Are Wishlists useful?

When was the last time you sat down and thought about getting a gift for someone that wasn't a standard gift card or cash? Think back to the holidays where the pressure is high to think of getting the most ideal gift to a loved one that won't be returned or end up in the trash. "Holiday gift-giving destroys between 10 percent and a third of the value of gifts," the economist Joel Waldfogel has written. This is enough to discourage most of us from even bothering to go through the process of finding an ideal gift for a loved one and yet giving gifts for special occasions is still important for most of us.

Where do wish lists fall in this process? There has been a shift in the culture with platforms like amazon providing buyers with the option to create a wishlist that can be private or made public to friends and family. The trend now on most online stores is to have a wishlist you can create as part of your shopping experience. Are wishlists that can be shared with specific people helpful for gift givers or does this become an extra step most people prefer to skip?

Surprisingly, even with wishlists being developed, according to studies from Emory University marketing scholars, those who are closest to us are more inclined to ignore wish lists and instead try to find something that is unique and "just right". In the same study, those who are not close to you follow wishlist recommendations (for example wedding registries, etc).

It would seem that depending on the occasion and the intended audience, wishlists can be incredibly useful in getting someone the most ideal gift (that won't end up in the trash or returned).

Wishlists are certainly here to stay and it has the potential to alleviate the stress and pressure gift givers feel when they are looking for the best or ideal gift for a loved one.