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The Best Sites for Creating Gift Wish Lists

by on November 07, 2011
in Gifts, Family and Parenting, Tips & How-Tos, Shopping, Time Savers :: 13 comments

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With holiday gift catalogs arriving in your mailbox daily, it’s only a matter of time before relatives start asking about gift ideas for you and the kids. No doubt you’ve already started dreaming about the toys, trinkets and baubles you and they would love to unwrap this holiday season. Maybe you’ve even circled or flagged items in a catalog — but how do you get these ideas onto the shopping lists of your relatives so you don't end up with another reindeer sweater from your Aunt Edna?

Wish lists have become an easy and increasingly accepted (and preferred) way to share with friends and loved ones the stuff you really want. Amazon Wish List and Toys R Us are both fantastic sites with mobile counterparts, so you can create or review a list and then easily check it from the store. But many people are working off wish lists from a variety of stores and sites. We’ve compiled a list of the best websites to help you easily assemble, share and track your family wish lists.

WantsThisWantsThis

WantsThis is a terrific wish list that makes it quick and easy to create and update your list with the option to drop in URLs of products you’d like. We tested out different gifts, and it did a great job of pulling in a product shot, name and price for the item that we added to our list.

If you’re just surfing around on the Web, a WantsThis toolbar add-on for almost all web browsers enables you to easily add products directly to your WantsThis wish list. My favorite feature is price notification, which searches the web for better deals than the site where you found the product and alerts you when an item goes on sale. WantsThis has social sharing tools that notify you when family or friends add items to their list, and you can also choose to share your lists through Facebook and Twitter.

 

BoxedUpBoxedUp

BoxedUp does a fairly good job at adding products to your wishlist, and shows you the lowest price available based on what other BoxedUp members have found. Product images aren’t pulled into to the item descriptions very well, so you wind up having a  lot of items that you have to click through to the retailer website to see—a deterrent to friends and family who want to quickly scroll through your list to see what they might want to buy you. 

BoxedUp does a better job than most of socializing the wish list and shopping experience; you see what other people want or already have, sparking ideas for you. Youl need to be careful though, the products included are a compilation of US and UK products, so finding a gift idea that excites you could lead to disappointment if it's only available overseas.

 

TallWishTallWish

TallWish has some gift planning features not found on other wish list sites: a calendar where you can store important dates like birthdays and anniversaries, and a bulletin board to post information about an upcoming family event. I like how family members can see what items have been purchased for other family members, but the person who owns the wish list won’t know if it’s been purchased until they open the gift.

 

WishListrWishListr

A simple list that’s best for people who aren’t looking for something fully integrated and interactive. With WishListr you have to manually enter in the name and URLs of the products you want to add to your list; however, simple drag and drop functionality helps you organize your lists easily and then share them out to your friends. It has a simple interface and beautiful background templates to personalize your wish list with a seasonal flare . . . which is nice for tweens or adults who’ve outgrown the sugar-coated kiddie templates.


Discussion loading

Amazon.com?

From Melody on November 08, 2011 :: 9:24 pm

What do you think about the wish list that amazon.com provides?  I and many of my family members us it with great satisfaction.

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Other options besides Amazon Wish List

From Heidi on November 09, 2011 :: 12:04 am

I like Amazon Wish List too. However, it can exclude family or friends who want to visit competing physical stores and pick up their gift, or just aren’t using Amazon.com as much. These other sites allow you the flexibility of other major online or physical store sources.

Another option too is to sign into Microsoft Bing search with your Facebook account, and you can create different shopping wish lists within your Bing Shopping account profile as you shop and compare prices. Then you can easily share your Bing shopping list with your Facebook contacts.

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Amazon.com WishList

From Kerry on November 18, 2011 :: 5:24 pm

You can add an item from any website, not just Amazon.com to your Amazon WishList. I add things from Walmart and Target and my family buys them directly from the store. Things I have added from Etsy.com, family members go directly to the Etsy site to buy them there. Amazon WishList is incredible!!

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WishyBox

From Brian Hall on November 23, 2011 :: 1:07 am

Check out WishyBox (wishybox.com) as well. Easy to use drag-and-drop interface, allows you to reserve gifts for friends and family.

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Nice compilation

From Darwin on August 22, 2012 :: 9:37 pm

Nice list, Heidi. Infact, I think Amazon’s wishlist must have gotten a place in this article for sure. Another one I came across is http://www.wishTabs.com. Keep them coming. Nice reading smile

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Also Giftster - runs on the web, iPhone and Android

From Ron R. on October 25, 2012 :: 3:54 pm

The best thing about personal gift wish lists isn’t really about your list;  its the anxiety it takes out of gift giving when you can view OTHER people’s wish lists.  And ideally reserve an item on that list so no worry about duplicates.  That’s the core idea behind http://www.giftster.com - a simple, cleanly designed way to share wish lists among family and close friends.

You can share lists from anywhere because Giftster does real time synchronization between the website, iOS App and the mobile app for Android and other smartphones and tablets.

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Needage keeps track of your every need

From Dan Kono on November 23, 2012 :: 9:41 pm

I recently discovered Needage at http://www.needage.com and it has worked really well for me.  You can clip items from any website with a click of a button similar to Pinterest, and it keeps track of everything in public lists to share or private lists to keep for yourself.

And the real benefit is that it lets you set up and receive cash contributions for each of your gifts via PayPal!  Really useful for out of town relatives during the holidays!

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Gifthings

From Junni on December 10, 2013 :: 6:27 pm

Nice overview of wishlist (web)apps. Wishlistr espacially is a nice one with their templating system.

There is a new startup http://gifthings.me with a clean interface, product catalog from external webshops (autocomplete), reservation option, share functionality, etcetera. They are still in beta, but maybe you can explore them.

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WIWIGI Wishilst

From Andrew on January 21, 2014 :: 8:35 pm

Hi,

Great compilation. You may want to consider adding the wishlist site WIWIGI http://wiwigi.com

It’s a newer site and it’s pretty clean and easy to use.

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Wishtack

From Fredrika on May 12, 2014 :: 9:51 am

I personally use https://www.wishtack.com. It’s really easy to use and you can browse your facebook friends wishes in one click!

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Smart Gift List is a new option that has boatloads of features

From Mike Over on April 17, 2015 :: 11:42 am

Nice compilation. I’ve recently found http://smartgiftlist.com which lets you create gift lists for any occasion for yourself and for your kids too.

I like it because you can search for gifts on Amazon right from the site and add them directly.

Sharing is simple too. Friends and family can reserve gifts they want to buy for you and then buy all of their reserved gifts on Amazon. It adds them right to your Amazon shopping cart.

Their interface is great and the site is mobile friendly.

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DreamList for more meaningful giving

From Diana on October 07, 2017 :: 5:17 pm

https://www.DreamList.com is new site that came out this year. It lets you add large things you are saving towards such as a 529 plan for little ones or downpayment on a house, so friends and family can chose to contribute to the things that truly matter to you. You can also manage and add things wish lists with your spouse or friends.

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jollylist.com is a new fun wish list website

From Wolf on October 18, 2018 :: 7:41 pm

Jollylist.com just launched and it’s a new and fun way to create wish lists and share them with family and friends. It supports different languages and is very easy to use. You can mark gifts as reserved and purchased. And you can write comments on gifts, which helps you to get it right.

Reply

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