Buying gifts for someone can be tough. Sometimes it seems as though life is an endless array of birthdays and anniversaries. But nothing compares to the winter holiday season, when consumers are on the hunt for the perfect gift for everyone they know.
A current ecommerce trend that is making gift buying easier is the online “wish list”. Recipients can save a list of products they want from an online store, and friends and family can purchase these items with just a few clicks.
So, as the holiday season approaches, online businesses should consider offering online wish lists to improve consumers’ shopping experience on their site, and consequently boost holiday sales.
Here are three ways that adding a wish list to your store is a good business strategy to increase online sales:
New Competitive Advantage
Perhaps the biggest argument for online wish lists is, “Everyone else is doing it.” The assumption is that with big-name retailers like Amazon and Walmart providing this service, smaller retailers could have a difficult time competing, especially during the frantic holiday season. But a wish list is a tool you can add to your site at little to no cost, giving customers the convenience of saving items they want in one place. If your website is hosted on an ecommerce platform like Bigcommerce, the wish list feature may already be available by default. There are also many different wish list plugins you can integrate on popular platforms like WordPress.
Reach New Customers
Consumers can share the link to their wish lists via email, word-of-mouth or across social media accounts. “Check out my wish list” invitations can be tweeted or shared on Facebook, where friends, family, and other followers can click on the link and browse all of the items on a person’s list. In the process, these customers are familiarizing themselves with your online business and possibly creating accounts of their own. This built-in marketing will reach audiences that you may not have been able to reach on your own.
Foster Customer Loyalty
Wish lists can encourage customers to return to a site throughout the year. Why? They may decide to add items as they are browsing, rather than wait until a birthday or major holiday. Then, they will come back to the list to share it with family and friends as a gift-giving holiday approaches. Since the customers who build a wish list are likely already fans of a brand’s products, wish lists reward that loyalty and keep customers coming back.
Online wish lists have become a growing trend in ecommerce for good reason. They make life easier for both gift givers and recipients, while also improving a business’s sales. The holiday season is the perfect time to add this service, so that customers will keep coming back to your website long after the season is over.