Fun is motivational. So is competition. Combine the two into a retail sales game, and suddenly you’re building morale among employees while motivating them to accomplish company goals. Before we discuss ideas for games you could potentially use, let’s look at some key components of a motivational retail sales game.

Keep It Simple
The game shouldn’t require all of your employees’ mental capacity. It should be simple enough for them to incorporate into their normal job duties without it becoming a distraction.

Don’t Wait
Some retail managers make the mistake of waiting until the end of the week to post results or award prizes. Real time results work better and keep employees more consistently motivated. Rivals can banter, and part-timers don’t feel as disadvantaged.

Above and Beyond
Rewards for any incentive should require that employee to go above and beyond their normal job description. Normal job duties lead to normal performance. To enhance their performance, use the game to push them to reach beyond what they’re already doing.

Now for what you’ve been waiting for: game ideas.

Digging For Dollars
Fill a jar with dollar bills. Choose a specific, measurable and attainable goal. For example, if you want to sell more multi-person tents at your sporting goods store, use a tent sale as the goal. When a salesperson sells a tent, they get to pull a dollar out the jar. At the end of the day, the person who sold the most tents gets an additional prize (gift card, $5 bill, later arrival time, etc.)

The beauty of this game is that it rewards all the employees who reach the specified goal and not just those who sell the most. Everybody wins, but the winner wins more.

Other potential goals could be enrolling a customer in the loyalty program, signing someone up for the store credit card, or selling an added product accessory (e.g. extended warranty, dessert, handbag…).

Pass the Buck
This particular game works similarly to Digging for Dollars, at least as far as the specific goal is concerned. Choose a goal for the day and communicate it at the start of the first shift. Perhaps you need to liquidate some big-ticket items, so the goal for the day is to sell more flat screen televisions. The first person to sell a flat screen is given a $20 bill. They get to keep that $20 until the next person sells a flat screen. If they sell the next flat screen, then they keep the $20 in their possession, but when another associate sells one they have to present that associate with the $20. This passing of the buck continues until the end of a shift or at the close of the day. Whoever has the $20 at the end of the designated time gets to keep it.

Pass the Buck has an additional element of competition by allowing employees to take the reward from each other while still incentivizing the sale.

Tic – Tac – Toe/Bingo
If you have multiple goals you want your team to accomplish at a time, your best bet might be to go with the old, reliable Tic-Tac-Toe or Bingo game board. Use Tic-Tac-Toe if you have less than 10 goals and Bingo if you have more than 10, simply because of the number of squares for the different games. In each square, place a goal:

•     Upsell an item
•     Sell a specific product
•     Get a customer to download the store app
•     Add a customer to the email list
•     Have a customer fill out a store credit card application
•     Scan a QR code to show a customer more product details
•     Open the door for a customer
•     Invite customers to an upcoming event
•     Etc.

Give each employee a game board with the squares arranged differently. As the employee accomplishes a goal, they get to cover that square. Completing three or five in a row before their co-workers do earns them first prize. To fuel the competitive fires, put all of the game boards on display in the workroom so employees can see exactly what they need to do and whom they need to beat to the punch in order to win.