A customer visited your store, found a product they wanted, and did not buy. They might come back. They might not. Without a wishlist, you have no way to know who they are, what they saved, or when to follow up.

With a wishlist, you have a declared list of purchase intent from real people who visited your store. That data is one of the most actionable signals available to an ecommerce merchant, and most stores do nothing meaningful with it beyond confirming the feature exists.

This guide covers how to implement wishlists properly, how to build the email automations that convert wishlist saves into purchases, and how to use aggregate wishlist data for promotional planning and demand forecasting.

What wishlists actually do for your store

The immediate value proposition for customers is obvious: save items to review or buy later. The less obvious value is for you.

Purchase intent signals: Every wishlist add is a signal that a customer wants a product but was not ready to buy in that session. The reasons are varied: price, timing, saving up, comparison shopping, or simply waiting for payday. These signals are far more valuable than anonymous page view data because they are attached to an identified customer.

Email personalisation fuel: Wishlist data allows you to send emails with content that is directly relevant to what a specific customer has already expressed interest in. "Your wishlist item is on sale" outperforms generic promotion emails significantly in both open rate and conversion.

Demand signals for planning: Aggregate wishlist data tells you which products are desired but not purchased. High wishlist counts with low purchase rates may indicate price sensitivity, hesitation about a specific product attribute, or stock availability concerns. This is useful for promotional planning (which products to put on sale first), buying decisions (which lines have latent demand), and product development.

Back-in-stock utility: When a product sells out, customers who have it wishlisted are your highest-priority re-engagement targets when stock returns.

Wishlist app comparison for Shopify

App	Starting Price	Key Features	Best For
Wishlist Plus (by Swym)	Free plan available, paid from £19/month	Guest wishlists, Klaviyo integration, analytics, sharing	Most merchants: best balance of features and price
Smart Wishlist	Free plan available, paid from £5/month	Simple implementation, basic analytics	Merchants wanting a lightweight low-cost option
Wishlist Hero	From £3/month	Multi-currency, customisable button	Budget merchants or multi-currency stores
Growave	From £25/month (includes wishlist + loyalty + reviews)	Bundle of features including wishlist	Merchants who want wishlist as part of a wider feature set

Wishlist Plus is the most widely used Shopify wishlist app and has the strongest Klaviyo integration, which is the primary driver of its value in terms of email automation. For any merchant who uses Klaviyo, Wishlist Plus is the recommended choice.

Smart Wishlist is a reasonable option if you want the feature on your store but do not plan to build email automations around it.

Setting up Wishlist Plus: the key configuration steps

Install Wishlist Plus from the Shopify App Store and follow the setup wizard
Enable guest wishlists: Allow customers who have not created an account to add items to a wishlist. These wishlists are stored via browser cookie. Enable the option to send an email nudge to guest wishlist users to encourage account creation or purchase.
Customise the wishlist button placement: The button should appear on product cards (collection pages) and on the product page itself. Test its visibility on both desktop and mobile.
Connect to Klaviyo: In Wishlist Plus settings, connect your Klaviyo account. This enables real-time event syncing so Klaviyo receives events like "wishlist item added," "wishlist item on sale," and "wishlist item back in stock."
Configure wishlist sharing: Enable wishlist sharing so customers can send their wishlist via link or share to social media. This is particularly valuable for gift-intent products (customers sharing wishlists ahead of birthdays or Christmas).

Building the key Klaviyo automations

Wishlist email automations are where the commercial value of a wishlist programme sits. Three flows have the highest direct revenue impact:

Price drop alert: Triggered when a product on a customer's wishlist goes on sale or its price decreases.

Trigger: Wishlist Plus sends a "product price reduced" event to Klaviyo for all customers who have that product wishlisted
Send timing: Immediately, or within 1-2 hours
Subject line example: "Good news: [Product Name] is now on sale"
Personalisation: Show the product name, the original price, and the new price
CTA: "Shop now" linking directly to the product page

Price drop alert emails consistently have high open rates (35-50% is achievable) and strong conversion because the audience is pre-qualified and the offer is directly relevant.

Back-in-stock notification: Triggered when a wishlisted product returns to stock after being out of stock.

Trigger: Product inventory transitions from 0 to >0 while customers have it wishlisted
Send timing: Immediately on restock
Subject line example: "[Product Name] is back in stock"
Include urgency: Note limited availability if stock levels are low

Back-in-stock emails from wishlist data convert at exceptionally high rates because the customer was previously ready to buy and the restock resolves the only barrier.

Wishlist reminder: Triggered when a customer has had items on their wishlist for a set period without purchasing.

Trigger: X days after wishlist add with no purchase of the wishlisted item (typically 14-21 days)
Subject line example: "Still thinking it over? Your saved items are waiting"
Show the customer's wishlisted items in the email body
Consider adding a time-limited incentive (5% off code) for the third email in the sequence if earlier reminders have not converted

This flow requires care: sending too many wishlist reminder emails feels intrusive. One email at day 14 and one at day 30 is typically appropriate. Adding a gentle discount offer on the second email improves conversion without training customers to always wait for a discount.

Using wishlist data for promotional planning

Aggregate wishlist analytics (available in Wishlist Plus's dashboard) show you which products have the highest wish count. This data is directly useful for promotion planning.

Pre-sale planning: Before a site-wide sale or specific promotion, check which products have high wishlist counts. Promoting these products specifically in your pre-sale email ("These top-wishlisted items are now included in our sale") targets exactly the customers who want them.

Black Friday preparation: In the months leading up to peak trading, wishlist adds typically increase as customers compile lists. The aggregate data shows you exactly which products are most desired at your store's specific price points. Build your BFCM pricing strategy around this data rather than guessing.

Identifying price sensitivity: A product with a high wishlist count but low conversion rate relative to its traffic may be priced at a point where customers want it but cannot justify the purchase. A targeted price test or a time-limited offer specifically promoted to wishlist customers can validate or disprove this hypothesis.

Wishlist as a social sharing and gifting tool

Wishlists have a secondary function as a social sharing mechanism. Customers who share their wishlist (via a link or to social media) are effectively promoting specific products to their network. The new visitors arriving via shared wishlist links have higher purchase intent than average traffic because they are coming with a specific product recommendation in mind.

To activate this:

Enable wishlist sharing in Wishlist Plus
Add a clear "Share your wishlist" CTA on the wishlist page
Promote wishlist sharing in communications around gifting occasions (Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's Day)

Measuring wishlist impact on revenue

Track these metrics monthly:

Metric	What to Measure
Wishlist adds per month	Volume of purchase intent signals captured
Wishlist to purchase conversion rate	% of wishlist adds that result in a purchase within 90 days
Revenue from wishlist email flows	Attributed revenue in Klaviyo from price drop, back-in-stock, and reminder flows
Shared wishlist clicks	Traffic volume from customer-shared wishlist links

Benchmark targets for a well-configured programme: wishlist-to-purchase conversion rate of 15-25% within 90 days. Revenue from wishlist email flows of 3-7% of total email revenue.

Key actions to take now

Install Wishlist Plus and enable guest wishlists: The free plan is sufficient to start. Upgrade to a paid plan when you are ready to build Klaviyo integrations.
Add the wishlist button to collection pages, not just product pages: Most wishlist implementations only show the button on the product detail page. Adding it to collection page cards captures saves earlier in the browse journey and increases overall wishlist adds.
Build the price drop alert flow in Klaviyo this week: This is the highest-ROI single automation from wishlist data. Set it up for immediate deployment when any wishlisted product price decreases.
Build a back-in-stock flow from wishlist data: If you have products that sell out regularly, this flow can recover a significant number of sales that would otherwise be lost to out-of-stock friction.
Export your aggregate wishlist data before your next promotion: Before you plan your next sale, check which products have the most wishlist adds. Prioritise these in your promotional communications.
Add wishlist sharing CTA ahead of gifting seasons: Enable wishlist sharing and promote it specifically in October and early November for Christmas, and in January for Valentine's Day. Shared wishlists drive new visitor traffic with unusually high purchase intent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do wishlists require customers to have an account? With Wishlist Plus, no. Guest wishlists are supported, meaning customers can add items to a wishlist without creating an account. Guest wishlist data is stored via browser cookie. The limitation is that guest wishlists cannot be synced across devices and are lost if the browser cookie is cleared. A prompt to create an account to save the wishlist permanently helps convert guest wishlist users to registered accounts.

How many customers actually use wishlists? Usage varies significantly by product type. Categories with considered purchase behaviour (furniture, electronics, fashion, jewellery) see higher wishlist usage than impulse purchase categories. For considered purchase categories, wishlist usage by 3-8% of store visitors is a reasonable expectation. Lower-AOV impulse categories may see less than 1%.

Can I use wishlist data to personalise my homepage or collection pages? Not natively within most wishlist apps. However, if you use a personalisation platform like Nosto or LimeSpot, you can integrate wishlist data into product recommendation logic to surface wishlisted items when a customer returns to your store. This is a more advanced implementation but improves both the browsing experience and conversion.

What happens to wishlist data if a product is deleted from the store? Wishlisted products that are deleted from your store will show as unavailable in the customer's wishlist. Most wishlist apps handle this gracefully, displaying the item as out of stock or unavailable rather than removing it silently. You should notify customers when wishlisted products are discontinued if possible, or redirect them to a replacement product.

Shopify Wishlists: How to Use Them to Recover Lost Sales and Plan Promotions