Did you know that nearly half of all online shoppers abandon their shopping carts without making a purchase? This is often because they can’t remember the items they wanted to buy, or they find a better deal on another site. Wishlists can help you, at least partially, get them hooked and keep them coming back for more.
In this blog post, we will discuss the power of wishlists and how you can use them to increase sales on your ecommerce website!
What is a product wishlist
A product wishlist is simply a list of all the items that customers are interested in but haven’t yet purchased. By adding a simple “add to wishlist” button on your product pages, you can help your customers easily track and save their favourite products.
Benefits of product wishlists in ecommerce stores
Wishlists can work as middlemen between sales and intent – and bring a lot of benefits for ecommerce stores.
#1 Increased Engagement
When customers add items to their wishlist, they are more likely to return to your store to purchase those items. Additionally, customers who share their wishlists with friends and family are more likely to generate word-of-mouth marketing for your store. If you work on in-app notifications on top of that, you can even nudge customers to come back and complete their purchase!
#2 Improved Customer Retention
Customers who have created wishlists on your store are more likely to return to your store in the future to make purchases. They added products to their wishlists for a reason, right? So if you can help them find the perfect items and complete their purchase, they are more likely to become loyal customers for life.
#3 Enhanced Customer Experience
You can’t assume that everyone who landed in your store knows exactly what they are looking for. That’s why it’s so important to provide a seamless and intuitive shopping experience, especially when it comes to helping customers find the right products. By offering wishlists as an option, you can make it easier for customers to browse through your offerings and find just the right items that meet their needs.
#4 Increased Sales
Customers who add items to their wishlist are more likely to purchase those items than customers who do not have a wishlist. When they first visit your store, they might not be able to purchase straight away. With wishlists, you can help them keep track of the items they are interested in and come back later to complete their purchase.
#5 Improved Product Discovery
Product wishlists can also help improve product discovery on your ecommerce store. There may be potential customers who are only into browsing at a particular moment – they might not be in need of buying anything just yet, but they are interested in what your store has to offer. With wishlists, you can help customers browse through your offerings and get inspired to make future purchases.
Product Wishlists: Best Practices
#1 Make it easy to add new products to the wishlist
You should offer a simple and intuitive interface that allows customers to quickly select and add the products they want. Even a single “heart” on a product page can be enough to start a customer’s wishlist, but you should test a few mechanisms to see what works best for your store.
The easier you make it for customers to add products to their wishlist, the more likely they are to engage with your store and make purchases. So be sure to optimize your site for product discovery and offer a simple interface that makes it easy for customers to save items on their wishlists.
#2 Notify your clients when the price of a product on their wishlist drops
In-app notifications are another method to help customers stay engaged with your store. If you can alert them when the price of an item on their wishlist decreases, they are more likely to return and complete their purchase.
Include a feature that alerts customers when they have items in their wish lists that have dropped in price, and watch your sales grow. You can also use notifications just to remind them that their wishlist exists, and to encourage them to keep browsing and adding more items, and, of course, to make a purchase.
#3 Make your wishlists shareable
Your wishlists can make for a wheel of word-of-mouth marketing, as customers are more likely to share their wishlists with friends and family. This can help you generate more traffic and sales for your store, especially if those people then become customers themselves.
To maximize the power of your product wishlists, make them easy to share on social media or via email. Having your own custom hashtag or sharing buttons can help encourage customers to share their wishlists with others and drive more traffic to your store.
And don’t forget to reward those who do share – they could become brand advocates for you and bring in even more new customers!
#4 Use cross-selling and up-selling methods
The place where your customers are adding new items to their wishlist is also the perfect place to recommend similar or complementary products. This can help encourage customers to add more items, and it can result in increased sales for you as well.
Imagine that a customer is adding a San Francisco escape room to their wishlist. You can use cross-selling or up-selling methods to suggest products that would go well with the experience, such as Alcatraz tours, Golden Gate Bridge bike rides, or tickets to the Academy of Sciences.. This can help boost sales and keep customers engaged with your store, making it a one-stop shop for anything they need. You could also create content, let your audience know about top fashion trends, new styles and more. This way your site can reach more potential customers..
#5 Promote your wishlist feature in your ecommerce store
Ecommerce owners often focus on highlighting “add to shopping cart” buttons and other sales-focused features, but neglect the power of wishlists. Promote your wishlist feature prominently on your homepage, in your product pages, and elsewhere on your store to encourage new visitors to start saving their favorite items for later.
With a well-designed and strategically placed “add to wishlist” button or link, you can help drive more sales and increase engagement with your store. So be sure to promote your product wishlist feature at every opportunity to maximize its power!
#6 Add discounts when re-visiting wishlists
This might be one of the best ways to drive sales using your wishlist feature. When a customer revisits their wishlist, they could be prompted with an offer for a special discount on one or more of the items in it. This can incentivize them to make that purchase right away, and it can also increase brand loyalty as they become accustomed to being rewarded when re-visiting their wishlists.
#7 Use scarcity tactics
Creating a sense of FOMO? Why not! In addition to offering discounts when customers revisit their wishlists, you can also use scarcity tactics to encourage customers to make a purchase. This could mean having a limited-time offer on items in your store’s wishlists, or it could mean highlighting the fact that there are only a few items left in stock.
Showing that wholesale products in your store’s wishlists are selling quickly or that they might not be available for much longer can help create a sense of urgency and push customers to make a purchase. So don’t be afraid to use scarcity to drive sales and increase engagement with your ecommerce store, as this might be just the thing to help turn wishlists into sales!.
#8 Personalize the wishlist
Each wishlist, by its nature, is personalized. But you can also go further and personalize the wishlist experience for each customer. This could mean using their name in the wishlist along with your business logo, or around the “add to wishlist” button, or it could mean sending them customized emails with suggestions based on their own saved items.
Personalization can help increase engagement, trust, and loyalty with your store, so be sure to take full advantage of it when using your product wishlist feature. Wishlists are just part of this strategy, though, so be sure to put in the time and effort to maximize this powerful tool for your ecommerce business.
#9 Make your wishlist mobile-friendly
There might be many of your customers who are accessing your store via their mobile devices, and you need to make sure that they can easily use your product wishlist feature from these devices. This means optimizing the experience for smaller screens, such as by making it easy for customers to click on items in their wishlists with a single touch.
Over to you
With its powerful ability to drive engagement and increase sales, the product wishlist is an essential feature for any ecommerce store. This is staggering that the majority of ecommerce stores do not use this feature to their advantage, so make sure that you leverage it for your business. You can turn wishlists into sales in no time, so get out there and start focussing on leveraging this powerful tool for your ecommerce store. Good luck!
