Wishlist

A wishlist functions as a "purchase consideration list" on EC sites. Amazon's "Wish List," Rakuten Ichiba's "Favorites," and ZOZOTOWN's "Favorite Items" are examples - virtually all major EC sites include this feature as standard. Basic functionality covers saving items and displaying them in a list, but additional features such as price change notifications, restock alerts, and list sharing (for gift purposes) vary by service.

There are three main use cases. The first is "comparison shopping" - adding multiple products in the same category to a list and comparing specs and prices to make a final purchase decision. The second is "waiting for the right timing" - saving products to purchase later during a sale or price drop. The third is "gift lists" - creating a list of desired items for birthdays or holidays and sharing it with family and friends. Amazon's Wish List can be set to public, making it widely used for gift purposes.

A wishlist is also effective as a tool to prevent impulse buying. Instead of purchasing immediately when you find an interesting product, add it to your wishlist first and let it sit for a week as a "cooling-off period." This builds the habit of buying only what you truly need. In practice, when you review the list after a week, you will find that more than half the items can be dismissed as "actually, I don't need this."

From a price tracking perspective, taking advantage of price drop notifications for wishlisted items is effective. Amazon sends email notifications when items in your Wish List are discounted. Furthermore, by combining this with price tracking tools like Keepa or camelcamelcamel, you can check historical price trends and determine whether "now is the right time to buy." Organizing your wishlist before major sale events (Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday) allows you to purchase at the lowest prices as soon as the sale begins.