Why Should Online Stores Have The Wish List Function?

A wish list sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? It is a popular function that any online store should have on their website. Wishlists have great potential that not everyone is aware of. In this article today, we will tell you how a simple act of online stores have the wish list can greatly benefit your retail business. 

What Is A Wish List? 

A wish list is a collection of products that customers are interested in and save it to their user account without the immediate intention to buy. Adding products to a wish list is an easy way for shoppers to organize the product priority, making it unnecessary to use the shopping basket for a quick recall which saves customers some time while shopping online. 

This function helps improve the customer experience while shopping online. Adding products to a wish list is mutually beneficial: it reminds customers of the products they love and help merchants to measure product interest beyond a clear-cut sale. 

Why Should We Use Wish Lists? 

A Tool To Increase Sales And Reduce Cost

In this digital marketing world, personalization is the differentiating factor of the game. Customers feel appreciated when sellers understand their interests and hobbies. Thanks to wish lists, stores can now know exactly what products a specific customer is interested in and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly, which could save a huge amount of money for business owners. 

Other than that, instead of generic emails to advertise your store,  businesses can send out messages to encourage customers to buy the items on their wish list, which has a much higher chance that customers will come back and finish their purchase. When adding products to a wish list, it means shoppers are already in love with the items but are waiting for a suitable occasion to buy them, or they cannot afford it yet. Retailers can consider attaching discount codes with the emails sent out to increase the conversion rate. 

A Tool To Show Social Proof

In marketing, social proof means providing indecisive buyers with evidence that many other people also love the items they are considering. When setting up their online stores, retailers should consider showing the number of customers who have added a particular item to their wish list next to the item itself. 

This is a simple way of highlighting the most popular items in an eCommerce store that has a considerably high chance of catching the customers’ attention. It also increases the possibility of getting reviews and shows potential customers that this store is trustworthy as other people are buying here. 

A Tool To Gather Data

When shoppers add products to a wish list, it allows retailers to gain some valuable information: 

• It shows which products are bestsellers so that business owners can reduce the cost of marketing for these items, boost production, stock up inventory, or even implement cross-selling with them. 
• If an item is added to a wish list many times but not bought, retailers should double-check the product for technical problems, usability and prices to see why the conversion rate is low. 

A Tool To Foster The Act Of Gifting

A wish list makes shopping online for friends and family so much simpler. Once adding products to a wish list, the creators can send them to their friends or family members before the holidays, birthdays, or any life events. 

Additionally, if a consumer is unfamiliar with the products of an online store and would like to purchase an item there, adding potential products to a wish list can be the first step. Gathering the items they are interested in and using that list to communicate with the store will save shoppers so much time rather than walking into a physical store and discussing options with a salesperson.

The Amazon Wish List Example For Gifting

Amazon is one of the first platforms to embrace wish lists for birthdays and holidays. When the idea was first introduced, customers were limited to the products that were carried by Amazon only. 

Now, adding products to a wish list could not be easier on the world’s biggest shopping platform. With one click, you can add goods from anywhere on the web. The platform keeps your lists organized in alphabetical order. When you send it to other people, it’s easy for them to browse and buy from it with no searching required.

Amazon doesn’t send emails to encourage their customers to purchase from their wish lists as they think it is too pushy. Instead, whenever a buyer opens the Amazon app or browses the web, notifications will pop up or similar items will appear to remind them of the items they are already interested in. 

Apart from traditional gifts such as books or CDs, customers can find clothes, cosmetics, furniture, electronics, household items, and even groceries on Amazon. Additionally, if you have a Prime membership, shoppers will get free shipping on most items within 2 to 3 days maximum. Considering the fact that Prime membership is completely free and easy to sign up for, it is highly recommended for Amazon shoppers to have one. 

The giant eCommerce platform also provides gift-wrapping services, which is significantly convenient for the customers. Normally, after buying the item, customers have to drive to the wrapping services, which are extremely crowded during the holiday season. Therefore, Amazon saves its customers a trip and hours of waiting in line to get their presents wrapped. This is another major factor that boosts customers to use Amazon wish lists to buy gifts on this platform. 

Final Words

Through this article, we have discussed how beneficial it is for retailers to use wish lists and looked at the Amazon wish list example. Looking at how successful Amazon is with its wish list function, it is definitely a role model for businesses to follow. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions!