Far away are the times when we used to browse through Toys “R” Us magazines cutting out everything we wanted for Christmas, and later gluing them on a letter to Santa. Those were made with an exaggerated amount of glitter and excitement, but today technology and social media help us stay young offering modern versions of Christmas wish lists.

Pinterests has been changing the ways consumers shop, their boards are often representative of what exactly they wish to buy or have decided to buy already. According this an HBR review 29% of Pinterest users have purchased something (in-store or online) after sharing or favoriting it on Pinterest. It is great to see that the social aspect of sharing what one wishes can drive customers to make more purchases; in fact about half of social-inspired purchases are made within a week!

A great example is the campaign Lowes is running using Pinterest. Items on special prices were added to a board called black Friday Deal Reveal, but were disguised. Followers were asked to guess the item, which generated shares, comments and lots of engagement. Has Pinterest become the place to collect holiday shopping list of online consumers? Oh yes!

On the Toys r us website, kids can now create an interactive wish lists, by simply creating an account and browsing through the thousands of toys and game and dragging them to their lists. Once they are done, they can easily send them all out to their family by adding an email address. This really allows them to reach out to everyone and get exactly what they wish for. What I found very interesting is that they can also find wish lists created by other kids and see what they have chosen, get ideas and share their own. They can save and edit any time if they change their mind. There is even a list of trending gifts!

Other campaigns like Nordstorm “Wish List Giveaway” try to go viral by giving their customers the chance to win a $5,000 gift card if they share their lists Facebook and Twitter. In general everyone is trying to generate as much engagement as possible through online campaigns linking websites and social media. Great idea since in the end everyone is looking for the best deals and what works better than word of mouth?

More insights here: http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/consumer-marketing/ecommerce-eretail/3-tactics-retail-sites-holidays/

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