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How does Amazon wish list work

Holidays and celebrations present us with a difficult task: What to get your loved ones. And sometimes that’s not easy to understand (or to afford it in just one click).

To make it easier to choose among the huge number of things there is Amazon Wish List. Thanks to it, you can give the person what they want!

What is an Amazon Wish List?

Amazon Wish List is a gift list where you can put all the things you would like to get from your friends or family. They will also have access to this list in order to purchase the things you would like. 

The quick history of Amazon Wish List

In October 1999 the concept of the Amazon Wish List was born. People could create a list of specific things they wanted as gifts, making life easier for others. 

From the beginning, it was conceived to help grandparents and parents of children who were unsure of their children’s tastes. Nowadays, that has changed and taken on a different meaning. 

Amazon Wish List also helps sellers sell more products, as it let people to save items to the list and allow customers to purchase items in the future.

How do you form a Wish List

Initially, the concept was quite simple. Once you were on the item page, you could add the item to your wish list or to your personal shopping cart. After buying an item from the Wish List, the item was removed, so that no two identical purchases occurred.

But there were privacy and security concerns, and we had to take this feature more seriously.

Now Amazon made editable wish lists and everyone who was invited can add or remove items, as well as change their quantity. Also, the creator of the wish list can decide who gets access to it. But until 2018, recipients could only view and share the wish list but were not allowed to modify it. This feature was only available for Amazon’s wedding registry.

What are the benefits of Amazon Wish List for sellers

If you’re a seller, it’s reasonable to want to know how you can use – to increase sales. To find out the answer you need to understand why buyers add items to their lists.

  • By adding an item to the list, the buyer has the way to look at it at any given time, and also not to lose it.
  • The buyer wants to keep track of price changes for the product they want to buy, so they can buy it at a lower price. Amazon is always sending messages and letting them know that the price has changed and also by how much it has changed.
  • Maybe the product isn’t available in the color or style that the customer would like. By adding it to the list the person can wait until the color or style they want is in stock.
  • The customer wants to see reviews and compare prices of similar items.
  • Also after adding things to the list the potential buyer may want to share the product or the entire wish list with his family and friends.

What can the seller do to make good use of the Amazon Wish List

Let’s not forget that the wish list isn’t made as a “selling” tool.  But there are still options for attracting buyers.

  1. Use email to send out ads

When creating wish lists, buyers often expect prices to go down. You can use this and send out messages about it and more. Many businesses do this.

  1. Use social media.

Using social media can go beyond the website. You can also promote the product by motivating people to share their wish list on social media as part of a contest.

  1. Offer customers gift options.

Since the wish list was invented specifically for holiday gifts, it’s worth using that as well. You can combine items to form gift sets, and you can also create a list of gift ideas. 

How to create an Amazon Wish List

Before you create your wish list, make sure you have an Amazon account. If you have one, then create one.

Creating a wish list:

  1. Go to accounts and lists (it’s in the top right corner of the homepage) and click ‘create a list’
  2. In the menu which appears choose for whom the list will be created (for you or for someone else) and choose the type of the list as a wish list
  3. In the text field “Name of the list” write the name of the list. Choose if you want it to be private or not. If you choose public, it can be seen by everyone. Your private list can be seen only by the people you choose.
  4. Click ‘create a list’

How to manage your Amazon Wish List?

If you want, you can customize your list, or you can delete it at all. To customize your wish list, do the following

  • Go to “Accounts and Lists” on the home page. under the section called your lists, select the list you are interested in.
  • Click the ‘More’ button on the right. Then, click the ‘Manage list’ button.
  • You now have the option to change your last name, email address, shipping address, your name, privacy settings, birthday, website, etc.
  • Under the shipping address you will see 3 options to choose from:
    • Keep purchased items on your list
    • Don’t spoil my surprises
    • Default list

If you choose the ‘Keep purchased items’ on your list option, all items on your list will be saved, even if someone bought them for you. They will be highlighted along with the date of the last purchase.

If the list you created is a gift list, select ‘Don’t spoil my surprises’. In this case, the purchased items on the list will be displayed for a few weeks. And if you try to buy any item, you’ll get a warning that you’re buying a duplicate item.

Select what works for you and click ‘Save Changes’.

How to add items to your Amazon wishlist

When you view an item, you have the option to choose to add to your wish list. This option is under the purchase field in the drop-down menu that says Add to list.

How do I share my Amazon Wish List with others?

You have the option to create multiple lists with different settings.  You can share your wish list with multiple users or with all of them.  To share your wish list, all you have to do is change your privacy settings and then share a link to it.

To change your wish list privacy settings, you need to:

  1. From the list page, choose Advanced > Manage List.
  2. Under Privacy, select either General or Public. The “Public” list can be viewed by anyone. “Public” can only be seen by the people you send the link to. The “Private” list will be hidden from everyone.
  3. Click Save Changes

How to find a public wish list

You can easily find someone’s list on Amazon if it has public status

  1. Open the search page by going to “Find Roster/List” or hovering over “Accounts and Lists,” click “Your Lists > Your Friends”
  2. Enter the name of the person whose list you want to find.
  3. Click Search.
  4. In the search results, click the person’s name and view their wish list.
Jane Weisenthal
Jane Weisenthal
Jane Weisenthal is a Senior Editor at Splaitor, covering Tech and Consumer Tech Business. She joined Splaitor back in 2019 and was the first person to be hired by Splaitor.com. She graduated with a degree in general accounting.

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