While it’s not an e-commerce marketer’s favorite fact, the truth is that not everyone who lands on your website will buy. At least not right away. However, the fact that they’ve landed on your site is already a win. But to capitalize on this opportunity, it would help for shoppers to maintain a list of bookmarks of items they liked when they visited your store. This could prompt them to buy when they’re ready.
Moreover, that list of items represents insights that you can use when you want to tempt them to come back and finish what they started.
That’s where e-commerce wishlists like Swym’s Wishlist Plus come in.
Imagine Kate who is planning a beach holiday in a couple of months. She visits your website and goes through swimsuits, hats, and beach sandals. She likes several items in all three categories, but figures she’ll hit the buy button after getting her time off approved and once her tickets are booked.
There are two ways that this could go:
Kate saves the items to her wishlist and exits your site, to return and purchase them once her holiday leave approval and bookings have come through. She also shares the wishlist with her friends, and some purchase beach holiday clothing and accessories from your store.
Or, there is no wishlist functionality, so Kate exits and when she searches for these items the next time, she arrives at another website and buys from them.
You get the idea.
And that’s only one benefit of e-commerce wishlists.
Wishlists benefit your customers and your business in several ways, aside from promoting recall, like we’ve outlined in the example above.
In this guide, we will break down everything you need to know about getting a wishlist feature for your e-commerce business.
Benefits Of Wishlists For E-Commerce Businesses And Your Customers
- Boosts Sales
Adding a wishlist app to your e-commerce site helps boost activity, promote product recall, and generate more sales.
Here’s the thing: Your customers might not always be ready (or able) to buy a product they want for various reasons.A wishlist allows them to save the item for later and come back to buy when they’re ready. In other words, you’re playing the long game—and that patience pays off!
Look at the example of Credo Beauty which gets 5% of their orders via wishlists with Wishlist Plus.
Of course, it’s important to get the right wishlist app for your e-commerce business. Lane 201, a fast-growing apparel company based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana already had a wishlist feature but needed functionality like the ability to create multiple lists, share wishlists and generate discount codes. Since they opted for Wishlist Plus, the brand has increased its order value by 90%.
- Improves The User Experience
Kate, who was looking for beach holiday items in our example from earlier, would probably like to look for items just once and add them to her wishlist instead of undertaking a second browsing exercise when she’s ready to buy.
In other words, while wishlist functionality benefits you with product recall and sales opportunity preservation, wishlists also benefit your customers with convenience.
Here’s how:
Add Multiple Items In A Category And Making Comparisons
Kate,from our example earlier in this blog, might want to add several bathing suits, multiple styles of beach sandals and several hat shapes to her cart and then compare prices, fabrics, color choice availability and so on. With a Wishlist, it becomes very easy for customers to carry out this type of exercise.
Plan Purchases In Advance
Kate might want to ask her friends (or watch influencer content) on which of her chosen items are trending, best for her body type, and so on. Wishlisting allows your customers to add many items and narrow their selection over time, which helps them choose the best-suited item, and ultimately drives better satisfaction.
Research Online And Buy In-Store
Kate might want to research your swimwear, hat, and sandal collections online, but visit your store for purchase to allow for a quick trial or to evaluate fabrics and fit first-hand. Having an e-commerce wishlist enables this process.
Ideate For Gifting-Linked Purchases
Loyal customers who love your brand may also like to share wishlists with friends, family and colleagues who ask for ideas on what to gift them.
Shoppers may also like to add a variety of items to their wishlist and get ideas from others when it comes to gifting. You can easily imagine a shopper adding clothing, accessories and home decor for Friend A’s birthday gift to a wishlist and then showing the list to Friend B to ask their opinion on whether Friend A will like the items
- Critical For “Think Before You Buy” Customers
Today, there is a growing sentiment against overconsumption and a correspondingly rising favor for capsule wardrobes, minimalism, and so on. Many influencers are promoting “no-buy” or are at least cautioning their followers against impulse purchases to cut back on their carbon footprint and spending.
Offering a wishlist feature lets you flow with this rising trend—your shoppers can take their time to really think about whether they truly want or need an item.
And yet, should a moment of stress prompt a bit of retail therapy (and impulse buying); they can return to your wishlist and buy items from there.
If you’re reading this and worry about customers abandoning items on wishlists and forgetting all about them, jump to our next point that details all that wishlist data can be channeled into prompting purchases.
- Gets You Zero-Party Data
When your customers add items to their wishlist, they are giving your (free) data points on their preferences and interests. Let’s look at an example:
Jeremy added several basketball jersey + shorts combos to his wishlist. You can use this insight to advertise the same items to Jimmy on Instagram.
You might also use that data to upsell a pair of Air Jordans to Jeremy.
E-commerce wishlists give you all the information you need to personalize your marketing messages in a way that resonates with your customers and prompts them to make a purchase.
If you’re worried about customers abandoning items on wishlists, you can promote recall and aspiration with ads on their favorite social platforms. You can also be more convincing with offers and discounts tailored to other buying behavior on your website.
For example, if Jeremy typically adds items to cart, but frequently does not purchase when there’s a delivery charge, you might try advertising his selected basketball jersey and shorts sets with a free delivery offer or coupon.
- Enables Social Proof
Wishlists, when shared, become a great way to turn happy customers into brand ambassadors. This might happen organically, or you might have to run promotions, but either way, wishlist-sharing amounts to your brand being promoted to an engaged, trusting audience.
Imagine the fashionista of the family (or college, workplace, or any other group or community) sharing her summer wishlist on social or even privately. People admire her, and might consider your brand simply because she favors your store. They might even purchase similar items since she’s “recommending” these by virtue of having chosen them for herself.
Some brands take wishlist sharing to the next level as a promotional tool by collaborating with celebrities or incentivizing wishlisht sharing on social media by offering prizes and freebies.
Key Functionality Elements To Look For In A Wishlist
Just about any wishlist plug-in will not do. You don’t want a wishlist feature that glitches frequently causing your customers more pain than gain. It’s also not good enough if your wishlist feature elevates your customer experience but fails to deliver the data and back-end features that allow you to use wishlisting to boost sales. Look for the following features for a wishlist that lets you tap into all the benefits described in the prior section.
Easy Set-Up, Integration And Compatibility
Ideally, you want an easy plug-and-play for your wishlist app. Seamless integration with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify is obvious, but look deeper for integrations with email marketing platforms like Klaviyo and CRM systems.
User-Friendly Interface
A simple, intuitive interface encourages customers to use the wishlist feature frequently. Look for tools that allow customers to easily add, remove, and organize items in their wishlist with minimal clicks (and no searching!)
Personalization
In our list of benefits above, we discussed how wishlist tools can boost sales. But to achieve this, you need a wishlist tool that can help you to personalize your marketing messages based on the items customers view and save. This means that your Wishlist tool should come with functionality for creating segments based on customer behavior, allowing you to target specific behaviors to enable corresponding actions. For example, you should be able to carve out a segment of customers who have wishlisted items over a month ago that have previously responded to discounts or sales and send them a mailer (or target them on social)
with a code-based 10% discount offer featuring an image of an item they have wishlisted. This brings us to our next point.
Price Drop Alerts And Stock Notifications
You shouldn’t need to rely solely on emails and advertising. These allied notifications can prompt customers to make purchases they were previously hesitant about, driving conversion rates, and should come baked in with your wishlist app. You should, for example, be able to set up low-stock notifications when your inventory of wishlist items starts to thin out.
Analytics And Insights
To create segments like the one we just described, you need robust analytics. Look for tools that allow you to create detailed reports with granular data.
Social Sharing
Your wishlist tool should allow you to configure social sharing so that you can enable (and occasionally nudge, with freebies) customers to share their wishlists with friends and family via social media, email, or direct links. This is good for you! It not only drives traffic to your site but also buys you social proof.
Guest Wishlists
Allowing guests to create wishlists without needing to create an account can reduce friction and encourage more users to engage with the feature. This is particularly useful for first-time visitors or those who prefer a quicker shopping experience. Don’t worry, it need not mean forgoing valuable contact information, so long as the wishlist app lets you enable guest email capture.
Multiple Wishlists
When you enable multiple wishlists, you allow users to categorize and organize their desired items more effectively, such as having separate wishlists for different occasions or recipients. It enhances the shopping experience by providing greater flexibility and personalization, and also gives you more data to personalize your marketing messages.
Compliance-Readiness
Security is paramount. Ensure the wishlist tool you choose is secure, protecting customer data in a compliant manner, and providing reliable performance without frequent downtimes. Check that your wishlist’s functionality and features align with your organization’s chosen compliance frameworks like GDPR, SOC2, and so on.
Pro-Tip: Don’t Forget To Look For Scale-Related Pricing
All of the features above amount to nothing if you can’t work out pricing. That’s why it’s critical for you to look for a wishlist tool that offers tiered plans that cater to different monthly site session volumes. That way, you can find a price that’s right for your volumes, promoting affordability and easy-to-justify pricing.
Wishlists Aren’t A Get It And Forget It Feature!
To sum up, incorporating a wishlist feature on your e-commerce store is not just about enhancing customer convenience. If you play your cards right, your e-commerce wishlist can become a powerful tool that drives sales, boosts customer engagement, and provides valuable data.
Simply plugging in a wishlist tool isn’t going to make magic happen. As you get started with your wishlist tool, here are some larger questions you should be thinking about:
- How can implementing a wishlist feature help you understand and leverage customer preferences to drive targeted marketing campaigns? What are some things you’re looking to understand that your wishlist data can help with?
- In what ways can wishlist data be utilized to personalize the shopping experience – including product pages – and improve customer satisfaction? How do you plan to plug the treasure trove of data you’re about to gain access to, into your existing marketing strategies?
- What are some strategies you can use to enable social sharing of wishlists and amplify your brand’s reach/ foster organic marketing through word-of-mouth?
- How can your wishlist be used to inform inventory management by indicating the popularity of products?
Reflecting on these questions can help wield your wishlist feature in a way that maximizes ROI.
People Also Ask
What is a wishlist in online shopping?
A wishlist allows customers to save products they are interested in for future reference. This virtual list enables users to sort of bookmark items they may want to purchase later, helping them keep track of products without needing to add them to their shopping cart immediately. Wishlists can (often — depending on the tool you choose) be shared with others, making them useful for gift ideas or collaborative shopping experiences.
Almost half of shoppers seem to think that their shopping experience would be improved if retailers offered a wishlist that allowed them to save items they’re interested in.
What is a wishlist in e-commerce? Is there any reason to get it other than giving the customer more convenience?
While convenience for the customer is a primary benefit, wishlists are a critical data procurement tool for you as an e-commerce merchant looking for customer insights in a post-cookie era. Wishlists give you valuable zero-party data, right from your customers. Armed with fine-grained information on your customer’s preferences, you can contextualize your marketing communications and boost conversions.
Additionally, wishlists can drive sales by reminding customers of products they want, encouraging them to return and complete the purchase. Related features in some wishlist apps, like price drop alerts and low stock notifications, can further incentivize conversions. Read our blog on how you can craft data-driven marketing messages that actually convert with wishlist data.
What are some important e-commerce wishlist best practices to adhere to?
Rule # 1: Make it easy and frictionless. Place an ‘Add to wishlist’ button on every product and collections page, and include wishlist icons or links in header and footer menus for easy access. Don’t forget about adding your wishlist button to product quick view pages and your header menu either. Allow customers to add items to their wishlist with one click and move them to the cart just as easily. Personalize your wishlist to match your brand’s personality but keep your design intuitive, and starting a wishlist should only require an email sign-in (if at all!). Don’t ask your customers to make a whole lot of effort upfront.
Next on, include sharing features to drive maximum impact. Shoppers enjoy sharing their favorite products, making wishlists ideal for gifting. Wishlist tools should include sharing options via email, social media, or unique links, while offering privacy settings like “view only.”
Always remember to clarify next steps for users by including prominent ‘Add to cart’ and ‘Checkout’ buttons on the wishlist page, and use social proof and recommended products to encourage purchases.
You should also embrace omnichannel e-commerce by extending your wishlist functionality to the in-store experience—customers (and store agents) track down wishlisted items in-store and add items to wishlist in-store.
Lastly, integrate wishlist data with broader marketing efforts. Use insights from wishlists to inform retargeting campaigns and promotions. Ideas include “Win Your Wishlist” contests, limited-time discounts on wishlisted items, sharing contests, and bundle deals. Read our article about wishlist best practices for more.
