Sokos and gamification

Objective

Sokos, a Finnish department store chain, sought to enhance its e-commerce performance on sokos.fi by increasing conversion rates, average order value, and customer engagement. The retailer aimed to create a more enjoyable shopping experience that would reduce bounce rates and grow their newsletter subscriber base, moving beyond traditional site performance benchmarks.

Solution

Sokos partnered with Playable to deploy a suite of gamified experiences integrated directly into their e-commerce site. The campaign featured multiple game mechanics—Wheel of Fortune, Drop game, Scratchcard, Personality test, and Memory game—deployed across 18 campaigns from 2020 to 2021. After initial success with six pilot projects in 2020, Sokos expanded to twelve company-wide campaigns in 2021, making gamification a core component of their digital marketing strategy.

Results

Gamified users demonstrated dramatic lift over standard site visitors: 135% higher conversion rate, 9.7% higher average order value, and 9% lower bounce rate. A Wheel of Fortune campaign designed to drive newsletter signups exceeded its 20% growth target, achieving a 51% increase with 45,889 new subscribers at €0.22 per subscriber. Across all campaigns, Sokos achieved €913,305 in assisted conversion value and engaged 127,366 total users.