Baby Registry: Where to Register

I have been putting off this post for about a two years (woops, blame it on life with a toddler, COVID, WFH, and being pregnant again). After getting everything written down there is a TON of information about baby registries, so I am going to split this up into a couple of posts, and the first is going to be Where to Register.

Working professionally in the retail industry, I was extremely curious about other retailer programs, so I registered at 5 different retailers. I figured this would be my best bet to optimize and take advantage of the retailer discounts. 

I have gone through and detailed out each of the baby registry details as well as gave my honest review of the programs.

Amazon

• Gift with Registering: Yes for FREE (if you complete 3 of theirs steps). I honestly didn’t feel like I needed another box of samples, since I had got the Target, BuyBuyBaby and Babylist gifts. 
• Coupon: 15% off one online shopping spree from the registry
• Recommended to use: YES! The diaper fund alone was great for those that didn’t want to give a gift from the registry and didn’t want to give cash. 
• What did we use the discount on:
  • Hatch Baby Grow Changing Pad and Scale (White)
  • UPPAbaby Bassinet Stand, White
  • Haakaa Gen 3 Manual Breast Pump & Bottle 5oz/160ml

Target

• Gift with Registering: Yes for FREE! We got a coupon booklet (which I didn’t pay attention to the expiration date, OOPS) and a bunch of samples to try. I would say that the bottles were probably the best item from this pack, as we tried the Philips Avent first and he loved it!
• Coupon: 15%, one in-store shopping spree and one online shopping spree 
• Benefits: Anything on your registry you can return, regardless if you have a gift receipt or not to a Target store for Target credit. 
• Recommended to use: Yes! The easy returns and 2 coupons make it worth it!
• What did we use the coupon on:
  • Random odds and ends left on our registry
    • Crib sheets
    • Bassinet Sheet
    • Crib wrap
    • Infants’ Tylenol 
    • Seat protector for the car seat

Buy Buy Baby

• Gift with Registering: Yes for FREE! Again, lots of brand coupons and a bunch of samples to try. The Philips Avent bottle again was great to have for the first feedings.
• Coupon: 15% off your remaining registry items (with NO exclusions)
• Recommended to use: YES! Regardless if you have a BuyBuyBaby close to you! We bought our rocker through them, and didn’t end up liking the fabric, they had free returns with FedEx picks up. Ples we ended up using the 15% off coupon on our Uppababy stroller and Uppababy car seat.
• What did we use the coupon on:
  • UPPAbaby® VISTA Stroller in Gregory
  • MESA® Infant Car Seat by UPPAbaby® in Jordan

Pottery Barn Kids

• Gift with Registering: No 
• Coupon: 20% off your remaining registry items 
• Recommended to use: NO! Well I LOVE PB Kids and their products, the return process was a nightmare! We had gotten a few duplicates and just items we decided to return, and since there is not a PB Kids in Wisconsin, I had taken my returns to a PB store. While you may think they are the same, they are not. From the store, they had to ship the items back to a warehouse and process the return. We had some of our returned credit go back to gift givers (even with a gift receipt), and the way they processed a credit back to us was via gift cards they had to physically mail to us. None of the funds came at the same time and I had to follow up for MONTHS after my shower and even after August was born. The LAST $30 gift card showed up in July 2020….my baby shower was in October 2019.
• What did we use the coupon on:
  • Nothing

Babylist

• Gift with Registering: Yes for 4.95. Similar to the other gifts, lots of samples, but getting socks for the hospital and a onesie were a great touch. 
• Coupon: No
• Recommended to use: Yes and No. The nice thing about Babylist is it acted like a hub for all my other registries. So on our invite, I could list one retailer vs 4. But the issue with Babylist is that you can add items directly to your Babylist, which can be confusing to gift givers of where to purchase from. 

The takeaway from this little experiment, I would have registered at Target, BuyBuyBaby and Amazon (in that priority order) again. The stress of Pottery Barn Kids, I would not recommend, and while Baby List seemed to be efficient, I think it confused my gift givers vs making things more seamless.

One note, is that you can continue to add items to your registry, in order to get the discount.

Happy Shopping Friends!