Nobody is into just one thing. Everyone has a lot of hobbies, passions, and interests. A woman in our building loves our local football team—like, to the point where I’m worried about structural damage. But she’s also a huge outdoors fan and knows more about wild mushrooms than anyone I’ve ever talked to.
That’s part of the joy and diversity of life, but it doesn’t always make shopping for someone easy. After all, if they’re putting together a list, it won’t just be items from the football store. No one just has a list that just says SOCKS (okay, almost no one, I’m sure).
People want their wish list to include ideas from a lot of different websites, and while that may seem really great (and it is!), it can make for some serious logistical difficulties.
That is, unless you make a wish list using a site that collects different ideas from all over the web and compiles them into one list. That’s the best way to make sure that all your interests are together and ready to go.
The Challenges with Wish Lists from Multiple Sites
We all know what’s good about wish lists that draw from multiple sites; you can find exactly what you want. Even if you’re sticking with the world’s largest online sellers, you won’t always get everything you need. So, of course, with the world open to you, you want to choose from multiple lists.
That can be a bit of a problem, though. To see how, let’s look at the two traditional ways of making a wish list from multiple sites.
- Get links to your gifts from all the different sites and store them in one document, which you can send around.
- Make several wish lists, one on each site, and send people all those wish lists.
Just looking this over, you can start to see how there might be some problems, such as:
- Not every site has a wish list function, which means you either can’t get something from that site or you have to find another way to put it on your list.
- Too much clicking around for people, who might go from list to list looking for the right gift.
- It’s harder to tell if something was bought on a shared document. Yes, people can erase the entry after they buy it, but that’s an imperfect system. As such, you run the risk of two people buying the same thing.
- Less technologically savvy people might not be sure how the shared document is supposed to work.
Really, creating wish lists this way is just a whole lot of work for both you and your buyers. And what happens when there’s too much work involved? Well, people will buy any old thing just to get it done. There’s no personalization when there’s irritation. There has to be a better way.
Turns out, there is.
An Easier Way to Make a Wish List Using Multiple Websites
When choosing a wish list generator that uses multiple websites, look for these features:
- A centralized location for my wish list. I hate having to send around a lot of links, and people hate getting a ton of links. If there was one site where I could say, “Here is where I made my list,” that would cut down on a lot of confusion.
- A site with the world’s top retailers. The site doesn’t have to be integrated with all the other sites. It just has to house them. It has to give me the ability to shop for gifts from anywhere.
- An easy selection experience. I want to make my wish list without having to say, “I’m now going to search from A” or “Where is store B?” I’d much rather search by what I want—games, clothes, home goods, whatever—and just click it to add to my list.
- A way to shop for gifts directly. A central location isn’t any good if you can’t take any action from it. I would love a place where people can buy right from the list.
- The ability to control who sees my list. I want to be able to make multiple lists and restrict them to different groups—say, coworkers or family. If I’m doing a Secret Santa at the office, with a strict money limit, I don’t need them to see the list that I have with my wife, where we spend more on each other. And needless to say, I don’t need them to see everything I want.
All of these are especially important if you’re playing a Secret Santa game. You want people to focus on the fun aspects, like choosing the right gift and trying to guess who your Secret Santa is, while retaining total anonymity. A site that lets you make wish lists from multiple sites and shop for gifts online makes every gift-giving occasion that much easier.
Everyone has multiple interests. Everyone wants and needs things from a variety of places. This holiday, don’t be limited. Don’t give in to frustrations. Create wish lists from multiple websites the easy way and get to know everyone that much better.
Want to make a wish list using multiple websites? Elfster has you covered with our handy dandy Secret Santa generator. You can easily start a Wish List that includes items from all over the web. You can also pick names and more on an iPhone app or Android app.
