How to Use Wishlists to Boost Your Holiday Sales Increase holiday sales by trying something new.
By Syed Balkhi Edited by Heather Wilkerson
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
With the holidays literally right around the corner, businesses need to come up with attention-grabbing holiday marketing strategies to encourage shoppers to buy from them. But with so many businesses trying to catch customer attention with flashy sales, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Try something new -- wishlists!
Most kids grew up writing wishlists to Santa or handing a wishlist of dream items to their parents. And the fun of wishlists doesn't stop after childhood; people of all ages love wishlists. This holiday season, use wishlists to bring cheer to your target customers and drive more holiday sales. Here's how.
Related: How to Boost Holiday Sales With Relevance and Timing
Allow users to create a wishlist online.
First things first. You need to allow users to create wishlists on your eCommerce site. In fact, a wishlist feature is a must-have for eCommerce sites today. Wishlists let shoppers curate a list of items they want but aren't ready to buy right now; they're like reminders to purchase things in the future. When a shopper is ready to buy from your business they can head right to their wishlist and add items to their cart.
But during the holidays, people will want to share their wishlists with their family members and friends. That's why you need to make sure your wishlists have share buttons like Sephora wishlists have in the example below.
With a wishlist sharing feature, instead of only having the wishlist creator shopping at your business, all of their family and friends will be buying from you too.
Remember, wishlists also give your business a peek at the hopes and dreams of your customers. Since you can see all of the items on their wishlist, you know what they're most interested in. Your business can use this data to create personalized marketing messages that resonate with them year-round. The benefits of wishlists are never-ending.
Show what shoppers are adding to their wishlists.
To boost sales this holiday season, you can also show website visitors what other shoppers are adding to their wishlists. Displaying items that are the most wished-for acts as a form of social proof; when people see that other shoppers are adding an item to their wishlists, they'll be encouraged to add it to their own wishlist.
Check out how Amazon does it below with their "Most Wished For" list, broken down into categories:
Displaying a "Most Wished For" list on your eCommerce site will help shoppers discover hot items that might not have been on their radar before.
Related: Now's the Time to Rev Up Your Holiday Supply Chain for Increased Holiday Sales
Create wishlist roundup blog posts.
Speaking of helping shoppers discover new, awesome products, your business can also recommend particular items to customers by creating wishlist roundup blog posts. Companies like Buzzfeed do this all the time by crafting blog posts like "21 Cool Gift Ideas for Gamers" and "18 Sleep Products for Anyone Who Lives to Nap." Wishlist blog posts allow you to promote the products you want consumers to buy and they help your customers find the perfect gifts for everyone.
Plus, holiday wishlist blog posts can help you drive more traffic to your site. Tons of users search Google for phrases like "best gifts for moms" and "gifts ideas for teens" around the holidays. So, when you create wishlist roundup blog posts, you increase your online store's chances of being discovered online.
Send wishlist reminder emails to subscribers to boost holiday sales.
So, you've allowed users to create wishlists on your eCommerce site, awesome! But, to encourage users to actually buy items from their wishlist this holiday season, you need to send wishlist reminder emails to your subscribers. Email is one of the most powerful ways to drive sales during the holidays. In fact, according to Adobe, email was the fourth-highest revenue driver for Cyber Monday 2018.
Leading up to the holidays you can send emails to remind users of the items they have on their wishlist. You can even offer them a discount if they purchase items from their wishlist like Birchbox does in the example below:
You should also send wishlist reminder emails when an item is close to being out of stock to give shoppers a chance to buy before it's too late and reminders when an item on their wishlist is back in stock as well.
Related: Holiday Sales are Here, And Mostly on Mobile Devices
Over to you.
If boosting sales is No. 1 on your business' wishlist, then delight your customers and your audience with wishlists of their own this holiday season. Shoppers will be making lists and checking them twice -- and most importantly, buying.
