Interview: Vaibe Chief Growth and Product Officer Nick Retzmann talks gamification challenges and oportunities

Retailers might be used to the concept of gamification to boost customer engagement and spend but gamification-as-a-service provider Vaibe says that it offers similar benefits to drive employee engagement too.

“The core value proposition is that we can gamify any success KPI which is data driven and impacted by human behaviour,” explains Nick Retzmann, Chief Growth and Product Officer. “This means as long as we can have that set of data and that data is positively impacted by human behaviours we can create challenges around daily tasks and create an engaging and fun way of working which, in turn, leads also to more productivity.”

The solution works as a white label gamification layer which can integrated into any software. Vaibe was initially founded in 2022 by the digital business division of Körber Group. The aim was to increase engagement with its WMS software and differentiate itself from competitors and gamification was believed to be key to doing that.

Retzmann was part of the digital innovation team at Körber. “I was intrigued by the idea of Vaibe because it’s a great value proposition, a great team and it really works in close collaboration with our core business. We also create real value for the customer,” he says.

He works alongside Tiago Sottomayor, Chief Technology Officer at Vaibe. “I’ve been here pretty much from day one,” says Sottomayor. “Everything around engineering is under my responsibility. My background is consultancy in corporate IT and using that I decided together with Körber to make this dream come true,” he says.

Retail as a key vertical

The initial focus was on the warehouse industry and then last mile but today the pair lead a 36-strong team across Portugal and Germany to expand the gamification offer to other B2B industries. Retail is a key vertical target thanks to the breadth of applications for gamification. “It’s applicable to all the operations inside of retail,” says Sottomayor.

“Once they understand that we cannot only gamify the consumer but we can also drive engagement around the workforce and in turn have a return on investment due to the more engaged workforce they understand that and see how it will work” says Retzmann. “It has an immediate impact on the top line on what the consumer spends and on the cost side because people are more engaged and more productive. They have more of a smile. The employer is giving something back and it creates a fun environment.”

Using gamification to increase store staff engagement is key, especially for repetitive tasks such as inventory management. “These are challenges that store employees have on a daily basis but with gamification retailers can create a fun activity around it and motivate people to deliver their best. This also increases the consumer shopping experience because they feel that the staff are more engaged and happier at work,” he says.

This can also help reduce staff turnover in the sector. “There is a strong need for engagement of employees to reduce turnover and to create an innovation environment, especially when it comes to hiring and maintaining younger professionals,” says Retzmann. “Generation Z understands gamification. They are surrounded by gamification. We are bringing gamification to the B2B world to influence employee engagement.”

Overcoming the challenges

While awareness of gamification may be high in the consumer sector the challenge is getting B2Bs to understand its value. “What I heard at the beginning was ‘does this actually work?’,” says Sottomayor.

“People are sceptical. No-one is looking for gamification. They are looking at the challenge of a lack of engagement or high turnover and gamification is one approach.” However, he says that is now changing. “That question is becoming less and less common because we have verified data and publicly available case studies.” 

“I’ve been asked is ‘Is that really applicable across industries?’” says Retzmann. “I can say yes. We are now live across industries and across the globe and when we talk to our customers they say we are driving differences out there. Most software they are using is providing a very functional solution.”

“And that’s. You want to run your operations and so you need a PoS and a WMS, but all of a sudden you have an innovative tool where there’s not only a functional perspective of the software but it also gives something back and drives engagement.”

Good data is fundamental for its success, however, and this is another education piece required. “We always need data,” says Retzmann. “Most have that data but they are not doing anything with it so it’s an education process where we need to make sure that all the systems are integrated, that we can collect the data in near real-time and we provide that data and information to the consumer or employees as soon as possible.”

To spread the word Vaibe has been exhibiting at retail trade shows, speaking to both software providers and retailers directly about its offering. “We started with the NRF show and were amazed by the feedback we received so decided to go to all the others,” says Retzmann. This has included EuroSys, Retail Technology Show. The company will also be at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe in Paris in September.

Retzmann says the response at RTS 2025 was particularly encouraging. “That was our first time at the show. We had really great feedback that we bridge the gap between many players in the industry. They liked that Vaibe can be applied to the consumer side but also to the employee side and that it was a creative way to engage employees but also an efficient way to drive productivity.”

The show also allowed the pair to brainstorm new uses. “We heard a lot of the obvious use cases – number of picks, inventory management and so on,” he says. “But what was surprising was that once people understood the idea they were really creative. For example, they said: ‘We are measuring health and safety KPIs in our retail environment. Can you gamify that?’”

“We asked: ‘Do you have the data and can you tie this data to an individual or a team? When these two questions were answered we created, in a brainstorming session with them, a use case around health and safety.”

Retzmann says it’s at points like this that retailers get really excited about the Vaibe offering. “They understand that implementing gamification is not rocket science. If you understand what the task is, who’s doing the jobs, you have the data and what success looks like then I’m pretty sure we can create a challenge around it.”

Sottomayor says Vaibe’s role is about improving existing businesses rather than changing them. “We are also not in business to change processes. If everyone is working in the same way they will continue working that way. We are just collecting the data and making the data available for either the management side or the worker side.”

Looking ahead the duo say retail will remain a key focus this year. “We will integrate with more retail software providers and create more challenges and features around the retail sector. You will see us at various events and we’ll be happy to engage directly with retail brands and with other software providers to see how we can add value to their existing software offer,” says Retzmann.