loyalty programs that allow users to collect virtual tokens or win a mystery gift by spinning a wheel. It spurs curiosity, and interactive mechanics turn routine shopping into an engaging experience. 

These programs drive customer engagement consistently, making loyalty less transactional and more fun. It makes your brand sticky, attracting users to engage and add to repeat revenue. 

Why Gamification Works in Loyalty Marketing

The roots of gamification run deep into the field of psychology. It uses different elements to trigger minor dopamine hits, creating a habit loop, for which users keep coming back. It nudges achievement, curiosity, reward for uncertainty, and competition. 

These gamified tactics also foster emotional attachment, making the experience rewarding rather than transactional. Ultimately, these programs create a habit-forming loop and reward every purchase or action with something to look forward to. 

9 Gamified Loyalty Program Examples

Below are some key examples of gamified loyalty programs of popular brands on the market.

1. Domino’s Piece of the Pie Pursuit

Domino’s launched a mobile puzzle game tied to its “Piece of the Pie” points program. The game has customers play six pizza-themed mini-games on their phone. Completing all levels earns bonus loyalty points. For example, 10 extra points for beating all six levels. The game highlights Domino’s ordering features, while rewarding play with real points towards free pizza.

By making ordering into a challenge, Domino’s drove millions of customers to its app. Its loyalty program had “millions” of members and helped fuel an 11.7% sales gain in Q4 2017. 

It shows that by integrating a simple game with your ordering flow, you can increase digital orders and engagement. 

2. Sephora’s Beauty Insider Challenges

Sephora’s tiered Beauty Insider loyalty club added a new gamified feature in 2023 in the form of periodic challenges. Each Challenge is a short list of tasks. Some require purchases, others just app use. For example, the first Challenge, “Ready, Set, Sephora,” asked members to try four tasks, like mobile app checkout for in-store pickup, signing up for SMS alerts, adding free samples, or using in-store color-matching. 

Completing each task earns 100 points each and a bonus of 100 points for finishing all four. Altogether, a full Challenge rewarded 500 points redeemable for $10 in-store. The program tracks progress and is available to all tiers. 

This program turns buying and exploring store features into a quest. It helps the brand engage with members while introducing them to new services. As a result, Sephora’s loyalty program saw a 30% increase in loyalty members and high Gen-Z engagement. 

3. Starbucks Rewards

Starbucks uses a tiered points system and layers to gamify promotions. Regular members earn extra stars through surprise campaigns, like double-star days and digital scratch cards. Its app uses an AI engine to customize offers and lets users order ahead to “skip the line,” making the experience feel seamless and rewarding. 

Customers see a progress bar to Gold status and unlock perks like free drink vouchers and birthday treats as they move up. McKinsey notes Starbucks’s data-driven app, with AI-curated rewards and convenience features, is a key factor in its loyalty success.

In Starbucks’ case, data helps tailor surprise bonuses. This shows that even simple progress bars and targeted double-point events can make a large program feel fresh and engaging.

4. Zomato’s Cricket-Season Challenges

In India, a food-delivery app, Zomato, famously gamified orders around major cricket tournaments. During events like the World Cup 2023, Zomato integrated live scores and prediction games into the app. 

Customers could follow matches in-app, make score and outcome predictions, and earn points when they ordered food while playing the game. Special milestone discounts made food orders part of the fun. 

This sports-themed gamification was a hit: during the World Cup, tens of millions of users participated. Zomato’s downloads jumped 20% and order volume rose 18% during the campaign.

It suggests that if you tie loyalty rewards to popular events or themes, it drives more engagement and orders. 

5. M&M’s Fun Club Rewards

The M&M’s Fun Club invites users to earn points via product purchases, posting on social media, and completing trivia or challenges. Points are redeemable for themed merchandise and exclusive experiences. It uses social engagement challenges, quizzes, and receipt-based earning to encourage participation.

The community engagement with trivia and challenges makes users feel part of the fan club, not just customers. You can use such tactics and gamify social and interactive loyalty using quizzes and shareable challenges. 

6. Snitch’s Premium Reward Club

An apparel brand, Snitch, created a tiered loyalty scheme with gamification built in. Loyal customers earn credits (also known as coins) for their purchases and referrals. Snitch specifically offers milestone rewards for extra cashback and surprise gifts at certain spend levels, creating VIP “milestones”.

It’s designed into a seamless, app-based journey. Frequent shoppers get regular rewards that feel exclusive and fun. 

Since its launch, Snitch has reported a 30% increase in monthly retention rates, indicating that more customers are returning. It shows that the program creates a repeat-buying behavior. 

Such loyalty programs advise customers to reward not just points for purchase, but also sprinkle in surprise bonuses at earned milestones. This game-like unpredictability strengthens long-term loyalty. 

7. McDonald’s Monopoly Promotion

McDonald’s Monopoly is a classic gamified promotion. Each menu purchase comes with peel-and-reveal game pieces, inspired by the classic game of Monopoly. Customers were supposed to collect matching game pieces to win prizes ranging from free burgers to cash and cars. It’s essentially a “collect-to-win” lottery built into orders. The game encourages customers to try more items and return for any pieces they may have missed. 

Even though most players don’t win the big prizes, the excitement of scratching for prizes drives traffic. As a result, Monopoly events attract millions of participants worldwide every time they are held. 

The key takeaway is to try a temporary, high-energy game promotion. A simple scratch-and-win mechanic on receipts or packaging makes buying fun and habit-forming. 

8. Nykaa’s Privé Loyalty Club

India’s leading beauty retailer, Nykaa, uses a multi-tier loyalty club called Nykaa Prive. Members earn points on every purchase and unlock club perks as they reach higher spending levels. The program gamifies shopping by adding tiered benefits and surprise rewards. 

For example, customers progress from Silver to Gold to Platinum tiers based on their spend, with each level offering richer rewards. These tiered incentives make customers strive for the next status. Nykaa’s Prive program has been a cornerstone of its retention strategy, encouraging shoppers to return frequently for the perks. 

The tiered rewards and surprise treats create a friendly competition with oneself. The status levels help to increase repeat purchases. 

9. Xbox: Microsoft Rewards

Xbox, through Microsoft Rewards, enables users to earn points by engaging in various activities, including playing games, completing quizzes, shopping in the Xbox Store, or interacting with content. A monthly leaderboard tracks the score, making it a competitive progression. 

It taps into gamers’ intrinsic drive to progress and compete. The variety of point-earning activities keeps members engaged across the ecosystem. Later, users redeem the Microsoft rewards for gift cards, game subscriptions, or charity donations, making it feel meaningful and varied.

This loyalty offers gamification transactionally and experientially.

10. Sugar Cosmetics’ Club Vellvette

Customers earn points for every purchase and progress to higher tiers. The program features a “Play & Win” section within the app, where members can participate in quizzes or scratch-offs to earn bonus points and vouchers. 

There’s also a streamlined referral game that encourages buyers to send a friend a code to earn points. By combining tiers, points, and mini-games, Sugar transformed routine repeat buys into an interactive experience. 

11. Wakefit’s Sleep Internship Challenge

Indian D2C mattress brand Wakefit created a branded gamified challenge around its product. The “Sleep Internship” campaign invited users to track healthy sleep habits while using their products. Participants who met their sleep goals, logged via an app or wearable device, earned points toward prizes or shopping vouchers. 

This clever promotion combined health education with rewards. The result was a 50% increase in product trials and high social buzz. While not a traditional loyalty scheme, the campaign gamified Wakefit’s product experience, turning good sleep into a game-like quest. 

Gamification isn’t limited to points. If you can tie rewards to healthy habits or product use, it can create deep engagement and word-of-mouth.

How to Use Gamification in Loyalty Programs

A tactic that worked for a business may not work the same way you desire when implemented in your marketing strategy. Gamification works the same way. Here’s a fundamental approach that lets you gamify loyalty programs effectively: 

• Identify Behavior: Pinpoint the specific actions you want to encourage. Base rewards on these target behaviors.
• Choose Game Mechanics: Select 1–3 elements that fit your brand. This can be points and tiers, where you earn points and level up to unlock perks. Or, you can reward consecutive actions with badges. Spin-to-win and quizzes are instant gratification games.
• Integrate Seamlessly: Embed these elements into your customer journey. For instance, trigger a reward when a user completes a milestone or add a progress bar that shows points toward the next reward. Do it as part of UX, not just an email gimmick.
• Add Visibility: Display users’ progress and status. Use progress bars, tier labels, notifications, or leaderboards so they see achievements accumulating. Visual cues motivate users to keep engaging.
• Test and Iterate: Pilot on a small segment first. Use A/B testing to determine which gamified element drives the most engagement. Monitor key metrics such as logins, order frequency, and redemption rates. Regularly refine rules and rewards based on data.

How CleverTap Helps You Gamify Loyalty at Scale

CleverTap’s Promos and engagement engine make it easy to build gamified loyalty at enterprise scale. With behavioural triggers, you can define rewards that are released on any user action. For example, automatically send bonus points to customers who complete a milestone (such as a 5th purchase) or break a login streak. 

The platform supports a loyalty wallet. It awards and tracks real-time points, cashback, or coupons in each user’s digital wallet. The platform features a no-code campaign builder, enabling marketers to create promotions such as tiered bonuses or spin wheels without requiring coding. You can craft journeys that unlock perks and badges at key moments to nudge users along.

CleverTap Promos integrates omnichannel outreach. It distributes rewards via push notifications, email, SMS, or in-app messages automatically when users hit triggers. It offers advanced segmentation, creating dynamic segments based on behavior. Built-in analytics and A/B testing enable you to measure redemption rates, ROI, and optimize in real-time. 

Below are some notable features of the CleverTap Promos platform. 

• Personalizes Rewards with Full Precision:
  Customize every offer using powerful segmentation, flexible rule logic, and omnichannel orchestration for maximum relevance.
• API‑First Infrastructure for Seamless Integration: Built for speed and scale, Promos integrates effortlessly with your tech stack, enabling custom wallet experiences and smooth reward flows.
• Unified Campaign Management Without Tool Fragmentation: Replaces disconnected systems with a single platform that combines loyalty, coupons, vouchers, cashback, and gamified rewards into one cohesive experience.
• Real‑Time Lifecycle Tracking: Monitors loyalty points across all stages: promise, active, redemption, and expiration, and tracks coupon or voucher use and ROI in real time.
• Bulk Import and Smart Distribution of Partner Vouchers: Allows you to upload partner voucher codes in bulk, tag and organize them, trigger delivery, manage redemptions, and handle fallbacks with built-in safeguards.

With CleverTap, you get a holistic platform with progress tracking and orchestration tools, driving scalable and data-driven gamified loyalty that deepens engagement and LTV. 

Making Loyalty a Lovable Experience

Gamified loyalty adds an element of surprise and fun to every transaction. The examples above demonstrate the effectiveness of these programs in enhancing customer engagement and encouraging purchases. 

Marketers should leverage this by setting clear goals and matching them with game mechanics. Used thoughtfully, gamification makes loyalty feel like an experience, not an obligation. 

Ultimately, you get a stickier and more engaged customer base that keeps coming back for more. 

Explore the CleverTap Promos platform to provide your loyalty program with the right technological support to scale intelligently.