Guest wishlists

Plan: every plan, including Free. Keeping list names when a guest signs in needs Pro or Premium.

By default anyone can save, signed in or not. Guests don’t need an account, so the first tap on a heart just works.

How guest saves are kept

The first time a guest saves, Cove gives their browser a random key and keeps it in the browser’s local storage. Their wishlist is stored by Cove against a scrambled copy of that key; nothing about the guest themselves is stored.

What that means for the shopper:

• The wishlist is tied to this browser on this device. It isn’t on their phone if they saved on their laptop.
• Clearing the browser’s site data, or a private window, starts a new, empty wishlist.
• If the browser blocks storage entirely, saves last only until the page is left.
• Guests can use everything signed-in customers can on the wishlist page, including lists and share links when your plan has them.

That’s why the save message asks guests to sign in once they have saved a few items (3 by default), and the wishlist page shows a sign-in prompt.

When a guest signs in

On the first page they open after signing in, the guest’s saves move into their customer account, automatically:

• Every saved item moves, with its note and saved price.
• On Pro and Premium, each guest list goes to the customer’s list of the same name (ignoring upper and lower case), or a new one with that name, up to the 20-list limit. Anything that doesn’t fit goes to their default list.
• On Free and Starter, everything goes to the customer’s default list.
• Items the customer had already saved aren’t duplicated.
• The browser’s guest key is then dropped, so the merge happens once.

If they are on the wishlist page at that moment, it reloads to show the merged list. From then on, the wishlist follows the customer to every device and appears on the My wishlist page in their account.

Moving a guest’s saves doesn’t use any wishlist actions.

Turning guest wishlists off

To require an account before saving, go to Settings › General in the Cove app, section Shoppers, and untick Let shoppers save without an account (on by default). Save.

With it off:

• A guest who taps a heart or the Wishlist button sees Sign in to save items to your wishlist, with a Sign in link to your store’s sign-in page. Nothing is saved.
• Guests can’t create lists or use Save for later in the cart either; they get the same message.
• Guests who saved before you turned it off can still see and remove what they saved, and it still moves into their account when they sign in.

Signed-in customers aren’t affected.