Best Baby Registry 2019
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Doing the research to find the best baby registry when you’re pregnant can feel like an overwhelming amount of work.
To helpfully cut down on the overwhelm, we’ve compared 5 of the top baby registries so that you don’t have to! Below, we’ll be comparing Target, Amazon, Buy Buy Baby, Babylist and Walmart so that you can figure out the best one(s) for you.
If you’d rather see registry options in an easy-to-read chart, make sure to grab our freebie here:
What stores give you free gifts when you do a baby registry?
The following baby registries offer free gifts when you sign-up for their baby registries. Read below each one to find out what you can get and how!
Target
Target offers a registry gift worth $100 that includes samples and coupons. The gift is available after you sign-up for your new baby registry and can be picked up at Guest Services inside their stores.
Amazon
Amazon offers a “Welcome Box” worth $35, and unlike Target, this registry gift gets shipped to you! You’re eligible to get this free gift when you fill out Amazon’s registry checklist and make $10 worth of purchases from your registry.
Check out this photo of the box I received in January 2019 when I was starting my registry for my lost baby. (Read about our miscarriage story here.)
Buy Buy Baby
Buy Buy Baby offers a “Goody Bag” with coupons, samples and a Registry Guide. Before getting too excited about this freebie, make sure that you have a Buy Buy Baby store closeby, since you can only get this one in-store.
Babylist
Babylist also offers a “Hello Baby Box,” but the process for getting it is a little different. In order to be eligible, you must complete the general set-up of your registry, include 3 items from the Baby List Store and 3 items from other retailers. While the box is free, you will have to pay $4.95 shipping and handling. You can read more here.
Walmart
Walmart also offers a “Welcome Baby Box,” but at the time of writing this, the box was “sold out” on the website. I’m not sure how often this occurs, so if the freebie is a deciding factor for you, you may want to check out the status of the boxes first.
Make sure to grab our baby registry comparison chart!
What stores give you a completion discount on your baby registry?
Target
Target will give you 15% off your remaining registry items 8 weeks prior to your baby’s due date!
Amazon
Amazon offers 15% off your remaining registry items if you are a Prime Member, 10% if you are NOT a Prime Member – you’re eligible for the discount 60 days prior to baby’s due date and 14 days after creating your registry and the discount can be used for up to 180 days after your baby’s due date. (Read more about their policy here.)
Buy Buy Baby
Buy Buy Baby offers a 15% off completion discount, but I cannot find a place on their website that details when you’ll receive this discount.
Babylist
Babylist offers a 10% registry discount, which is available 60 days prior to your baby’s due date (as long as the registry has been created for at least 30 days). One important thing to note, however, is that this discount is only eligible on items from the Babylist Store.
Walmart
Walmart does not offer any completion discount.
Can I return something from my baby registry?
Target
At Target, you can return and exchange items from your baby registry for up to a year after your baby’s due date. (Items must be new and unopened to be eligible for a return.) Anything that was a gift will need to be returned in store for a gift card.
Amazon
Returns are eligible for up to 90 days from the receipt of the shipment at Amazon. For gifts, you will receive an Amazon credit to use on later purchases.
Buy Buy Baby
At Buy Buy Baby, you can make returns for 1 year after your baby’s due date. However, gifts will land you with merchandise credit rather than money back.
Babylist
At Babylist, you can return items purchased from the Babylist Store within 90 days as long as they are unopened and unused. Instead of a refund, you’ll get store credit.
Walmart
Walmart offers free returns within 90 days, but gift purchases will only be returnable in store.
Make sure to grab our baby registry comparison chart!
Which baby registries offer free shipping or other shipping perks?
Target
Target offers free shipping on orders over $35, or free shipping for RedCard holders. (Side note: I’ve had my Debit RedCard since 2012, and I LOVE it. It’s literally free savings at Target! Check out the Debit and Credit RedCards below!)
Amazon
Amazon Prime Members get free shipping on Prime products. If you’re not a Prime Member, Amazon offers free shipping on orders over $25.
Buy Buy Baby
- Buy Buy Baby offers free shipping on orders over $39.
- You can also earn free shipping for your baby’s first year of life if you have $1,500 worth of products purchased from your registry within 30 days after your baby’s due date. (Read more about that here.)
Babylist
Babylist offers free shipping on orders of $45 or more through the Babylist Store. Since you can add products from other retailers, shipping from those retailers would depend on their policies.
Walmart
I wasn’t able to find any shipping perks from Walmart.
Which baby registries offer additional discounts?
Target
Target RedCard holders save 5% off of all their purchases. (Side note: Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my RedCard? Check out the Debit and Credit RedCards below!)
Amazon
Amazon offers several credit card options that can give you cash back on your purchases.
Buy Buy Baby
- You can earn $25 off or $100 in-store purchase rewards for referring friends and family to make their registry with Buy Buy Baby.
- It also looks like coupons are available (including through the app.)
- Buy Buy Baby also advertises price matching. (Read more about that here.)
Babylist
I couldn’t find any additional discounts available for the Babylist Store. It is worth nothing that purchases made through other retailers may be eligible for discounts.
Walmart
Walmart advertises price matching, so if you find a lower price elsewhere, you may be able to get the price matched at Walmart. Check out their policy here.
Make sure to grab our baby registry comparison chart!
Which baby registries have brick and mortar stores?
Target, Buy Buy Baby and Walmart all have brick and mortar stores that you can go visit. This can be especially helpful for first-time moms that want to actually hold and see a product before adding it to their registry. (Before signing up for any of these registries, be sure to check out how close the store is to you!)
Amazon does not have brick and mortar stores that are dedicated to baby products, so you’ll be doing all of your shopping and registry-building online.
BabyList has their own online store, but since it allows you to add products from other retailers, you may be be able to go to those brick and mortar stores if applicable.
Which baby registries offer universal registries?
Target, Amazon and Babylist all offer universal registries. That means that you can add items to your baby registry from multiple retailers. This makes it easy for you to registry for all the items that you want.
From my research, it does not look like Walmart or Buy Buy Baby offer universal registries.
Which baby registries offer group gifting?
Target and Amazon both offer group gifting, which is great if you have guilt over asking for that super expensive piece of baby gear. Group gifting allows multiple people to go in on the same gift.
I could not find any indication that Buy Buy Baby, Walmart or Babylist offered anything similar.
Which stores have an app that you can use for your baby registry?
ALL of the registries that we looked into had some sort of app that you can use to add things to your baby registry. This great for when you suddenly think of something that you’re going to need!
Which baby registry is best?
Deciding on a baby registry can feel super overwhelming. I totally get it.
When I was pregnant with Graci, I signed up for multiple registries in order to get a bunch of freebies. I used Target and Amazon’s registries to get the free welcome gifts, and then used Babies “R” Us as our actual registry that we gave to our family and friends. We ended up making this decision because as first time parents to a newborn, we wanted to go check out things in person.
If I were to answer the question of “which baby registry is best?” before the Babies “R” Us closed, I would have recommended getting your freebies from other places but ultimately using Babies “R” Us.
Nowadays, I think the only place with a brick and mortar store that compares is Buy Buy Baby, but there are pretty limited numbers of the store across the country.
So where does that leave us?
I think Amazon is honestly the way to go. Almost everyone has a Prime account these days so you can get a ton of items with free shipping. Plus, they offer a completion discount and the selection is AMAZING.
As far as Walmart goes, I wouldn’t recommend their baby registry. At the time of writing, their freebie was “sold out” online AND they don’t offer a completion discount. That’s a double “no” for me!
Babylist is a great idea in theory – you can have a ton of different retailers on your registry. However, I honestly think this would be a gigantic headache and I think you can maximize a single baby registry with it’s perks better than the few perks Babylist gives you off of their own products.
So, final advice time.
I’d personally register at Amazon and use that registry. However, I’d also register at Target, because it’s easy and the freebies are worth it. Check both of them out below!
