Holiday Hunting Yet? This Company Is Helping Retailers Fulfill Consumers’ Wish Lists

Madeleine Streets

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Although consumers are largely focused on buying clothes and kicks for the back-to-school season, some retailers are looking even further ahead. They’re eyeing the holiday season.

And one firm is aiming to make that crucial, year-end retail blitz easier.

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Through SmarterHQ’s new “Wishlists and Favorites” feature, retailers can help customers curate their product picks for future purchases and gifting — and collect valuable data in the process.

Wishlist features have been available at online retailers such as Amazon and Nordstrom for years now, encouraging customers to save preferred items for a later date. By allowing the shopper to collect these products in one place, stores can make it easier for them to return and buy the items when the timing is right. Users who start building their wishlists now are more likely to have a number of items readily saved for when they start their holiday shopping.

“Ninety-five percent of consumers admit that they do other things while shopping, so it makes sense that wishlisting is on the rise,” said Michael Osborne, president and CEO at SmarterHQ. “List interactions enable multitasking customers to go back and view products when convenient for them.”

The new SmarterHQ tool also includes specific features for the retailer’s back-end use. Wishlist and favorite product information can be placed alongside the customer’s product view, cart and purchase history, to form a comprehensive picture of their buying habits. This information can then be used to drive more personalized recommendations and messaging, such as alerting the consumer when a favorited item goes on sale.

“DSW continues to look for ways to deliver hyper-personalized messages that our customers are expecting,” said Melissa Durham, director of CRM and loyalty at DSW. “SmarterHQ’s launch of Wishlists & Favorites fills an existing gap delivering relevant messages within our customer journey.”

Retailers can also use the data to identify specific audiences within their customer base for improved marketing outreach. By learning which groups of people favorite a particular brand or which demographics frequently add a particular category of product to their wishlist, SmarterHQ users can gain deeper insight into shoppers’ actual needs. This can then inform strategies that target customer retention and loyalty.

The “Wishlist and Favorites” function joins a suite of capabilities added to the platform in recent months, including Ad Personalization. Current SmarterHQ users include such retailers as Bloomingdale’s, Finish Line and DSW.

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