An Article – May,
2002
e-Registries are still relatively new, and yet people understand the concept well as
most everyone has been exposed to the off-line version. They have seen or used a wedding list or made
a list for grocery shopping or for Christmas or a birthday at some time in
their lives.
The e-registry concept is ideally suited to the
Internet because of its intrinsic “community” nature. Bringing people closer
together. And linking as it does
to the product and a place to buy, it is more precise
than an ordinary offline list. It is
therefore better than its offline counterpart, not just an online version of an
offline idea.
E-registries work in two main ways:
·
To create a place to make
a gift registry for an event or occasion that you can share with friends and
relatives
·
A personal private
shopping list were you can put the things you want to buy, but not immediately
– a place to put the things you might otherwise have abandoned from a shopping
cart, but may buy later
While the former may be the impetus for
starting a list – the later will become the major usage over time.
E-Registries
are useful online because shopping online is not the same as being in a
store. When someone’s in a retail “brick
and mortar” store and they see items that they want to purchase now they put
them in their cart and move on towards the checkout. Items they may want, but not now, they make a
mental note of. ( “I
saw a shirt I liked in the Polo store downtown” ). If they want to buy that shirt later they’ll
retrace their steps to the downtown Polo store and buy it. In an online store if customers see something
they want to buy later they have no geography to help them find their way back
to that place they saw the shirt. As a
result they may put that item in the store’s shopping cart, but when they get
to checkout they abandon that item. The
chances of them finding their way back to that exact item are minimal. The chance of being able to direct a friend,
parent or spouse back to that exact item are even more
remote.
“Wishlists”
help people find their way back to that item and help them direct others to
that item – easily and simply and exactly.
Why “Universal” Wishlists make most sense
Most people’s introduction to a wishlist will
come at a merchant or online store.
Online stores are quickly recognizing that they’re getting a lot of
“abandoned shopping carts”. This
abandonment is happening for many reason and is well
documented – shipping charges being the purported No.1 offender. But partly people abandon carts because they
simply weren’t that ready to buy. They
only added the item to the cart as a way of hanging on to it a bit longer. Online stores are seeing Wishlists as a way
to save the information about the item and the customer in one place and a way
to remind the customer what they were thinking last time they
were there. That’s all well and good for
the store, but what of the customer? For
the customer, it only make sense if they come back to
that site otherwise the information is lost.
And even then it only makes sense if the customer is still in the market
for that particular product.
What’s more, say I set up wishlists at six
different stores, I have to visit six different stores
to see the content of my wishlists.
That’s crazy! Crazier still
would be the expectation that any of my friends are going to go to six
different stores, look up my wishlists at each and choose a gift for me. And that’s six more stores that are, likely
as not, going to be emailing me about special promotions. No way.
It’s OK if you’re getting married and everything you want is at one
store. Or if you only shop at one store
anyway, but that defeats much of the purpose of the
Internet.
There’s another use for a universal wishlists
that isn’t altogether obvious: Comparison Shopping. Say you want to buy a digital video
recorder. You probably have half a
dozen places you think you might buy it from or find it. You search around the Internet for shops and
sites that have it. Every one you find
that you like the look of you can add to your list with the price and
specs. When you think you’ve exhausted
the places to find them or have enough options you can then return to your
list. Now you have a list – with links –
to all the products and the prices. It
makes it much easier to make the comparison from the list than from your own
memory.
Since the Internet is supposed to empower
individuals, as they become more comfortable and familiar with wishlists
they’ll definitely want to take control of their wishlists.
The first thing netizens
should demand of their wishlist is that it works everywhere at any online store
– a “universal wishlist”. Everyone
should get a universal wishlist and learn their way around it. Just as everyone should find a search engine
and find out how best to use that.
Beyond universality here are some things netizens should look for in a wishlist.
You should be able to:
-
You need to have a
shopping list that’s completely private
-
Stipulate the security
and public viewership of your wishlist
-
Password protect your
lists – and do different things with different lists you may want some people
to see some lists and others to see other lists
-
Name lists whatever you
want to call them so you can make lists for any occasion
-
Have as many different
lists as you like
-
Move items easily between
lists
-
Keep a track of who’s
bought stuff from you list
-
Delete, modify items
freely
-
Ask for more than one of
a particular item
-
Add supplemental lists
for your kids to use that’s COPPA compliant
-
Add offline items and
generic wishes like “I want world peace” because it add some depth and
individuality to one list.
-
Use multiple currencies
as the Internet knows know boundaries
-
A simple sharing mechanism
and hassle free contact lists
-
A strict privacy policy
So where do you go for this? Well there are several sites out there that
have universal wishlists.
TheThingsIWant.com is the only one that satisfies all of the above
criteria.
TheThingsIWant.com
is also available in
Spanish
(www.milistadedeseos.com) and
Portuguese
(www.coisasquequero.com)