Gift registries are not a new concept and most people are familiar with how they work – especially in the context of a wedding or baby shower. Lately, gift registries have expanded onto the web and beyond their traditional shower occasions to be used for all types of gifting. How do the different options compare?
While your typical registry is an individual’s list of items that they want or need and is shared with many people, CheckedTwice is different. We focus on being a gifting solution for families – which means that the wishlists are shared interchangeably between members of the group. Instead of a one-sided exchange, the wishing and giving go both ways. Less about a list of needs, CheckedTwice wishlists function as a quick way to more efficiently shop for others and easily determine a gift that is guaranteed to be a hit. We’ve got the best family gift registry site on the web and here are a few ways in which we are different from other common gift organization solutions.
When it comes to coordinating gift giving, options include Amazon wishlists, group emails, other registry sites, or simple pen and paper lists. These options all allow sharing a wishlist with a group – but not all will allow the open exchange of the other party’s (or the rest of the family’s) wishlist back to the sender. For example, there is no reciprocity with an Amazon wishlist – if Steve shares his wishlist with Jane, that is great, but he can’t see Jane’s list unless she sends it to him. And their grandparents, aunts, and uncles all lack access until Steve shares it with them directly. With CheckedTwice, everyone can see what everyone else wants from one place.
A common reservation to using a registry is that it will take surprises out of an occasion. If a person creates a wishlist – they can expect to receive gifts that they have selected and some will even show them what has been purchased. But with CheckedTwice, we offer the ability to add surprise gifts to the wishlists of others – so the rest of the family will see them and be aware but the recipient will not be able to see them. This can lead to some really fun collaborative surprises – read a post about that by clicking here. Even when gifts are claimed by other family members, the recipient will not be the wiser.
In addition to surprise gifts, we offer children’s accounts that can be managed by their parents. This means even the very youngest family members can have wishlists as determined by their parents that will match their age, development, and interests. This makes it much easier for extended family to choose appropriate gifts for those that they don’t get to see very often. It also keeps parents from coordinating between different sides of the family on who will buy what.
One other unique benefit to using CheckedTwice is that unclaimed gifts will stay with the user’s wishlists as an occasion passes. If Steve doesn’t get a new bike helmet for Christmas, the helmet stays on his wishlist beyond December so when his birthday rolls around at the beginning of February, he doesn’t have to repopulate his list with items that fell off after Christmas and his family will know what to get him.
These features, coupled with the standard benefits of using registries like avoiding duplicate gifts and easily choosing gifts your recipient is sure to love help make CheckedTwice the best family gift registry site for Christmas. Be your family’s holiday hero and get started today!