Gift registries in Australia: what they cost you, and your guests
A gift registry is a list your guests buy from, so you get things you want and not four kettles. In Australia you have three broad options, and they are funded very differently.
We sell one of them, at $29. That is the bias; the numbers below are checkable.
Option one: a department store registry
Myer and David Jones both run them. Straightforward, familiar to older guests, and physically returnable in store.
The catch is that everything on the list has to be something that shop sells. That is fine for homewares and hopeless for the local ceramicist, the experience voucher, or the honeymoon.
Cost to you: free. Funded by: your guests’ spending, in their shop.
Option two: an international registry platform
Zola, The Knot and Babylist are the big ones, with MyRegistry spanning both weddings and babies. Polished, free, and built for the American market — which shows in shipping options, currency and the vendor marketplace bolted to the side.
They are free to the couple because retailers pay for placement and the platform takes a cut of guest spending. That is a real business model producing a genuinely good product, and it also means the platform has a commercial interest in where your guests buy. Partner shops surface first. Cash funds carry a processing cut.
Your guests generally have no idea any of this is happening. They think they are following your list.
Cost to you: free. Funded by: merchants paying for position, and a slice of what your guests spend.
Option three: pay for it, and cut the middle out
Ours costs $29 once per registry, GST included, nothing to cancel.
No affiliate links, no partner shops, no sponsored suggestions, no cut of cash gifts. We do not know where your guests buy and we earn nothing either way.
Other things worth knowing:
- It lives at a short address you pick —
giftgambit.com/your-names. - Ask for six of something and the page counts down as they are claimed, with the last one protected so two guests can’t claim it at the same instant.
- You can see who claimed what, because you have thank-yous to write. (The rest of the app hides claims; a registry deliberately doesn’t.)
- You build it and look at it for free. You only pay when you publish.
- Pro is also $29 a year and includes your first registry — so if you’ll use the rest of the app, buy Pro instead of a standalone registry. Same money, more product.
The question to ask
Do you mind that somebody has a commercial interest in your wedding list?
Plenty of couples genuinely don’t, and for them free is the right answer — the big platforms are polished and their guests already know them.
If you would rather the list were just the list, that costs $29, and we would rather tell you the trade honestly than pretend the free ones are somehow cheating. They are not. They are just funded by someone other than you.
A note on timing
Set the registry up before invitations go out, and put the address on the invitation. The most common failure is not the platform — it is guests buying before they know a list exists.
See how registries work, or read starting a gift registry and choosing your registry address.
Ready to retire the group chat? 🎁 GiftGambit is free to join — wishlists, secret claims and Kris Kringle draws for the whole family.