Wishlists, lightboxes, customer galleries...whatever name they go under there's no doubt that they are a useful feature for returning customers, interior designers or those people who just can't make their minds up. Shopping baskets expire after a time, but with a wishlist a customer can save a list of images/products in their account permanently.
Up to now, the wishlist feature on our stores has been fairly basic, but we are pleased to announce some major improvements today.
What's new?
- Wishlist images now include the print option. Prior to today, the wishlist only remembered the image. Now, if the image is art-on-demand or has extra print options (e.g. framing), then the selected print option is also saved to the wishlist.
- Multiple lists. Customers are no longer restricted to a single wishlist. Customers can create as many lists as they need.
- More control over wishlist labels. Customers can now rename their wishlists to be something more memorable or useful, and also add a small paragraph of further notes for each list. For example, a label like "Bedroom" or "Ideas for dad" is more useful that just "My wishlist".
- If a store utilises the slideshow feature, customers can view their wishlist as a slideshow using the CoolIris plugin.
- The concept of a default wishlist has been retained. A customer can nominate one of their lists to be their "default" - this is the list that the item is added to if the customer clicks "add to wishlist" without selecting a particular list first.
What does it look like?
For customers without accounts, the process appears unchanged. The "add to wishlist" button adds the item to a temporary list. If the customer wants to save their wishlist permanently, they are prompted to create a new account or to log in. (This is where our recently added simple registration is useful as it makes saving wishlists much more appealling process for new customers.)
However, once registered, hovering over the "add to wishlist" button exposes more functionality:
Clicking the "add to wishlist" will add the item to the default list, as usual, but clicking the "more" link offers the customer more choices:
Anything new for store owners?
As a store owner, you can now view any saved wishlists through the store admin. This may be useful when dealing with a enquiry from a customer about a particular item on their list, or about the list as a whole. To view customer lists, you must first find their account. You can search accounts using last name, email address, and/or date and country, by clicking under "Accounts" and the choosing "Registered users". Under the customer's account details, any wishlists are displayed, and you can click through to view the entire list.
More to come
There is almost an endless list of possible features that can be added to wishlists (making them "public", pdf generation, and so on), but we are acutely aware that adding too many features is going to be counterproductive. Most people are happy just to have somewhere to save items for later and that's all they will ever need. Like the updates we've just announced, though, we are keen to implement new key features as the usage demands. We have our own ideas about what we can do with wishlists in the future, and we are always happy to hear feedback from both end-customers and store owners.
