Author: Matt Granite
Published: 11:41 AM EDT April 5, 2019
Updated: 12:43 PM EDT April 5, 2019
You can imagine how excited I was when I received an assignment to review both the Target and Walmartbaby registries for new and expecting parents.
On Thursday, Walmart announced a major revamp to its baby registry. As a first-time parent and experienced consumer reporter who always has an eye out for deals, I was extremely familiar with both the Target and Walmart platforms.
Let's discuss the benefits of both before I draw any conclusions for the many hard-working and soon-to-be parents reading this.Target has always had one of the best baby registries. When I visited baby registries prior to the birth of my now 9-month-old baby Mara, I learned registrants are greeted with a Target welcome gift consisting of samples and around $60 in coupons. Target also offers a 15 percent discount toward any items that remain on a baby registry 8 weeks prior to the due date. The platform is beautifully designed and on top of that, Target regularly cycles special diaper and other baby product deals through the log-in portal.
The brand new Walmart baby registry has the advantage in terms of appearance right now thanks to a design revamp. A chatbot named "Hoo" welcomes you to each registry and the sign-up process is actually a lot of fun.
While I can't comment on the welcome samples from Walmart since this is a brand new registry design, I have learned the Walmart personalization for registries is likely to surpass the features offered by Target.
Walmart's Hoo the owl will soon apparently help parents find organic and sustainable products. My current favorite Walmart baby registry feature is being able to collect gift ideas tied to nursery design themes, including gender-neutral options. That will save A LOT of time for parents that want to be surprised at the time of birth.
The products for both registries are similar but in a full price-by-price comparison here puts Walmart slightly ahead of Target.
Walmart’s prices for the vast majority of the products I added to the baby registry were slightly lower. Walmart also does a better job by demonstrating actual cost per unit for essentials, like diapers. For example, on a diaper jumbo pack, Walmart clearly lists the per unit price per diaper while that information is nowhere to be found on Target.
Target, on the other hand, has one of my most favorite coupon / deal apps ever — it's called Cartwheel. Target baby registry users get the added benefit of deal integrations from the Target Cartwheel app which means certain deal days will yield great reductions over Walmart. While Walmart prices might be lower, a specific deal day could give Target the advantage.
The big take-away: if you prefer Target or have a Target Red Card, I'd set your baby registry up with them. If you have no preference between the two stores, I'd favor Walmart and if you're a frequent Walmart shopper, they will win in terms of baby registry design and personalization options.
You won’t go wrong either way and to all of the new and expecting parents out there, we’re all in this together! Good luck.
