Wishlists are among one of the most important features of an e-commerce website. They offer opportunities for both customers and business owners alike. Common sense urges us to think they are suited only by giants such as eBay or Amazon. We think that in fact, they provide so many advantages that they should be incorporated into each webshop.
What is a wishlist?
Wishlists on e-commerce websites are features that allow the creation of collections with desired products saved by clients, in their user’s account.
Basically, they are used when users have an interest in your products, but they didn’t intend to make a purchase at exactly that time. Having the option of saving an item and order it later can have big implications for your business. And this is a topic we will discuss in this blog post.
The benefits of wishlists on e-commerce websites
Maybe now you wonder why having a wishlist on your webshop is such a big deal. This is why we gathered for you the most important reasons why you need to integrate this feature in order to increase your online sales.
#1. They help you reduce the number of users that get lost on their way to check-out
According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.23%.
You’ll be surprised to find out that Adobe’s rate was 75.50% back in January 2016. Most of these cart abandonments are a consequence of how users browse webshops. They are just looking, comparing, exploring discounts and save the information for later.
Several studies showed that the most used reason for cart abandonment is the users not being ready to buy yet. Of course, there are plenty of other explications for this behavior:
- High extra costs (taxes, shipping fees);
- The webshop is imposing the creation of an account;
- The check-out process is too complicated;
- Users couldn’t see or calculate the total cost up-front;
- Users didn’t trust the webshop in order to provide its card information;
- Delivery was slow;
- Users didn’t enjoy the policy for returns;
- Users didn’t have enough payment methods from which to choose;
- The card was declined.
However, the most important one is users not being ready to buy or being disrupted during the process. And how do you solve this, if not by implementing a wishlist feature on your website? This way, you will offer to your prospects a chance to save the products they show interest for later. If you don’t, there’s a high probability that they will forget about your store.
#2. They help you easily expand your customer base
By simply offering to your audience the chance to remember their products they show interest in, you will remind them about your business.
And more than this, they can use your feature as an opportunity to share lists and favorites with other people. Wishlists are great for birthdays, weddings and other celebrations gifts.
Pragmatic people prefer to send lists to their family and friends near these events in order to receive something they really like. So, if your wishlist has a functionality that allows them to share lists, it would be even better. You will not only reach your ex-visitors but also their friends, colleagues, family, etc.
What you need to do (depending on your business, of course) is to let users create multiple lists. Moreover, give them the choice to set them private or shared.
Don’t forget: word of mouth is one of the most effective strategies for a business. You don’t want to miss this.
#3. They help you keep an eye on what your clients want
You may be tempted to say that you don’t need a wishlist from this point of view since you already know which your best-selling products are.
The problem is that what users want is not always the equivalent of what they buy.
Keep in mind that there are certain items people don’t buy without an additional opinion or thought.
An important decision-maker can be the price. You can easily analyze the data from your webshop. Is a certain product in all the wishlists, but no one is buying it?
Maybe the price is too high, or the quality is too low. Now that you are aware of this, you can test various solutions in order to improve your conversion rate.
#4. They help you properly anticipate stock levels
Working with stocks can be difficult sometimes, especially when you just started a business and you don’t know much about the buying trends of your audience. Wishlists can offer precious information that you can use in order to anticipate stock levels. Moreover, you can analyze the users’ locations and make lists with the best sellers for each county.
#5. You can use them to provide tailored marketing
In today’s advertising context, consumers are daily receiving marketing messages: each website they visit is filled with banners, their email inbox is flooded with promotional newsletters they didn’t subscribe for, and their social media newsfeed is full of display ads.
Tailored marketing is a must these days since it can help you regain your prospects’ attention. Use wishlists as sources of information about your audiences’ interests. Don’t hesitate to follow up with your audience with messages that generate sales.
Here’s what you can try:
- Low stock warnings: the fear of missing out will kick in and the sales will increase;
- Product reviews: send them reviews about the products they added to their wishlist;
- Special discounts: it is important to set a limited length of time for these offers (ex: 2 days);
- Reminders: once in a while it will not harm you to send some friendly reminders about the products they saved on their wishlists.
These are the most important benefits provided by a webshop wishlist. Maybe you think you can skip this feature from your website. The problem is that if you don’t provide it, your competitors will.
