The e-commerce environment has become extremely competitive as new platforms, businesses and services are becoming available for anyone. Creating an online store takes a matter of minutes. Maintaining and turning it into a business takes a lot more dedication, time and knowledge. Offering your visitors a great on-site experience is key to converting them into returning clients. For this you need to explore and invest in using the most useful tools at your disposal.
Many online shops use wishlists as tools that have the role of helping customers store their desired products in a basket or virtual list until they are ready to buy. For an e-commerce to offer the option of keeping products in a wishlist has the advantage of lowering the rate of shopping cart abandonment.
The advantages of a wishlist
- Lowering the rate of shopping cart abandonment. With the ability to create wishlists, the user is no longer forced to put his/her products in the shopping cart in order to save them for further purchases.
- It helps to learn your customer’s needs.
- It enables you to create discounts that work. Take advantage of the existence of a wishlist. Knowing beforehand the user’s preferences, you’ll have the opportunity to turn him/her into a buyer. Offering a discount for the product/s in the wishlist will boost their desire to purchase.
- Increase the return rate of a user. If a user is investing time in creating a personal space on your website, the chances of them returning are much higher.
How can you turn a product from a wishlist into a sale?
Notify the client by email if the desired product is back in stock (in case this product was unavailable at the time of creating the wishlist).
Users do not check the website daily if the desired product is available or on sale. To help the process of completing the transaction, you can notify the best time to purchase via e-mail.
Personalized discounts
If the role of a discounts campaign is to increase sales, why not increase the proportion of sales by offering users promotions to products desired by them? Even if you cannot satisfy everyone, you can check the most viewed products and offer discounts on them.
Customized emails
If creating a wishlist does not require registration, this option gives you the chance to collect email addresses. Towards the end of the visit on the website, set a pop-up message. It should offer the visitors the opportunity to receive an email with the wishlist they created. If the visitor accepts this offer, all viewed products will be sent in a customized mail. This option is desirable for customers who visit your website on mobile devices and want to continue the session on a computer.
What should it contain:
- E-mail notification for added products. If the product in the wishlist was out of stock, the user should receive an e-mail when it is available for purchase.
- Ability to share the wishlist with several people. This is ideal for users who want to receive these products as gifts for the holidays, birthdays or special events.
- The ability to sort products by price. It is an important feature especially if you share your wishlist with someone and the person is looking for a product based on dedicated budget.
- Notification when product price decreases.
- Ability to delete items from your wishlist.
- “Buy now” button. The possibility of easily transferring products from the wishlist to the shopping cart is imperative for the process of completing an order.
- The ability of creating multiple wishlists and giving them individual names.
- If the product was bought, a notice must appear to remove the product from the wishlist.
In conclusion, if your virtual store benefits or not from a wishlist, it’s time to invest time in creating and optimizing it. If you are unsure of its benefits, try an A / B test to see its functionality and visitors’ interactions. You will not be disappointed.
Article written by e-Commerce Team
