Gamification in Fintech: A Complete Guide And Examples
Fintech Design
November 8, 2023
3 mins read

What is FinTech gamification?

It is no secret that the way we handle, invest, and deal with our money has been completely transformed by financial technology. Gamification is one of the most inventive and intriguing trends in the FinTech industry. FinTech's gamification method makes money management more interesting, approachable, and pleasurable by fusing components of financial services with game design.

According to Statista, the gamification industry grew by 60% in the past five years so it is no wonder that FinTech startups and companies are increasingly using gamification to provide better services and accelerate their growth.

Gamification in Fintech
Fintech gamification guide

With the help of creative app gamification ideas and cross-industry knowledge, companies can fully utilize play to create unique and stimulating experiences that increase user motivation, loyalty, and long-term success. Gamification market caters to these 6 prominent industries:

Financial Services

Gamification assists businesses in the financial services industry in making money management more approachable and interesting. Their products leverage gamification components, such as challenges, badges, and progress bars, to encourage customers to save, invest, and form healthier financial habits.

A banking app can, for instance, provide points for achieving savings targets or finishing financial literacy challenges. These gamified interactions encourage appropriate money management techniques and financial literacy in addition to improving consumer engagement.

Education

By adding game-like elements that grab students' attention and encourage active involvement, gamification elements alter conventional learning experiences. As they pick up new information, students can advance through stages, compete on leaderboards, and receive prizes through interactive tests, simulations, and scenario-based challenges.

This method makes learning more engaging, fun, and efficient in terms of knowledge retention and skill development by appealing to people's innate drive for success and competitiveness.

Healthcare

Many people find it difficult to follow medical regimens and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Integrating gamification software with wellness organizations and healthcare professionals to develop gamified platforms and applications that enhance and enrich these experiences.

Points are awarded to users who log their daily activities, finish wellness challenges, and take their prescriptions on time. Better health outcomes result from these encounters because they not only encourage beneficial behaviors but also offer a sense of success and a supportive group.

Retail and e-commerce

Brand advocacy and customer loyalty are essential success elements in the cutthroat worlds of e-commerce and retail. Businesses can use gamification to improve client experiences and build enduring relationships by utilizing gamification.

Interactive product experiences, tailored rewards systems, and gamified loyalty programs all drive social sharing, gamify repeat business, and foster a feeling of community around the company. These captivating encounters encourage consumer advocacy, customer acquisition, and brand loyalty in addition to increasing revenue.

Corporate Training and Employee Engagement

The success of a business depends on both competent training and motivated staff. Businesses can gamify employee engagement campaigns, onboarding procedures, and corporate training programs. These encounters become more engaging and rewarding when game mechanisms like challenges, leaderboards, badges, and levels are included.

Workers are inspired to grow professionally and personally, participate in business culture, and learn new skills. This strategy not only improves productivity and information acquisition, but it also creates a happy and stimulating work atmosphere that increases employee retention and happiness.

Social Impact and Community Development

Gamified experience has the potential to support community development and social impact projects in addition to individual participation. Games are frequently included in collaborative projects and crowdsourcing platforms to promote involvement, cooperation, and contribution from a variety of stakeholders.

Gamification principles become important for organizing communities and bringing about positive change, whether it be through problem-solving, social issue awareness-raising, or encouraging group action.

What is FinTech gamification?

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The strategic incorporation of game-like components into financial services and applications is known as fintech gamification. It uses game design psychology concepts like incentives, challenges, feedback, and competition to encourage users to interact with and understand their finances better. The goal is to improve the enjoyment, education, and intuitiveness of financial activities.

Enhancing Customer Engagement

Gamification encourages participation and enjoyment, which helps people remain engaged in their financial operations. Users who find an app or platform pleasant are more inclined to use it again.  Gamification is one of the top Fintech design trends of 2024.

Promoting Education and Financial Literacy

Through interactive experiences, gamification may teach people about personal finance. It facilitates improved financial decision-making, encourages users to investigate other financial products, demystifies complicated ideas, and assists users in navigating through the world of financial jargon.

Motivating Customers

FinTech UX gamification can motivate consumers to adopt better financial practices, such as budgeting, investing, and saving, by presenting game-like obstacles and rewards. It's a useful tool for encouraging individuals to handle their money better.

Increasing Customer Retention and Customer Loyalty

When a user finds a financial platform like personal finance app or banking apps interesting, they are more inclined to stick with it. Apps using FinTech gamification typically have more engaged users and better retention rates, thus building a community of loyal users who are rewarded for their loyalty toward the app.

Data-Driven Insights

According to research by Mckinsey Global Institute, organizations that are driven by data are not only 6 times more likely to retain existing customers, but 23 times more likely to acquire new customers and 19 times more likely to become profitable.

By using gamification, digital banking applications can gather useful information about user behavior that helps them customize recommendations and improve the personalization of services to meet the requirements of specific users.

4 Common FinTech Gamification Examples To Accelerate Your Business:

1. Rewards, Badges, Collectibles, Leaderboards

Gamification in FinTech apps relies heavily on rewards points and badges. When users meet milestones or do particular financial tasks, they are awarded points or badges. These incentives act as catalysts to promote continued engagement. A common example of a rewards system is GPay which offers customers rewards ranging from offer coupons to cashbacks on every transaction. Apps like Kaizo have a store where managers can exchange their earned points with exciting merchandise.

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2. Progress Bars

With progress bars, users can see how near they are to reaching financial goals. They offer a clear and motivating visual representation of progress. Mint has a progress bar that gives customers a complete picture of their financial status while gamifying the budgeting and saving process.

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3. Goals and Challenges

FinTech gamification challenges and goals are similar to video game quests. Users engage in challenges or establish financial objectives aimed at inspiring them to invest, save, or pay off debt. Stash provides challenges that motivate users to increase their investments, look into new avenues for investing, or hit particular milestones for their portfolios. By completing these tasks and achieving goals, users can get bonuses or incentives.

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4. Educational Content

A fun and engaging approach to learning about financial ideas and investing techniques is through educational games in the context of FinTech's gamification strategy. Quizzes and interactive exercises are used by several personal financial applications, such as Wally, to teach users about saving money, managing credit, and creating budgets.

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These are the top 5 examples from real-world and exciting fintech apps across the world:

CRED

CRED, a prominent fintech company based in India, employs a proactive approach to customer engagement by leveraging gamification strategies. One of its notable techniques involves the implementation of a spin-the-wheel mechanism, which effectively encourages daily interaction among app users.

The spin-the-wheel concept employed by CRED serves as a focal point, capturing the attention of users and igniting their desire to participate and potentially win rewards. By incorporating this gamified element into its platform, CRED not only attracts users but also ensures sustained engagement by providing an interactive and rewarding experience. 

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Google Pay

Game elements within FinTech applications heavily lean on the utilization of rewards points and badges as key motivators. Users are incentivized through these mechanisms when they achieve milestones or complete specific financial tasks, thereby fostering a sense of accomplishment and encouraging sustained engagement. A prime example of this strategy is evident in GPay, where customers are rewarded with a variety of incentives, ranging from offer coupons to cashback, for every transaction they undertake.

This approach effectively transforms mundane financial activities into engaging experiences by offering tangible rewards for user participation. By integrating rewards systems into their platforms, FinTech apps like GPay not only drive user engagement but also cultivate a sense of loyalty among their customer base.

Ultimately, the strategic implementation of rewards points and badges catalyzes continued user engagement, contributing to the overall success and growth of FinTech applications in the market.

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Kaizo

Applications such as Kaizo feature a unique concept where managers are provided with a virtual store platform, allowing them to exchange the points they have accumulated for a range of enticing merchandise items. This innovative approach adds a layer of engagement to the platform, as managers are not only rewarded with points for their achievements and contributions but also allowed to redeem those points for desirable products or rewards.

By offering a diverse selection of merchandise within the store, Kaizo incentivizes managers to actively participate in the platform's gamified elements and strive to attain higher levels of performance.

This exchange system not only reinforces positive behaviors but also creates a sense of excitement and motivation among users which increases conversion rates, further enhancing their overall experience with the application.

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Fortune City

Fortune City is a novel personal finance program that turns financial tasks into a virtual city-building game, gamifying budgeting and spending monitoring. Every building in the virtual city that users design and oversee represents a different facet of their financial life.

Users enter their daily costs into Fortune city, and those expenses are subsequently shown as structures in their virtual city. A grocery store purchase can emerge as a supermarket or a coffee shop purchase might show up as a café structure.

By allowing users to personalize and embellish their city according to their spending patterns, financial tasks become enjoyable and inventive experiences.

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Revolut

With its cutting-edge software and range of services, Revolut, a well-known provider of digital banking and financial technology, has completely changed how people handle their finances. The clever use of gamification by Revolut to encourage responsible financial practices and increase user engagement is one of the main features that makes the platform unique.

With Revolut's "Vaults" function, customers may allocate money for particular savings objectives, like a trip or a new device. Revolut encourages users to save more efficiently by gamifying the savings process and allowing users to track their progress toward their objectives.

Furthermore, Revolut provides "Savings Challenges" that allow users to increase their savings and receive incentives by competing with friends or taking part in community competitions.

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In conclusion, the integration of gamification into fintech applications has fundamentally transformed the landscape of personal finance. By infusing elements of game design into financial services, fintech gamification has made money management more interesting, approachable, and enjoyable for users.

The strategic use of incentives, challenges, and rewards has proven to be highly effective in promoting engagement, education, motivation, retention, and loyalty among users.

From rewards points and badges to progress bars and challenges, fintech gamification offers a wide range of tools and strategies to enhance the user experience and promote positive financial behaviors. Examples such as CRED, Google Pay, Kaizo, Fortune City, and Revolut illustrate the diverse ways in which gamification can be implemented to transform financial services and empower users to take control of their finances.

As the fintech industry continues to evolve, gamification will undoubtedly remain a key driver of innovation and growth, enabling fintech companies to create unique and compelling experiences that resonate with users. By harnessing the power of gamification, fintech companies can build stronger relationships with their customers, drive business success, and ultimately, help individuals achieve their financial goals with greater confidence and ease.

Have a cool gamification idea for your Fintech startup, but are stuck on where to start? Our team of designers has years of experience doing just this. Contact us for a free one-on-one consultation where we can work together to bring fun to your fintech app and ideas to life.

Read more:

Top 7 Fintech Trends Predicted for 2024

AI in Fintech: Transforming user experience

A solution-driven person with a keen interest in solving problems in digital products through designing. I have worked with 15+ clients in successfully delivering digital products such as Saint-Gobain, HDFC, elgi Ultra, LuLu Group, IIFL, Stockal etc.. worked in 10+ digital products across domains such as Network security, Fin-tech, E-commerce, Healthcare, Recruitment, Real estate etc.. Research, Ideation, Wireframing, Designing, Prototyping, testing and delivery are my bread and butter.

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FAQ

What is FinTech gamification?

FinTech gamification refers to the strategic integration of game-like elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, challenges, and rewards into financial apps and services. The aim is to enhance user engagement, promote better financial habits, and foster loyalty.

How does FinTech gamification benefit users?

FinTech gamification enhances engagement by making financial activities more enjoyable and intuitive. It promotes education and financial literacy by simplifying complex concepts and motivating users to explore financial products. Additionally, it motivates users to adopt better financial practices and improves retention rates by offering rewards and incentives.

What are some examples of FinTech gamification elements?

Common examples include rewards programs offering points or cash back for completing financial tasks, progress bars visualizing savings or budgeting goals, challenges encouraging users to invest or pay down debt, and educational games teaching financial concepts.

How can FinTech gamification improve customer retention?

FinTech gamification makes financial platforms more engaging, leading to higher user retention rates. When users find an app enjoyable and rewarding, they are more likely to continue using it over time, fostering loyalty and building a community of engaged users.

What insights can be gained from FinTech gamification?

By utilizing gamification, financial applications can gather valuable data insights into user behavior. This data enables personalized recommendations and services tailored to individual users, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience.