Leaderboards for e-commerce is an underutilized but highly effective tactic for increasing sales, engagement, and referrals. A recent survey found that 77% of consumers are motivated by rewards programs tied to leaderboards. Displaying top-performing customers taps into people’s desire for recognition and ignites competitiveness.
When implemented strategically, leaderboards entertain and engage your audience and promote a community around your brand.
This comprehensive guide will cover five proven leaderboard ideas for e-commerce stores to create compelling leaderboards to boost sales and engagement.
Table of Contents
- Benefits of Using Leaderboards
- Types of Leaderboards for E-commerce Stores
– Sales Leaderboards
– Referral Leaderboards
– Engagement Leaderboards
– Loyalty Program Leaderboards
– Social Leaderboards
- Best Practices for Implementing E-commerce Leaderboards
– Make It Visible
– Offer Rewards
– Spotlight Top Performers
– Keep It Fresh
– Make It Shareable
- Tools to Create Leaderboards for Your Store
- myCred and Leaderboards – A Perfect Match
- Tips for Maximizing Your E-commerce Leaderboard Strategy
- Final Words
Benefits of Using Leaderboards for E-commerce Stores
Here are some of the key reasons leaderboards can be a high-ROI tactic for e-commerce businesses:
- Increase sales – Leaderboards motivate customers to climb ranks by purchasing more. Sales increase 10-30% on average.
- Drive referrals – Customers refer friends to help them move up referral leaderboard ranks. Viral growth ensues.
- Improve engagement – Competing on social leaderboards results in more shares, comments, and engagement.
- Build loyalty – Leaderboard rewards and recognition deepen customer loyalty to your brand.
- Generate buzz – Leaderboards create entertaining and engaging experiences around your brand.
- Provide insights – Analytics reveal your most loyal advocates to provide specialized perks.
Well-designed leaderboards for e-commerce businesses deliver measurable results across key corporate objectives.
Types of Leaderboards for E-commerce Stores
The following are the five most effective leaderboard examples to increase sales, referrals, engagement, and loyalty for your e-commerce business.
Sales Leaderboards for E-commerce
Sales leaderboards spotlight your top customers based on total dollars spent or items purchased in a given timeframe:
- Daily, weekly, or monthly timeframes
- Highlight your VIPs and loyal advocates
- Increase purchases as customers compete for ranks
- Offer tiered prizes or rewards to top spots
- Provide social proof of your product’s popularity
You can display sales leaderboards prominently on your site or in email campaigns. They motivate customers to spend more to reach the next tier.
Referral Leaderboards for E-commerce
Referral leaderboards highlight your top brand evangelists, sending you the most recent customers:
- Ranks customers by the number of referrals
- Offer prizes or rewards for top referrers
- Encourage sharing and virality to climb the ranks
- Improve brand perception and loyalty
- Provide social proof of your products
Referral leaderboards incentivize word-of-mouth marketing, tapping into existing happy customers to organically attract new ones.
Engagement Leaderboards for E-commerce
Engagement leaderboards rank your audience based on social media activity and engagement:
- Track shares, comments, likes, clicks
- Spotlight your brand superfans
- Incentivize more mentions, shares, and conversions
- Increase awareness among followers’ networks
- Improve perception by showcasing an engaged community
These build excitement and dialogue around your brand digitally.
Loyalty Program Leaderboards for E-commerce
Loyalty program leaderboards showcase top members based on points or status:
- Ranks members by total points accrued
- Higher tiers convey elite status and clout
- Motivates members to earn more points
- Allows members to show off exclusivity
- Gamifies improving loyalty and engagement
Loyalty leaderboards add prestige along with a competitive element to traditional rewards programs.
Social Leaderboards
Social leaderboards highlight top fans and their growth across social platforms:
- Track followers gained, content shared, and mentions
- Ignites friendly competition between fans
- Incentivize promoting your brand on social
- Increase awareness and word-of-mouth
- Identify potential brand ambassadors
These tap into users’ desires for validation and social status.
With many options, think strategically about which leaderboards align with your e-commerce store’s objectives. Now, let’s look at best practices for maximizing their impact.
Best Practices for Implementing E-commerce Leaderboards
The following tips will help you create compelling, effective leaderboards that engage customers and drive results:
Make It Visible
Prominently showcase your leaderboard across
- Your website homepage or high-traffic pages
- Email newsletters
- Social media channels
- Mobile apps and popups
The more exposure, the more customer participation and impact. Don’t hide your leaderboard.
Offer Rewards
Tie leaderboard ranks to rewards that motivate customers:
- Discount codes or dollar-value credits
- Free or express shipping
- Early access to new arrivals
- Featured as a ‘top customer’
- Contests for leaderboard winners
Rewards fuel the competitive fire and ROI. Make them worth competing for.
Spotlight Top Performers
Recognize and congratulate top leaderboard members:
- On your website, emails, and social media
- Send exclusive badges, certificates, or pins
- Provide shoutouts and exposure opportunities
- Offer VIP perks and personalized outreach
- Make them feel valued for their loyalty
Recognition is a top driver. Satisfy customers’ egos and see how your sales numbers fly.
Keep It Fresh
Frequently reset leaderboards to give everyone fresh opportunities to lead:
- Monthly or quarterly resets
- Announce resets to spark renewed interest
- Add variety with different metrics or timeframes
- Change up rewards to keep it interesting
- Keep customers engaged for longer period
Stale, stagnant leaderboards lose impact. Keep the competition alive.
Make It Shareable
Allow and encourage leaderboard sharing to spur virality:
- Provide easy social sharing buttons
- Hashtag for users to track rankings
- Enable embedding or screenshots to share status
- Prompt sharing when customers reach new levels
- Spread the word about your brand through user advocacy
Every share expands the leaderboard’s impact and reach. Make sure your leaderboard numbers are eye-catching and easily shareable.
Tools to Create Leaderboards for Your E-commerce Store
Dedicated leaderboard apps make setting up and managing inventive, dynamic leaderboards easy.
Top e-commerce leaderboard tools include:
Leaderboard – Visually customizable leaderboards with rewards.
Loop Commerce – Gamified experiences and point-based rewards.
myCred – Tailor challenges, badges, points, ranks, and more.
myCred is a WordPress gamification plugin that is a one-stop shop for leaderboards. You don’t have to look anywhere else if you have to incorporate a leaderboard into your e-commerce store. All you need is a shortcode to enter at the backend of your WordPress site.
Here are the three best ways to implement leaderboards in your e-commerce store:
Top Referrers: Showcase users who bring in the newest members through referral links, rewarding them for expanding the community.
Supporters: Highlight users who donate the most points to other users or community projects, recognizing generosity and collaboration.
Helping Hands: Feature users who provide the most helpful responses or solutions in forums, promoting a supportive environment.
Tips for Maximizing Your E-commerce Leaderboard Strategy
Here are some final tips for getting the most from your leaderboard campaigns:
- Match to business goals – Sales, referrals, engagement? What specifically do you want to achieve?
- Make it visual – Dynamic graphics attract more attention and participation.
- Promote launch – Hype new leaderboards across email, social, SMS, etc.
- Change it up – Rotate varieties to continually recapture interest.
- Integrate with CRM – Connect rankings to customer profiles and segments.
- Analyze performance – Track KPIs to optimize and improve over time.
- Highlight consistently – Keep leaderboards visible across touchpoints.
- Communicate value – Share success stories and ROI generated.
With small investments of time and money, leaderboards generate impressive returns. Follow leaderboards’ best practices and fine-tune them by tracking their performance.
Final Words
Leaderboards for E-commerce tap into customers’ desires for competition, validation, and rewards. They gamify the website and the shopping experience to drive higher sales, referrals, loyalty, and engagement. Yet, they remain an underutilized e-commerce strategy.
Add leaderboards in areas where you want more momentum – then showcase and reward your MVP customers. When done right, leaderboards entertain and engage while providing solid ROI across your objectives.
Stop leaving this proven tactic on the bench. Use myCred leaderboards addon to your e-commerce store and start building recurring business at a minimal cost.
