5 benefits, that a wishlist brings to online stores

These days, a great majority of Internet users checks reviews of individual shops before buying from them. Internet users compare different offers to find the most attractive ones. Getting a customer to visit our website is not enough to convince them to conclude a transaction. We need to look after our customers at all stages of the purchase process, also after the sale. This article will tell you what a wishlist is and what role it plays in the sale process.

The e-commerce sector is growing dynamically, as more and more online stores are being established. There are not a lot of things that cannot be purchased without leaving the comfort of one’s home. The Internet also enables its users to check reviews of specific brands and products and to compare products and services offered. Over 60% of respondents declare that they seek opinions on online stores before making a purchase. Nearly 80% compare offers of different stores. On average, before concluding a transaction, users compare 3 different websites.

The above statistics show the level of competition on the e-commerce market. In order not to be left on the sidelines, we need to keep reminding customers about our business. This labour-intensive task has created the need to automate certain marketing activities. The use of the latest technologies in marketing not only lets us save more time as we do not need to carry out certain laborious tasks ourselves, but it also allows us to engage in activities that would not be possible to complete without technology. Computers and modern technological solutions that allow personalisation of corporate messages solve the issue of a lack of personal contact with the customer.

Should you focus on looking after your existing customers or on gaining new ones?

Both those aspects are obviously important, but it is easy to forget about the existing customers by assuming that as they have already reached our store, there is no point in fighting for them anymore, so we should focus on attracting new customers instead. So is it worth investing in returning customers? Definitely so! Acquiring a new customer costs on average 6 times more (sic!) than keeping an existing one.

Image 1: Acquiring a new customer costs 6 times more than keeping an existing one. It is, therefore, worth investing in the ways of retrieving clients.

We have written about customer re-acquisition on a number of occasions. In this article, you will find all the necessary information on newsletters. You can find out how to collect and use customer data here, and here you will learn how amazingly efficient transaction scenarios are. Today, we will focus on a function which is not widely discussed, but which should definitely be featured in any store. We are talking about the wishlist.

What is a wishlist?

The wishlist mechanism is very simple. Let’s imagine a customer visits our online store, browses through products and decides to buy one of them. They want to add it to the basket, but they are unable to do so, as the product is temporarily unavailable, for example, the warehouse stock has gone or the size or color the customer is interested in is not available. It is easy to imagine that such a situation may be very frustrating to the customer. This is the time when a wishlist comes handy. This function enables the customer to request a notification when the product they are interested in is back in stock at the store. All they need to do is to provide their e-mail address, and the system will send them an automatic message.

Image 2: If the product is sold out, a customer can subscribe for a wishlist and be notified when the product is available again.

What are the advantages of using a wishlist?

1. Increased sales

We should consider that in the situation described above, when the product reappears in the store, we already have a customer for it who is just waiting to be notified. This means that the product will be probably sold quickly. The customer may also forget that they wanted to buy a specific product, but your reminder will prompt them to complete the transaction.

2. Automation

If we were to notify customers ourselves that a product they are interested in is available again, we would most likely be unable to do so, especially if the product assortment at our store is wide and the number of orders placed is high. Automation of the process takes care of this task for us, making it faster and allowing us to avoid a number of mistakes, as machines make errors much less frequently than people.

3. Premieres

A wishlist works well not only in case of temporarily unavailable products. It can also be used when we are planning to premiere a new product at the store, such as a new model of some gadget. In this scenario, interested customers can sign up to the wishlist and get a notification when the product is available, so that they can buy it straight away.

Image 3: Wishlist can also be used for a new product premiere.

4. Lead generation and customer identification

In order to use the wishlist function, the customer needs to provide their e-mail address. So if it is the first time the user visits your store, e-mail address provision is key for the eCRM system to identify them. Moreover, once you have their e-mail address, you can contact them, sending them special offers and recommendations.

5. Building customer brand attachment

After subscribing to a wishlist, the customer will probably receive an e-mail from you within a few days or weeks, depending on how quickly you „restock the shelves”. Even if they find the same or a similar product in a different store in the meantime, you will simply remind them about your business, which means a lot in the process of building brand loyalty.

High quality customer service

A wishlist simply means meeting your customers’ needs. It allows you to build their trust in your brand. It helps you to ensure a high level of customer service, as customers do not need to remember about the products they want to buy or keep checking the website every day, waiting for them to become available again.

A wishlist is not a standard marketing automation scenario, but it is without a doubt a useful function which, as described above, brings about more benefits than it may initially appear. A wishlist means meeting the needs of your customers. It is certainly a feature which helps get the customer to visit us again.

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