Life

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Meet Walmart's New Baby Registry — It's Even Easier To Shop For Baby's Arrival

by Kristina Johnson

Putting together the perfect baby registry is typically very time consuming. There are so many products that you need to remember to add, and tons of decisions to be made about what brands, colors, and price points you're looking for. But one store is looking to make that process faster and easier. Walmart's baby registry is getting a massive makeover that aims to make it quick and simple for expecting moms and dad to pick out everything they need.

One of the most fun new features of Walmart's baby registry is a cute chatbot named Hoo the Owl that reviews your preferences to help you narrow down what you're looking for. If you give Hoo your due date, your baby's gender (or select gender neutral), your state, and your nursery theme, it can auto-fill your registry with recommended items. There are eight different registry themes to choose from, giving you a wide range of styles to peruse — those include modern boy, modern girl, classic unisex, woodland, classic boy, classic girl, modern gray, and boho chic.

Having a virtual owl pre-populate a baby registry for you sounds so much easier than spending hours browsing online and wracking your brain for all the must have items your nursery needs. Searching for something as simple as crib sheets on Walmart.com brings up hundreds of results, and while choice is good, I imagine lots of pregnant mamas would much rather spend that time relaxing and taking naps.

Baby Registry, Walmart

The new registry also makes it a lot easier to put together your list right from your phone. If you download the Walmart app, you'll be able to add items, start returns, and share your registry with friends and family. If you've got an iPhone, you can even use Siri to quickly open your registry whenever you need to make changes. Shoppers looking to a snag a gift for you can also use the app to check out everything on your list, figure out which items are available in store, and scan their receipt to mark something as purchased.

In addition the changes to the registry, Walmart has also added lots of new baby items and new brands to its inventory over the past year or so. Owlet, BOB, Jujube, nanobébé, and Hello Bello products are now available at Walmart.com. Products from brands like Chicco, Monbébé, Britax, and Halo are also now available in store if you want to test drive a stroller or see how heavy a car seat is before you take the plunge and add it your registry.

Signing up for a Walmart baby registry has some other benefits, too. Customers who create a new registry are treated to a free baby welcome box stuffed with goodies from brands like Huggies, Dove, Nuk and All (though it should be noted that the popular freebie is currently sold out). The store also has a price-match guarantee, if you find an identical product for a cheaper price somewhere else, as well as a generous return policy. With all those perks going for it, I'm betting Hoo the Owl is going to be quite busy.