This year, we’re all looking for ways to make the holidays feel special while staying safe and keeping friends and family safe too. At the same time, the holiday season rings in the busiest time of the year for shopping, and while online shopping itself isn’t new, this year more people than ever will be incentivized to do their gifting exclusively online, and to keep their gift exchanges “hands off.”
That means online gift registry services are having a moment, and MyRegistry.com, the largest Universal Gift Registry platform, is ahead of the curve with a well-established, tech-savvy digital gifting service that makes it easy to give—and receive—the perfect holiday gifts from the comfort and safety of home. It’s that little bit of extra reassurance we all welcome right now.
In fact, MyRegistry.com has already seen tens of thousands of customers create digital Holiday Wish Lists. “We’ve seen consistent growth in the creation of Christmas Wish Lists over the years,” says MyRegistry president Nancy Lee, “but this year we’re seeing something different. There was a huge surge of holiday activity in early October, and it hasn’t slowed since. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
The 2020 holiday season, with its uptick in Wish List creation, is the first since the company expanded its website into Spanish earlier this year. MyRegistry is now the only end-to-end Spanish language Universal Gift Registry, with every feature on the site accessible to the Spanish-speaking community.
Who Benefits from an Online Gift List?
Everyone in the family and more. If you have kids, you can create an individual list for each child under one account. The kids will be thrilled to create their own digital list for Santa, and parents will appreciate having links ready to send to anyone who asks, not to mention avoiding the awkwardness of receiving multiples of the same thing. Older relatives and others who are particularly at risk will appreciate the no-contact option. And what to give the friend who has everything? Well, she can tell you.
And while post-holiday trips to the mall or post office to return unwanted gifts have become something of a tradition, this year it pays to get it (and give it) right the first time. Plus, we all want to avoid packaging waste and those dreaded “white elephants,” right?
How Does It Work?
Much like creating an online wedding registry, with a Holiday Wish List each user curates a list of all their favorite things, and only things they’d be happy to receive as gifts. Family and friends are given a link to the list, and from there, “shopping” couldn’t be easier: Gift givers find a gift in their price range and make a few clicks to buy it and have it delivered, satisfied that it will be happily received.
Wish Lists can now be opened up at many retailers, from the usual Amazon and Macy’s to unexpected gift destinations like Bass Pro for high-end outdoor gear. But for those who want more store options and a single list to manage, a Universal Holiday Wish List can be set up through a platform like MyRegistry, where any number of items from any store—mega retailer to small local shop—can be aggregated on to one list that’s shareable and shoppable via a single link.
With MyRegistry, the technology will also do the work for you of connecting all your favorite stores and shopping sites to your gift list. With a browser extension button, users can add online items to their Wish List with a click. And with the MyRegistry app, your smartphone becomes a barcode scanner to use in-store (if the experience of holiday shopping in person is too much to resist).
“MyRegistry has completely changed the way people think of gift lists for all occasions,” says Nancy Lee. “Our site works equally well not just for weddings and babies, but for Wish Lists of any kind, and with Hanukkah and Christmas coming up, it’s the perfect opportunity for our existing users as well as new users to create Holiday Wish Lists to share with friends and family. It’s the easiest way for everyone to get what they really want for the holidays.”
When it’s not possible to gather in person, it’s all the more important to connect with loved ones, and this year that will be more meaningful than ever.
Nonprofits Have Gift Registries Too
Nonprofits and other organizations are also benefiting this year from no-contact online gifting. Aware that people might feel uneasy dropping off toys and other goods in person, many nonprofits are using the MyRegistry platform to manage their holiday toy drives and other initiatives, and donors appreciate the straightforward way to give their favorite cause exactly what’s needed—whether that’s toys, supplies, or even cash.
Spark of Love, a joint effort between ABC7 and Southern California Firefighters, is using MyRegistry to power its holiday toy drive for the first time. Now in its 28th year, the Spark of Love Toy Drive is the largest community toy drive in the nation, having successfully distributed more than 10 million toys and pieces of sports equipment to underserved children and teens in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, and Riverside counties.
Learn more about holiday giving with MyRegistry
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