Influence of in-app gamification on customer engagement and in-app purchase intention: The case of m-commerce applications in Vietnam

Abstract

In the last few years, as a consequence of the rapid growth of technology, e-commerce has become a potential industry with its diversity, efficiency and attractiveness. The names that mark the success of the e-commerce field such as Amazon, Alibaba, etc. are about applying technology in the customers’ daily life. The prosperity of those examples showed the new tendency of opportunities of development for all the world, including Vietnam. Vietnam's e-commerce market is also on the rise, thanks to the development of smartphones. The Vietnamese market is also gradually transforming from traditional retail to online retail. As a result, Vietnam is evaluated as a strong B2C e-commerce market in Southeast Asia. One of the reasons for the success of the e-commerce area is due to the factor of gamification - elements that motivate the engagements of customers with brands. Gamification is the application of game components in outside game areas to create an enjoyable user experience. When an organization applied gamification in order to approach customers, users will have a much more engaging and interesting experience than the traditional advertising. From there, businesses will build trust and establish long-term sustainable relationships, turning potential customers into loyal customers. For academic purposes, there are still very few reports on gamification in Vietnam currently, although this industry, especially on the e-commerce platform, has great potential and should be explored. Some foreign studies, researched on mobile platforms or m-commerce, have shown that there is a significant influence of gamification on customers' engagement and purchase intention. However, there have not been many studies in Vietnam assessing the correlation of these variables. Furthermore, there still a large number of companies in Vietnam have not seen the potential of gamification in marketing or other activities to gain efficient performance. They have not understood or taken advantage of gamification to achieve the important goal of creating strong customer relationships. Some other enterprises have difficulty in making full use of gamification's resources and applying it to their internal activities. In the process of conducting research, 374 valid responses were collected to ensure the accuracy of information as well as to avoid bias, disparity or incorrectness, affecting the results.