Greed is good — for the growing online gift registry market.
Years ago, students trooping off to college would never have typed up lists of 30 must-have items for their families and friends to buy for them — but today, in the era of Amazon.com wish lists, relaxed manners and time-crunched shopping, registries are proliferating like never before and are not just for brides and grooms anymore.
Today, retailers are learning that creating a registry for high school graduates moving to a college dorm, folks buying a new home and even those celebrating a special anniversary can help boost sales and reduce returns.
Target, whose profits are expected to slide in 2014 for the second straight year, has started a college-student registry. At The Container Store, in addition to a college-student registry, there’s one for homebuyers, both alongside the more usual baby and bridal registries.
MyRegistry.com, naturally, has a host of non-traditional registries, while Present Value.com is targeting millennials with its new “financial goals” registry.
At Overstock.com, part of the goal of the registry is to help customers get the right gift.
“You’re not giving fruitcake, or the appliance version of a fruitcake,” said Patrick Byrne, CEO of the e-tailer, which launched a gift registry service in June.
But as retailers fall in love with the idea of expanding gift registries, critics decry the “me-first” impulse behind the trend. In a 2013 survey by market researcher Mintel, nearly 20 percent of consumers surveyed disliked registries, and many more respondents felt their special occasions did not warrant a registry.
To be sure, these new registries are miniscule compared with the millions of customers signed up for retailers’ wedding registries — but growth of the newer registries is rapid. Since June, several thousand customers have registered on average for 30 items worth $1,000 at Target’s new online-only registry. Plans call for expanding the service to stores.
At Overstock.com, 750 registrants have signed up for a new gift registry service since it debuted last month, asking for an average of eight products worth about $500. Byrne expects the service to contribute about 2 percent of sales, or about $30 million annually, in the next few years.