Wish Lists Apps!

Ok, first, is it “Wish List” or “Wishlist?”  I’m going with “wish list”, but you see it both ways everwhere.

I mentioned before that I grew up making wish lists, and my family has continued the tradition of making wish lists for the Christmas holiday.  I know some people don’t like the idea of shopping to a list, but it’s never struck me anything but efficient.  Having a wish list doesn’t preclude you from coming up with your own gift ideas – many of the best gifts I’ve given were not on someone’s list.  OTOH, some of my duds were not on lists either, and that’s the thing with your own inspiration, it’s a gamble.

Once the family started including nieces and nephews, sharing lists became problematic.  Sure, we could send email, but then the list was static.  If my daughter decided to add something, I’d have to send an update, which is the most recent list?  The other problem is that once someone buys something off the list, then communicating that to everyone was a challenge.  This resulted in several duplicate gifts, gift returns, etc. – not the desired effect.

There had to be a better way.  We were looking for an application that could 1) have multiple lists – at least one for each child; 2) Able to share the lists; 3) able to update the lists if you buy or plan to buy one of the items (without notifying recipient); 4) able to add items from any website OR manually enter an item, and 5) add pictures, links, and able to prioritize the item.

That is when we started using Wishlist.com.  Remember, this was 15+ years ago – the WWW was still a fairly new concept – most people still “got mail”, so this technology was way advanced. 

Pros:

1. You can add a wish from any website for any item.
2. You can add manual wishes (like “gift certificates from a, b, c, & d”)
3. Really easy to set up multiple lists for multiple occasions.
4. Really easy to share your lists or items on a list.
5. You can buy right from the list if item is available on line.

Cons:

1. No mobile app
2. Marking something as bought is not straight-forward – you “reserve” it. Also, due to #1 above, you can only do this when you get back in front of a PC or through your phone’s browser (and we know how inconvenient that is).
3. Printing – because there’s no mobile app, if you want to bring a list with you to shop, you have to print it out, and it’s the most rudimentary printing – basically prints the web page with ads and everything.
4. Uses a bookmarklet to add items to the list from anywhere.

Amazon has had wish list capability for decades, but it wasn’t always robust.  They’ve recently made updates that make it much more attractive to use.

Pros:

1. It’s Amazon. I mean, they have practically everything, and if you have Prime, why would you buy it anywhere else?
2. You can create multiple wish lists for different people or events (hint: when creating the list, choose “this list is for” YOU – otherwise it becomes a “gift idea” list instead of a wishlist).
3. You can add items that are not on line (this is adding an “idea”)
4. Easy to share lists.
5. You can use the “Amazon Shopping” app to view lists on your phone or tablet. You can also easily add items from Amazon to this list using the app.  You can also update the quantity (if you buy it) or the priority from this app.

Cons:

1. Have to add a bookmarklet to add stuff from other webpages.
2. Have to be in full browser to add stuff from other webpages (not on mobile – at least I haven’t figured out how to do it if it’s possible).

Giftster is another wishlist registry that works similarly to Wishlist, but it also has a mobile capability.  I searched for a mobile app to review, but there doesn’t seem to be any (hello app developers) that meet our requirements.  However, Giftster is the only application that has both a web-based interface and a dedicated mobile app.

Pros:

1. Ability to add items from any website (using a bookmarklet) or add items manually.
2. Mobile app that automatically syncs with the website
3. Easy to set up, easy to share
4. You can set up groups – this seems like a nice added feature, but I can’t think of any reason off the top of my head, except for:
5. Secret Santa! You can create a SS group and use the features to manage it.  True confession:  I’ve never participated in a SS, so I don’t know how this would work, but it seems cool!

Cons:

1. Bookmarklet is really hard to find – I had to search it up separately in Google to find it buried in a Giftster blog post.  Here it is, your welcome.

So, there you go – jump on the technology bandwagon tonight and set up one of these wishlists for you and your kids, and you’ll be glad that you did.  Even better if you can get your family to use it too.