Best Baby Registry: Comparing Top 5 Baby Registries. How To Save The Most

When looking for the best baby registry, I registered not for one or two, but for five different baby registries to decide which one to use, and in this hub I will review each of them. The best part of registering for many registries is the possibility to save a lot on items you buy yourself. I managed to save hundreds of dollars on the items I bought for the baby. The average discount was 20-25%, and I saved up to 50% on many of the items. I would advice to make two of the registries public and share them with your friends and family, and keep others private, just for you, to compare prices on the items you need and possible discounts. The best part of having many baby registries is that they will be live at least for a couple of months before your delivery, so there might be lots of opportunities for sales and discount offers which you can take advantage of. So, let's start the review.

This is by far my favorite registry for the purchases I did myself. Reasons I love Target Baby Registry:

• Target constantly has lots of sales and discounts (weekly discounts on items in different categories like furniture, baby, clothing and more)
• Best goody bag comparing to other stores
• They send you not one but five (!) 15% off coupons for the remaining items in your registry. Four of them are "for friends and family", but I used all of them myself :) The same coupon works both online and in store, so once used online, you can also use it for in-store registry purchases (that basically makes it to 10 coupons instead of 5)
• If you have Target Red Card you get an additional 5% discount which comes to 20% off in combination with your coupon, and may be even more, if you are lucky enough to get items on sale or additional coupon codes. I used numerous coupons with discount codes from the website (like $5 off $50 or $25 off $125) getting up to 30% off items I bought.
• Cheapest prices on almost any item, comparing to other stores.

Perks you get for registering with Target:

• 5 coupons with 15% off completion discount + 5% off if you have Target Red Card
• Goody bag with lots of useful staff (Avent bottle, Nuk pacifier, samples of Huggies diapers and wipes, additional coupons and multiple other samples)
• Possibility to return online purchases in store

Cons:

• The choice is not as rich as it may be in other stores
• Though Target states that registry purchases may be returned within a year, on receipts I got it's written 90 days... So I'm not sure if they really accept returns after 90 days period. However, knowing Target, I assume that it's possible to return an item any time for a store credit.

The runner up is Diapers.com registry. Here is why:

• 20% off for your first purchase on the website using the code SHUS8247
• They constantly have promotions and discount codes for variety of items. If you have 4-5 months until your due date, I can almost guarantee, that you will be able to purchase every item on your registry with at least 20-25% discount
• Once you register, they send you a 15% off code for registry purchases that can be used by you and your friends and family.
• Closer to your due date they send you an additional 10% off coupon code as a completion discount (unfortunately you can't combine it with 15% off code sent earlier)
• Once you have more than $500 total in your registry purchases, you start to accumulate 5% back in rewards. Once you reach $1000, you'll begin earning 10% back in rewards. You can apply the rewards to on-site purchases.
• Free and super easy shipping and returns for a year on any purchase (not only registry purchases)
• I was lucky enough to have my registry during the time they ran a promotion of 15% off entire website. Using that promotion in combination with 15% off code for registry purchases I bought tons of staff for super cheap, saving 30%!

Perks you get for registering with Diapers.com:

• They mail you a catalog with coupon codes for a variety of products and brands
• 20% off code for your first purchase on the website, 15% off code for registry purchases that can be used by you and your friends and family, 10% off coupon code as a completion discount
• Free and super easy shipping and returns on any purchase within a year

Cons:

• No goody bag
• Prices without discounts generally are higher than at Target or Amazon

The third place goes to Babies R Us:

• Babies R Us has rewards program where you accumulate points for purchases and get discounts when enough number of points is accumulated.
• It also has an additional registry reward program, where you earn additional rewards on registry purchases made by you or your friends and family.
• They send you 20% off one item coupons (though not as many as Buy Buy Baby)
• They have sales and promotions where they give free gifts for purchases
• Possibility to return registry purchases within a year

Perks you get for registering with Babies R Us:

• 15% off completion discount
• Goody bag with samples and discounts
• Possibility to earn rewards for purchases and additional rewards for registry purchases

Cons:

• Higher prices on most of the items
• Some of the items may be available in store only, and there may not be a store close to you
• Don't accept expired coupons
• The least useful goody bag among all the stores. Very few samples, mostly coupons and advertising

Fourth place goes to Amazon baby registry mainly because:

• It's the largest store with the largest choice of items, so you can register for ANYTHING you desire
• Low prices on many of the items
• If you register for Amazon Mom (it's free for a month), you get 15% off completion discount. If you don't register, you get 10% off
• Free shipping and free one year returns (on products sold by Amazon only)

Perks you get for registering with Amazon:

• 15% off or 10% off completion discount
• Possibility to register for absolutely any item you may need, even if it's located abroad and not sold in the U.S.

Cons:

• Almost no sales or discounts pertaining to baby items, except completion discount
• Items not sold by Amazon directly can not be bought using registry completion discount
• Items not sold by Amazon directly can incur additional cost for shipping and may be hard to return or exchange

This is the registry I liked the least. Actually, I even didn't buy anything from it and registered there just to check it out. It loses on all fronts comparing to the previous four registries. So, what's good about it?

• The only unbeatable thing about having baby registry with Buy Buy Baby is that you can use Bed Bath and Beyond coupons while buying items from Buy Buy Baby, and they also match coupons from any other store. They used to accept expired coupons, but don't do it any more.

Perks you get for registering with Buy Buy Baby:

• Possibility to use any coupon from Buy Buy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond or their competitors
• A goody bag
• 10% off completion coupon

Cons:

• High prices
• Completion coupon is less than in the previous stores mentioned
• No free shipping on many items, and no possibility to pick them up in store

1. Register for at least top 4 baby registries from this list, add all the items you need to each of them and monitor them to compare prices and discounts.
2. If you want to give your friends and family only one registry to buy from, pick Babies R Us. Remember, their purchases will help you to accumulate reward points for you.
3. If you want to share two registries with your friends and family, pick Babies R Us along with Amazon or Diapers.com. Amazon has the richest choice, and many people prefer shopping there, so it might be very convenient for your friends and family. And Diapers.com will accumulate you credits to later use on the website (if purchases from the registry total $500 or more).
4. You probably know approximately how many items you will get as gifts and how many you will have to buy yourself. When you see a sale with 25% off the item you want, don't hesitate to buy it. It might be the best deal you could get. And if not, you can later return that item and buy it for less.
5. Be sure to check websites like Macy's or Kohl's - they have great sales pretty often, compare prices with them as well, and you might be able to get great deals on the items you want, especially on clothing.
6. Sign up for newsletters from all your registries' shops along with Macy's and Kohl's, I know that it's annoying to have so many emails in your inbox, but that way you won't miss any sale or promotion and would be able to save the most. Besides many of the websites send exclusive coupon codes for their newsletter subscribers.
7. Check your Target registry weekly. Target often has sales and promotions on different brands and product categories. Buying off your registry an item on sale using your 15% off coupon along with Target Red Card will save you LOTS of money!
8. To top it all off and save as much as possible, use a cash back website like Ebates. Shopping through Ebates at aforementioned stores will give you extra 1-2.5% back.

If you'd like to learn what items I used for my baby during his first year, be sure to read this article, where I share all of them.