Joy to Me!

Finally, a Web site click that’s all about me: “How can I start a Wish List,” asks the feature on Amazon.com, “so people will buy me the stuff I want?”

Turns out that all I have to do is leave it to the folks at Amazon.com, who will e-mail my loved ones with a link to my selections from their Web site (Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” at $127.48, for instance). Don’t worry about looking up my shipping information--Amazon.com will have it on file.

In another boon of me-commerce, some Web retailers are offering similar wish lists or gift registries for anyone . . . not just newlyweds or new parents.

So is this another example of Web behavior trumping off-Web behavior? I mean, why would I e-mail my wish list when I wouldn’t dream of handing out or snail-mailing such a thing?

“I agree with you completely,” said Mariam Naficy, co-founder of Eve.com, which offers upscale beauty products. “I would not send a gift suggestion myself, except maybe for my husband.”

Still, that hasn’t stopped Naficy from putting a similar feature on her Web site. Eve.com’s “Tell a Friend” is primarily a marketing tool to expose potentially new customers to the site, she said. She thinks it will be used by teenagers and other young people who are used to telling their relatives what they want.

It’s also fast and easy to zip my Victoria’s Secret wish list from Victoriassecret.com. That way I don’t have to say: “Here’s what I’d like to see under my tree: the cashmere robe, $398, size XS, and the Desire Bra in Dream Angels Lace, $36, size, well, never mind.”

I guess I’m just a giver; I want to take the guesswork out of holiday shopping . . . for me.

And I’m hoping that my other favorite retailers will offer the service too. I’m not particularly interested in signing up for the registry on etoys.com. But nordstromshoes.com: Are you listening?

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Web sites: https://www.amazon.com, https://www.victoriassecret.com, https://www.eve.com, https://www.etoys.com, https://www.nordstromshoes.com.