Amazon carries a wide selection of baby products, so chances are if you want it, it’s available here. (And if it’s not, you can add products from any site to this universal registry.) But what many moms-to-be find most appealing is the ease of use. This was part of the appeal for our staff members, too.
“The process of finding products and building your registry is really easy, like everything else on Amazon,” says BabyCenter editor Kathleen Felton. “They help you format your registry with suggested categories, top products within each category you might like, and make it a breeze to share with your friends and family.”
Leah Rocketto, Associate Commerce Director for BabyCenter, also appreciated Amazon’s baby registry for its format and ease of use.
“I used Amazon registry mostly as a shopping list for myself, since I opted out of a baby shower,” Leah explains. “The registry was straightforward, which made it easy for me to do price comparisons. It was also helpful to see in the registry if an item was no longer available so I could replace it with something similar or find somewhere else.”
But organizing items and offering a variety of baby essentials at competitive prices aren’t the only reason why Amazon’s baby registry is the best. Amazon’s completion discount is generous and “a good way to save on a bigger purchase yourself,” according to Kathleen: You get 15 percent off just about anything from your registry that you buy within a certain time window.
Amazon’s return policy is phenomenal too: You have a full year to return unneeded items using Amazon’s super-fast online process. Finally, Amazon’s Welcome Box contains samples of products like bottles, baby wash, and diapers – and recent recipients have even reported getting a cute bodysuit (although contents are always subject to availability and change).
Universal baby registry: No
Retail stores: No
Return policy: You can return eligible gifts bought from your baby registry for up to 365 days after they’re purchased (keep reading for more on what “eligible” means). Non-eligible items must be returned within 90 days, and gifts you buy yourself are only eligible for a 90-day return window. Returns are credited to an Amazon gift card.
Completion discount: Yes: 15 percent off all eligible items. Baby registry must be active for at least 14 days, and completion discount applies to orders up to a combined value of $2,000, for a maximum discount of $300. The completion discount is available 60 days before the expected arrival date you supplied when making your registry, and expires 90 days after that date.
Group gifting: Yes. Baby registry owners can enable group gifting for all items in your registry over a certain dollar amount, or for certain items. Registry owners can also establish a diaper fund, open for contributions of up to $550. Gift givers can contribute a dollar amount of their choice, and contributions arrive in the form of an electronic Amazon gift card.
Baby welcome box: Yes. The free welcome box is valued at $35 and contents vary, but the box might hold a bodysuit, samples of baby wash and detergent, a swaddle blanket, a bottle, and/or a toy, as well as coupons for more baby products. The box is available only if you’re an Amazon Prime member, have checked off at least 60 percent of Amazon’s baby registry checklist, and you or someone else has bought at least $10 of items from your registry. The box only ships to addresses within the contiguous United States.
Heads up
As noted above, the completion discount and 365-day returns apply only to “eligible” items; this means items that are fulfilled by Amazon. And how will you know what products are fulfilled by Amazon? Look for “Ships from Amazon” under the Buy Now button on the item’s link. If the item is shipped from another entity, this means it’s not eligible for the completion discount, Prime shipping, or a return within 365 days.
Although Amazon’s free shipping is a lifesaver when you need a baby item fast, it too has restrictions: For Prime members, eligible items ship free in two days; non-Prime members must spend at least $25 to get free shipping, with orders arriving within five to eight days.
Parents say
“I changed my mind about some of our baby products multiple times before and after our baby was born. The generous return policy took so much stress out of deciding what to add to the registry and which gifts I wanted to keep or return.”
“I got [my Amazon Welcome Box] a few weeks ago! I had a bottle, onesie, swaddle, and full size wipes as the full size then got a sample of prenatal gummies, a sample of Dreft, nipple pads and cream and then some random samples…. It was a nice little bag I got!”
“The Amazon Baby Registry is so easy to navigate through that I was able to do it by myself in less than an hour. Loved how simple and easy it is.”