Forcing first-time visitors to sign up before saving anything is the fastest way to lose them. Guest wishlists let shoppers start saving right away, and when they log in or check out later, their saved items move into their account — no lost work, no extra steps.
How guest wishlists work
Guest wishlist data is stored in the shopper’s browser. As soon as a visitor adds their first item, a wishlist exists for them — no signup, no email required. When they log in or create an account, the guest wishlist merges with their account wishlist automatically and duplicates are handled cleanly.
This is on by default and runs as part of the app embed.
Capture guest emails
You can also ask guests for an email so you can reach them later — for back-in-stock alerts, abandoned wishlist reminders, or remarketing.
Go to Wishlist > Lists & Guests
Turn on Capture guest emails
Click Save
Guests are prompted for their email at the right moment in the save flow, and each address you collect is added to your Shopify customer list as a subscribed contact — so the shoppers who save items end up somewhere you can actually reach them.
Shoppers who are already customers of your store are matched by email and left exactly as they are. Their marketing preferences came from whatever they did before — a checkout, a newsletter signup, a conversation with your staff — and saving a wishlist doesn’t override that in either direction.
This needs permission to write customers, so Shopify will ask you to re-approve the app once before it takes effect.
Privacy
Data stays local for guests until they share an email or log in
No personal data is stored without the shopper’s input
Browser clearing removes the guest wishlist — log-in is the way to make it permanent
The date of consent is recorded against every contact, and set once — saving a second wishlist doesn’t move it
Existing customers are never modified. Their marketing state is left exactly as your store already had it
Captured emails can be deleted on request to keep you GDPR-aligned