WooCommerce Wishlists

How WooCommerce Wishlist Plugins Can Foster Customer Loyalty and Sales

For greater personalization for your store, there's a lot right with WooCommerce wishlist plugins. This guide looks at some options, and runs through how to use one!
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If you’re a WooCommerce store owner, you’ll likely want to find ways to retain customers, especially potential buyers. Your marketing skills come in useful here, but there’s another approach that works on me (and millions of others) as a customer. WooCommerce wishlist plugins let you save your store’s products for easy access. This can promote loyalty, give customers a reason to return, and ultimately, help them spend.

I’m going to look at a few WooCommerce wishlist plugins in this post, and cover what wishlists are, why you’d use them, and more. At the end, I’ll also take one solution for a spin and show you how to use it.

What a Wishlist Is (And Why You’d Use One)

In short, a wishlist lets customers save a product on your site in a list for later. There are a few reasons why they might not buy straight away. They may not like the colors or sizes on offer, the price might be outside of their budget. In some cases, the visitor may not even want to buy. They may simply want to collate ideas for gifts, or a future birthday or holiday.

A wishlist page for a single account on a WooCommerce store.

Regardless, while they could copy and paste the product page’s URL to save it for later, they probably won’t. Cart abandonment rates are around 70 percent on average, so it’s likely that if a customer doesn’t complete the checkout, they’ll never come back.

As such, if the customer saves to a wishlist and leaves the site, this benefits you in a few ways:

  • The customer won’t become just another statistic in relation to your cart abandonment rate.
  • To save to the wishlist, the user would likely have to sign up for a store account. This is an advantageous situation for you, as you have a more qualified customer on your hands.
  • The wishlist is a great aspect of personalization. The more personalized your site is, the greater the customer loyalty and chance of a sale.

Your site’s User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) should also improve. For instance, the visitor won’t need to hunt the product down next time they come to your site. Instead, they can head to their account page, browse their wishlist, and add it to the cart. It also gives them a way to share products, or even the wishlist itself.

WooCommerce wishlist plugins let you add this functionality to your site with ease, and without coding. In the next section, we’ll look at what these plugins can offer you.

The Functionality of WooCommerce wishlist plugins

Beyond the fundamentals of WooCommerce wishlist plugins, there are a few other ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ you should consider. For example, add-to-cart buttons on your wishlist pages can give a user the nudge to complete a purchase. It’s a constant reminder that they have an interest in the product, and should do something about it!

A wishlist showing Add to Cart buttons for each products on the list.

We mention it in the previous section, but giving customers the option to share wishlists could net further sales. However, you should also give users the option to hide wishlists if necessary. Privacy is vital for any functionality you include, but a wishlist for some customers should also be a ‘safe space’.

Offering a way to organize products into distinct categories is a good idea too, using multiple wishlists per user. The concept of multiple wishlists can also link in with sharing options to bolster your sales.

The option to add a product to multiple wishlists within a WooCommerce wishlist plugin.

Some WooCommerce wishlist plugins may also include ways to highlight saved items. For instance, you could send an email or display a notification to let a user know about a sale item on the wishlist.

A wishlist showing a sale price for selected products on the list.

Not every plugin will offer these, and some will provide even more. While WooCommerce wishlist plugins can be straightforward, each will have a different focus. This means choosing the right plugin for your site’s needs is crucial.

4 Examples of Excellent WooCommerce Wishlist Plugins

Next, we’ll go through a few options of WooCommerce wishlist plugins. As you’ll see, each has its own focus, and we’ll look to mention what that is when relevant. After the roundup, we’ll take one solution and walk you through how to use it.

1. TI WooCommerce Wishlist Plugin

The first plugin on the list is TI WooCommerce Wishlist. This includes a lot in the box, with the free version being one of the most feature-rich on this list. It’s arguably one of the most popular WooCommerce wishlist plugins too, with over 100,000 active installations and more than 400 five-star reviews.

The TI WooCommerce Wishlist plugin header image from WordPress.org

This plugin is more of a general-purpose solution that gives you core wishlist functionality, but looks to add further features for all sorts of use cases:

  • The plugin integrates with WooCommerce, and adds an Add to Wishlist and Add to Cart button for each product page.
  • Products will disappear from the wishlist once you add them to the cart.
  • You have plenty of ways to customize how the wishlist icon looks, the position of the buttons, the color scheme, and much more – both with and without the need for code.
  • There are social sharing options for Facebook, X/Twitter, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and more.
  • You get lots of technical options too, such as wishlist privacy settings and redirects once you add a product to your wishlist.

TI WooCommerce Wishlist offers both free and premium versions. The premium version starts at $79 per year for a single site license with one year of updates and support.

2. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

Next is YITH WooCommerce Wishlist. The developer has recently become part of the Bluehost family of products, and its wishlist plugin represents a straightforward and slimline integration.

The YITH WooCommerce Wishlist plugin header from WordPress.org.

When it comes to the free version of the plugin, the features and functionality are minimal:

  • You’re able to save products to the wishlist, assign a page to it within WordPress, and customize how that wishlist table looks on the front end.
  • There are options to display the Add to Wishlist buttons for the Shop page, and the Remove from Wishlist link for products in the list.
  • The plugin gives you support for product variations too, and will save your selections to the wishlist.

YITH WooCommerce Wishlist will be greate where you only want uncomplicated implementation for your store. Other users agree, as it has over 900,000 active installations, complete with around 160 five-star reviews.

However, it’s worth noting that while there are a lot of one-star reviews, most are from over a year ago. I’m happy with how the plugin performs, and there were no issues for me during testing. Even so, read through those reviews for yourself before you commit – especially for the premium version, which starts from $99.99 per year.

3. WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce

WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce might be my favorite plugin on this list. This is down to the functionality in its hefty free version, its focus on the purchasing flow, and the cost of a premium upgrade.

The WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce plugin header image from WordPress.org.

You may not ever need the premium upgrade though. I can’t list everything this plugin offers, as it provides a wealth of functionality to dive into:

  • You can edit the ‘action’ that takes place once a user clicks to add a product to the wishlist. For instance, you can display a message, open a product list, and edit the text that displays.
  • There’s plenty of customization options to make the wishlist fit your store’s design. There’s a full color palette for the pop-up, the ability to set a position for the links that works for you, full editing of the Continue Shopping link, and more.
  • You get to choose whether the wishlist is available for users with an account or not, and options to enable and disable sharing buttons and links.
  • The purchasing flow is of prime importance. For example, you can manage all aspects of adding, removing, closing, and checking out the wishlist. Also, the plugin uses a ‘smart’ way to display product items within the wishlist, which means customers won’t need to navigate away to add a product to the cart.

In short, WPC Smart Wishlist’s free version is likely all you’ll need. However, a premium version that starts from $29 for a lifetime license lets users manage multiple wishlists and add notes for individual products.

4. WishSuiteΒ 

WishSuite is a ‘sleeper’ plugin, in that it’s new with only around 1,000 installs. However, for a plugin that is only at version 1.4, it offers a depth of functionality that more mature options can’t deliver on.

The WishSuite plugin header from WordPress.org.

In a similar vein to WPC Smart Wishlist, WishSuite has so much in the box that I can’t list everything it offers. Here’s a quick snatch of the functionality:

  • You (of course) have all the fundamentals of a WooCommerce wishlist plugin, such as the ability to add the button to almost any page on your site.
  • I like the efforts to give your users a ‘quality of life’ boost. By this, I mean functionality such as actions to remove items from the wishlist once they are in the cart, and to double-click to remove a product from the list.
  • You have lots of ways to customize the wishlists and presentation. There are style settings for the wishlist buttons, visibility settings for various elements, a raft of table customization options, and much more.
  • I like the option to receive a notification when a user adds or removes products from the wishlist. It would help me (and you!) to better understand ‘attractive’ products, and develop more sales opportunities.

The best thing about WishSuite is that the plugin is completely free, with no premium version available. This means you can have the entire feature set without impacting your budget!

How to Set Up WooCommerce Wishlists Plugins with WordPress (Featuring WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce)

Let’s get into how to use one of these plugins to implement a wishlist on your WooCommerce store. For this, I’m going to feature WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce as it was my favorite. However, you could transpose this walkthrough to most options you come across.

In short, you install the plugin, run through the onboarding wizard and/or settings, then add a shortcode or Block for the wishlist to a dedicated page. Once you install and activate the plugin, you can begin to run through the setup process.

1. Configure the Plugin

Once you activate the plugin, look for the WPClever > Smart Wishlist link within WordPress:

The WordPress dashboard showing the Smart Wishlist link.

Clicking this will bring you to the main settings screen where you’ll set the wishlist up:

The WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce settings page.

You could choose to leave these at the default, as the plugin is full-functioning upon install. Even so, there are a few options I’d customize before moving on:

  • Auto remove. This deletes the product from the wishlist once you add it to the cart. I like the subtle nudge this gives the customer to buy.
  • Multiple wishlists. I’d turn this on, and set a maximum number of wishlists for the customer. This lets them organize products in a way that makes sharing easier.
  • Action. This lets you decide what happens when a customer adds a product to the wishlist. I’ll go over the default choice here in the next section, as it’s the one I’d stick with. However, there’s value in simply adding the product to a wishlist without displaying the full list too.

This particular plugin has a lot more to tweak to fit your needs though. An important aspect is visual design, and you have many ways to do this.

2. Customizing the Look of the Wishlist

Once you have the functionality of the wishlist to your liking, you can adjust the look and presentation too. You can find these these options in among the global settings for the plugin, although there is a dedicated section for designing the wishlist popup:

The Popup options for the WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce plugin.

Typical options here are for the position of the popup itself, the color of the notification, and some other quality of life settings. I do like the integration with other WPClever WooCommerce extensions, as you can display suggested products alongside the wishlist. It turns your modal dialogs into part of the sales and purchasing flow – always a good idea for greater conversions.

Once you finish setting up your wishlist, save your changes. You won’t need to place the wishlist on a page or implement any other set up steps, as the plugin does this for you. This means everything is ready for the customer!

3. Using the Wishlist

For your users, the wishlist options will pop up everywhere. For starters, you’ll spot individual buttons for every product:

A product list showing Add to Wishlist button for each item.

Once you click to add, the plugin will add the product to the wishlist and display it as per your earlier settings.

The WPC Smart Wishlist plugin's popup dialog for an individual wishlist.

If you come across a product you already have on your wishlist, the Add to Wishlist button turns into one that lets you browse it instead:

A product page showing a Browse wishlist button.

When you want to take a look at your wishlist, you can head to a dedicated URL that generates for each individual customer:

A Wishlist page on the backend of a WooCommerce store.

This screen is straightforward: you’ll see a list of products with links to the individual product pages. Best of all, you’ll also have a way to copy the link to the wishlist. This lets you share it around however you wish, while keeping the rest of your account safe and secure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s finish off with some questions that you might need an answer to. Consider this a handy reference as you look around the different WooCommerce wishlist plugins on the market, and settle on your chosen solution.

If you have any other questions about wishlists for your store, feel free to ask in the comments section at the end of the article.

What Benefits Does Wishlist Functionality Give My Store and My Customers?

A wishlist is a crucial personalization element for your site. This can increase brand loyalty, provide ample opportunities for free advertising through social sharing, and boosts the chance of sales. Nearly one in three customers think stores would benefit from wishlists, so implementing one is an easy decision.

Which of the Available WooCommerce Wishlist Plugins Should I Choose?

There are three key tenets here. First, choose a plugin that has the right features and functionality you need. Second, consider only those plugins with good rating and reviews. Third, make sure the price is within your budget over the long term.

How Can I Optimize the Impact of My Wishlists?

I’d suggest looking at the customer’s flow from adding a product to the wishlist all the way to completing an order. If you can create a dedicated funnel, your income should benefit.

WooCommerce Wishlist Plugins Can Create a Better Experience For You and Your Customers

There are a few ways to keep customers coming back to your store, but WooCommerce wishlist plugins are one of the essentials, in my opinion. I know that as a customer, being able to save products to return to later makes me more inclined to buy. There have also been plenty of times I’ve shared the contents of a wishlist to help people decide on holiday gifts.

I’ve looked at a few different plugins here, and WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce is excellent. Even so, all of these plugins can meet your needs. Best of all, the implementation will be straightforward, without the need for any code.

I’d love to hear about whether WooCommerce wishlist plugins will become part of your store, and the reasons behind your decision. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

With a discerning eye for detail and a passion for innovation, Tom brings a wealth of knowledge to the table in WordPress products and content creation. His expertise, honed over years of hands-on experience, has solidified his reputation as a leading figure in the WordPress ecosystem.

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