A gift registry is a list your guests buy from, so you get things you want
and not four kettles. In Australia you have three broad options, and they are
funded very differently.

We sell one of them, at $39. That is the bias; the numbers below are checkable.

Option one: a department store registry

Myer and David Jones both run them. Straightforward, familiar to older
guests, and physically returnable in store.

The catch is that everything on the list has to be something that shop sells.
That is fine for homewares and hopeless for the local ceramicist, the
experience voucher, or the honeymoon.

Cost to you: free. Funded by: your guests’ spending, in their shop.

Option two: an international registry platform

Zola, The Knot and Babylist are the big ones, with MyRegistry spanning both
weddings and babies. Polished, free, and built for the American market —
which shows in shipping options, currency and the vendor marketplace bolted
to the side.

They are free to the couple because retailers pay for placement and the
platform takes a cut of guest spending. That is a real business model
producing a genuinely good product, and it also means the platform has a
commercial interest in where your guests buy. Partner shops surface first.
Cash funds carry a processing cut.

Your guests generally have no idea any of this is happening. They think they
are following your list.

Cost to you: free. Funded by: merchants paying for position, and a
slice of what your guests spend.

Option three: pay for it, and cut the middle out

Ours costs $39 once per registry, GST included, nothing to cancel.

No affiliate links, no partner shops, no sponsored suggestions, no cut of
cash gifts. We do not know where your guests buy and we earn nothing either
way.

Other things worth knowing:

  • It lives at a short address you pick — giftgambit.com/your-names.
  • Ask for six of something and the page counts down as they are claimed, with
    the last one protected so two guests can’t claim it at the same instant.
  • You can see who claimed what, because you have thank-yous to write. (The
    rest of the app hides claims; a registry deliberately doesn’t.)
  • You build it and look at it for free. You only pay when you publish.
  • Pro is also $39 a year and includes your first registry — so if you’ll
    use the rest of the app, buy Pro instead of a standalone registry. Same
    money, more product.

The question to ask

Do you mind that somebody has a commercial interest in your wedding list?

Plenty of couples genuinely don’t, and for them free is the right answer —
the big platforms are polished and their guests already know them.

If you would rather the list were just the list, that costs $39, and we would
rather tell you the trade honestly than pretend the free ones are somehow
cheating. They are not. They are just funded by someone other than you.

A note on timing

Set the registry up before invitations go out, and put the address on the
invitation. The most common failure is not the platform — it is guests buying
before they know a list exists.

See how registries work, or read
starting a gift registry and
choosing your registry address.

Originally published on the GiftGambit blog.