How Happylist Works, in Detail
Happylist a deux côtés : le tien, quand tu notes tes envies, et celui de tes proches, quand ils viennent réserver. Voici les deux, sans rien passer sous silence.
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Side 1
On your end: you receive
Add an item to your wish list from any store
You paste the product link, and Happylist retrieves its title, price, and photo. Amazon, Fnac, Decathlon, a craft shop—it doesn’t matter; there’s no restricted catalog. Amazon product prices are then automatically updated so your loved ones don’t see a different price when they visit the store.
Add a wish that can't be bought online
An idea doesn't need a link. A massage, a weekend getaway, a helping hand with a move—just write whatever you want and add a photo if you have one. One in five ideas on Happylist is like this. These ideas don't have a "View Details" button, which is normal—there's no product page behind them.
Share your list
Your list has its own URL, like happylist.com/user/your-first-name. You can send it via text message, email, or post it wherever you want. Your friends and family don't need to install anything or create an account to view it.
What You Never See
Reservations. When someone reserves a gift from your list, the "Reserved by" label appears to other visitors—but never to you. Your list remains exactly as you wrote it until the big day. This is the only thing Happylist hides from you, and it’s intentional: a list without surprises is just an order form.
One list, all year long
Your Happylist isn't just a list of events that you create and then discard. It's your wish list: it's there all year round—for your birthday, Christmas, a birth, or a wedding. You add items over time, remove things you're no longer interested in, and mark off what you've received.
Reminders are sent without you having to ask for anything
Your friends and family who follow you will receive an email twelve days before your birthday, with a link to your list and your latest ideas. You don't have to ask for anything or follow up. Anyone can turn off this reminder from their profile if they don't want to receive it.
Other side
As for them: they offer
It's the part of the service that gets the least attention, even though that's where everything comes down to.
They don't need to create an account
They click on your link and see your list. That's it. No sign-up, no app, no password to remember—all for a visit that will last three minutes.
"Reserve" takes up two fields
They hover over a gift, click “Reserve this gift,” and are asked for their first name and email address. That’s it. The email address is used solely to send them the confirmation and the cancellation link.
They can remain anonymous
A checkbox lets you make a reservation without displaying your first name. The reservation will then appear to other visitors as having been made by “Someone.” This is handy when you don’t want to reveal who’s giving what until the big day.
They receive a confirmation and may withdraw
An email is sent immediately, reminding them of what they booked and including a link to cancel. Whether it's an unexpected event, a change of heart, or a click error, they can cancel on their own—without having to contact us and without needing an account.
Duplication becomes impossible
As soon as a gift is reserved, it appears as "taken" to other visitors. And if two people click at the exact same moment, the second person sees the message “Too late! Someone just reserved this gift,” and nothing is recorded twice.
They shop wherever they want
Booking doesn't mean buying here. Nothing goes through Happylist : not payment, not delivery, and not contact information. Customers go to the store of their choice—online or in-store—at whatever price they find. The store button is just a shortcut.
And if they create an account, they'll benefit from it
It's never required, but having an account lets them view all their reservations in one place, follow their friends and family, receive birthday reminders, and, of course, create their own list.
More Specific Questions
- Do I have to buy the gift through the link provided? + −
- No, never. The link is just a shortcut to the store where the idea came from. Your loved ones can buy wherever they want—online or in-store—at whatever price they find, and even a slightly different model if they feel like it.
- How do payment and delivery work? + −
- They don't go through us. Happylist doesn't sell anything, doesn't accept payments, and doesn't ship anything: the service takes note of your requests and coordinates reservations; the purchase is made directly from the merchant, just like any other purchase.
- Do my family members have to pay anything? + −
- No, nobody pays anything to Happylist —neither you nor them. The service is funded in a different way: when a gift is purchased through a link on the list, some stores pay us a commission, and the price you pay remains exactly the same.
- Why doesn't the "View Details" button appear on all gifts? + −
- Because some ideas don't have a product page associated with them. A freely expressed desire—for a massage or a weekend getaway, for example—has neither a price nor a store to list: so there's nothing to specify.
- How do I cancel a reservation if I don't have an account? + −
- The confirmation email contains a personal cancellation link. Just click on it: the gift will become available to others again, and the list owner won't even know you were there.
- Can I make a reservation without my first name appearing? + −
- Yes. Checking a box when making a reservation makes the reservation anonymous: it will then appear to other visitors as having been made by “Someone.”
- What happens if two people reserve the same gift at the same time? + −
- The first reservation is confirmed, but the second is not. Anyone who arrives a moment too late sees a message informing them of this and can choose another gift from the list. There are never two reservations for the same gift idea.
- How do I update my list after I receive my gifts? + −
- From your list, each idea can be marked as received. It will then be removed from the list of gift ideas without disappearing from your history, and your list will be cleared for the next occasion.
- Is the listed price up to date? + −
- For Amazon products, the price is updated automatically, and the date of the last update is displayed next to it. For other stores, the price shown is the one recorded when the item was added: consider it a rough estimate, not a guarantee.
- How about a Secret Santa? + −
- Yes. The built-in random draw determines who matches with whom, with the option to exclude certain pairings—for example, to prevent two people in the same couple from being matched with each other. Each person then selects a name from the list of the person they were matched with.
Now that you know everything
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