Normal Registries vs. Zola

We went with myregistry.com. We were really skeptical at first but it has turned out to be a great decision! I have a friend who is using Zola and I don't know much about it but she has had no complaints. We liked myregistry.com because we were able to pick things from various stores even if is just a couple items. Plus you can add things from stores that don't have a registry such as Lowes or Home Depot.

View Quoted Comment What options do people have who don't do well online since they will shop in store?

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The stores can access our registry through myregistry.com as long as we linked them as store we registered with so someone can go in to any store we registered with and still see our stuff!

I love Zola.com. I originally hadn't planned a website or anything but my Day of Coordinator highly recommended it. Not only is it a registry (with a lot of useful stuff) they also have a Honeymoon fund attached to it. So I have to say I like it.

I am registered with Zola. They are more expensive for the same products (so is Bed Bath and Beyond), but they do price match. You can offer that to your guests. I am not a fan of Bed Bath and Beyond, but people do like physical stores. I wanted to stay away from stores that offered a lot of stuff like I do not want groceries since people do buy off of the registry for some weird reason! (Like why ask if I have one if you are not going to buy off of it?!)



Zola is good because you can add other items from other stores that may not be on Amazon or any other registry. You decide if you want the cash equivalent to purchase yourself or you want to direct the guests to the main website. They also have a higher than normal post-wedding discount at 20%. The other thing is that it has a very handy gift tracker and you have the option of when to send an item to yourself if the guest chose to ship it to you or trade it in for store credit (and they add 5% to that) and then you can use for any other product you want that they offer (not for cash or a product you added from another website). The best part of that is that the guest will never know and you can still thank them for their original gift!

I like them because it is not just one store and I did not want multiple registries (even though it is recommended). I asked to make sure that the bridal shower cards said Zola.com as opposed to just Zola since not that many people have heard of it and may think it is an actual store!

I love Zola and my guests LOVE Zola!! You can register from ANYWHERE!! We have even registered for neat items for my fur baby. So EVERYTHING we have registered is on our Zola website. We have a CC on file for any cash gift items. Customer service is excellent. You can call them about anything. If you have older guests, they can call and Zola's CS team will help them select a gift in their price range. The websites are beautiful, too. Best of luck!!

View Quoted Comment So do u book through those others sites and then sync them or do u just do it on myregistry?

View Quoted Comment So do u register on Zola or on the other sites and sync them?

View Quoted Comment Thanks!!! I appreciate all that.

View Quoted Comment I had items I wanted from other sites, so I synced them, but Zola is a dept store unto itself. You can purely just register with them. Your choice!!

View Quoted Comment You register on Zola and then there a feature on the Add Gifts page (at the bottom I believe) where you can put in the URL and link it. If you do it from the Zola app, it is a little easier because you can navigate it a little better. However, if you add the Zola widget to your browser, this is even easier! You just click on it when you are viewing an item on any website and say to add it.

I usually have to edit the name to include the actual item’s name and have had to edit the picture. Also, it copies the price of the item, but suggests that you include tax and shipping in that price. So I will pretend to buy the item from the actual website to get the total and then edit the price to include that!

I'm using Zola as 1 of 3 small registries. I find that Zola is more pricey in my opinion, but they also have an option of holding the item bought, shipping when you want and being able to turn it directly into credit if you changed your mind about the item. Plus it keeps track of all your thank you's!

View Quoted Comment They definitely are! They do price match though!

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But you have to buy the item outright first and they'll credit your account. It's not like where you can walk into Walmart and show them on your phone and be done with it. You have to provide a link to the site, and proof of purchase first. So for some things like a Kitchen Aid (which was just on sale at Walmart) I either used that site to register or I used Zola's Add gift from URL feature. That was the only thing that kind of irked me. Customer service was very uppity with me when I brought the price match thing to them.

View Quoted Comment All online stores work like this though. Unless you call in to make the purchase and already sent in that information so they are able to price match on the phone, they have no way of price matching live. Every time I contact customer support through Zola, they are nothing but nice.

I remember trying to buy something at Walmart once and they would not even price match their own website. I was telling them that that is stupid and I can just buy it for the cheaper price and select store pickup then and they said okay. Every store has its disadvantages really.

We are using Bed, Bath & Beyond and Amazon as our registries and then put both of them up on our wedding website. We looked at Zola, but a lot of the items were more expensive than even Bed, Bath & Beyond. Also, there are times that you want to be able to go into a store and hold the exact item that you are putting on the registry.

We did not know about the adding a gift from a different store. That is really cool! But since we have the registry already all set up, we are just sticking with BB&B and Amazon so far.

Had no complaints with Zola except the prices and selection.

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I've never heard of this before but it sounds like a great idea!! Thank you for sharing

Can anyone speak to the extra fee Zola charges on all items? I’d love some clarification- the way I understood it was that you can choose to have your guests pay the extra fee on items OR “choose to cover the cost yourself” so they don’t pay more. (?) maybe I’m misunderstanding?

View Quoted Comment This is for cash gifts only, not actual items!

So like if you wanted a gift from a different website, you can choose to have the guests buy it through Zola and then you would be getting cash to go buy the item yourself or you can direct them to the website to buy. If you choose the cash option, there is a fee to that for when you transfer money to your account. The option you are referring to is if you will be charged the fee and get a little less than the guests “paid” when you transfer or you can have your guests pay it and it is added to the total that they contribute. The same goes for items that you group gift as well I believe.

View Quoted Comment Ahh, thank you so much for clarifying! Very helpful.