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A gift registry is a particular type of wish list. Typically, when a recipient compiles a list of items they wish to receive and then hands it out to family and friends, they have created a wish list. A registry, on the other hand, is made public, and is limited to the stock of a given retailer. The retailer will maintain the list for the registrant and make sure that items are removed from the list as they are purchased. Retailers will often not divulge who has purchased the registered items. In 2004, North American Shopping Centers (notably Galleria Edina) began to extend this concept by offering registries that had access to multiple shops within individual Centers.[1]
Goals
A managed registry system has several goals.
- It facilitates communication between gift givers and receivers. Recipients can compile a gift registry and make it available to anyone who will present them with a gift. Gift givers can then be certain that they are purchasing items that the receiver will appreciate.
- A registry can prevent gift givers from duplicating gifts when it is managed efficiently. To accomplish this, the retailer should remove each item from the registry as it is purchased.
- The registry process should allow gift purchasers to be discreet about what they have bought. This is so the person receiving the gifts will not know who purchased which items until they are surprised at the time of gift giving.
- The registry system should benefit the retailer by bringing customers to their store where they can purchase products that the merchant carries
Examples
- Perhaps the most common form of retailer registry is the bridal registry whereby newly engaged couples would go to "register a china pattern" so guests to the wedding would know which style of dishes to buy for the newly married couple.
- Retailers such as Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, J. C. Penney, Wal-Mart, Target, Fred Meyer and Shopko provide registries for almost any occasion.
- Online gift registries are becoming a popular alternative to store-specific registries due to their flexibility in adding gifts, purchase coordination and social networking capabilities.
- In recent years a new type of online gift registry has emerged. These "gift card registry" websites like CardAvenue.com (the "first" gift card registry, according to their tag-line), allow people to request gift cards instead of physical gifts. There are two major advantages to this. First, recipients have the ability to trade the gift cards for cash easily using sites like GiftCardGranny.com, GiftCardRescue.com, and PlasticJungle.com. Second, rather than receiving many small gifts, recipients can request several small gift card denominations that add up to a large gift, thus allowing them to buy big-ticket items like furniture and vacations by pooling several gift cards together.
- Online family-based gift registries are also available such as GiftPickle.com and FamilyGiftRegistry.net. These registries are based upon sharing gifts and wish lists within a family group rather than an individual basis. They are store agnostic and are family centric in nature with sharing ideas among members of the group.
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References
- ^ "MALL LANDLORDS TEST CENTERWIDE GIFT REGISTRATION". icsc.org. 2004-05-01. http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0504/page232.php. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
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