A wishlist is a list of products a shopper saves on an online shop to come back to later, without putting them in the basket. UK shops often label it “Saved items” or “Favourites” and mark it with a heart icon.
How a wishlist works
When a shopper taps the heart on a product, the shop records that item against them. If they are logged in, the list is stored with their account and follows them across devices. If they are not, it is usually kept in their browser, so it disappears if they clear their data or switch from phone to laptop. That is why many shops invite guests to sign in or create an account to keep their list.
The list then does several jobs. The shopper can return to it, move items to the basket or share it, which is why wishlists are popular for gifts, weddings and birthdays. The business can see which products are saved most and send messages about the saved items, such as a back-in-stock alert or a price-drop notice.
Analytics and ad platforms have events for this. GA4 has a recommended add_to_wishlist event and Meta has an AddToWishlist standard event, so saves can be measured and, where consent allows, used to build audiences.
Why it matters
A save is a clear signal of interest from someone who is not ready to buy today: they are comparing, waiting for payday or waiting for a sale. A wishlist turns that moment into something you can follow up, rather than losing the visitor entirely when they leave. It also builds first-party data about what your customers want, and it is cheap research: products that are saved often but rarely bought point to a price, sizing or stock problem worth investigating.
In the UK, PECR applies at two points. Keeping a list in the browser because a shopper asked you to is generally treated as part of a service they requested, but passing that activity to ad platforms through tracking pixels needs consent through your cookie banner. And emails about saved items count as marketing unless they are a specific alert the shopper asked for, such as notice when one item is back in stock; anything wider needs marketing consent or must meet the conditions of the soft opt-in.
Common mistakes
- Forcing account sign-up before the first save, which stops many people using the feature at all.
- Saving lists only in the browser, so they vanish when a shopper changes device.
- Collecting saves and never using them: no alerts, no reports, no audiences.
- Sending price-drop or low-stock emails to people who never agreed to marketing.
- Low-stock messages that are not true, which create false urgency and can mislead customers.
- Not tracking the event, so nobody knows whether savers go on to buy.
How to act on it
If your shop has no wishlist, check whether your platform or theme offers one before adding an app. Make the save action visible on category and product pages, let guests save without an account, then invite them to sign in to keep their list.
Track saves as an event in GA4 and your ad platforms, and compare how often savers buy with how often other visitors do. Set up automated messages for those who have agreed to receive them: back in stock, price reduced, and a gentle reminder after a week or two. These sit naturally beside browse abandonment emails in your wider email automation.
For paid social, savers can form a website custom audience of warm prospects, shown the products they saved through catalogue ads. That is one of the audiences I use when setting up Facebook retargeting campaigns, where consent and tracking allow.