I don’t remember where I was the day that Babies R Us made that heartbreaking closing announcement. They had been THE baby staple in so many of our families’ lives for years. What I do remember however was the state of panic I was in after the announcement was made. After all, I was 6 weeks pregnant and not even close to baby shower ready or even knowing what I needed for this kid. By the time I even got around to shopping, they would be out of business! I remember thinking, “what am I supposed to do now? How the heck will people know what to purchase for my shower?” It seemed like all was lost; and as I lamented on the impending doom of baby gift chaos, I stumbled across Babylist.
Relax new moms-to-be, all is not lost because Babylist is the answer to your needs. It allows you to create a registry without the limitation of being tied down to one store. You can add items from any retailer your little bundle desires.
Already started a registry somewhere else? No problem… Babylist will let you import your existing registry into the one you created with them. Then you can build upon it with other items… like maternity leave or diaper fund and even coupons for babysitting, homecooked meals and dog walking (boy did that come in handy for my two pups when I was confined to my house with the little one)! Talk about a time saver!
My absolute faveeeee part of it all is that Babylist will scour the web and get comparison pricing from different websites on the items you add. So when your friends and family are ready to purchase, they can not only get the best pricing but they can also purchase from their favorite places that they prefer to shop from.
Now there are a few kinks that can be improved on. For example, your
buyer has to go to the site and reserve the item they
want to buy so that no one else has access to it. If they don’t buy directly through the Babylist site, they then have to return to Babylist and input purchase info. Not sure about yours… but my attention deficit friends would either forget to confirm the purchase or change their mind on the gift, leaving me to figure out if something was truly purchased or needed to be released so that someone else could buy. Also, in order to get an item released, you have to contact the Babylist team instead of being able to release items yourself. I will say however that any time I contacted them, someone got back to me within 24 hours, so they definitely get a thumbs up for customer service
All in all, an amazing idea that couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. With so many other features like exporting gift lists, free baby gift box for signing up and other cool benefits… the pros most certainly outweigh the cons. So if you have an upcoming baby shower and are looking for the registry of all registries, I say head on over to Babylist and give them a try.
