Baby Registry Outside the US (No Amazon or Babylist)

If the registry everyone recommends won't let you sign up in your country, you don't need a workaround. You need a list that follows your shops, not the other way round.

Most baby registry advice is written for the United States. Pick a big-box store, scan some barcodes, done. Then you live in Dubai, Karachi, Jakarta, São Paulo or Lagos, try to sign up, and find the registry is tied to a store or a country that isn't yours. Or it works, but your family in another country can only buy from a shop that doesn't deliver to you.

The good news: a registry is just a shared list with three jobs. It tells people what you need, it lets them buy it somewhere that delivers to you, and it stops two people buying the same thing. None of that needs a particular store. Here's how to set one up wherever you live.

What a registry has to do (and what it doesn't)

• Show what you need — ideally from a checklist, so you don't forget the boring essentials like a thermometer or burp cloths.
• Send guests to a shop that delivers to you — the parents' country, not the guest's. A gift bought on a foreign store usually means import fees, long delivery or a parcel that never arrives.
• Prevent duplicates — someone claims a gift before buying it, and everyone else sees it is taken.
• Keep your address private — guests who need it should get it; the whole family group chat doesn't.
• Track who gave what — so thank-you notes don't become detective work.

A registry does NOT need to be run by the shop you buy from. That's the assumption that makes people outside the US think they can't have one.

Option 1: a spreadsheet or shared note

A shared Google Sheet with columns for item, link, and "bought by" works, and costs nothing. The problems show up later: guests forget to fill in the "bought by" column, two aunts buy the same stroller, someone edits the wrong row, and older relatives can't work the sheet on a phone. It's fine for a small circle who are good at spreadsheets.

Option 2: a registry that works with any store

A store-independent registry gives you the checklist, the claiming and the gift tracker without tying you to one retailer. Diaper Reveal's free baby registry is built this way. Checklist items open a search in a store in your country, and anything else goes on the list by pasting a product link from any online shop.

How to set it up, step by step

1. 1Start the registry. Go to Start a free registry, choose pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy, add your name and (optionally) your due date and a photo. It takes about two minutes and you get a private manage link by email — no account.
2. 2Check the country. The registry uses the country you're in when you create it. If you're moving before the birth, change it so gifts go to the new home.
3. 3Tick the checklist. Start from the essentials and add what fits your home. Mark anything you've already bought as "already have" so guests never see it as something to buy.
4. 4Add gifts from your own shops. Paste links from local stores you trust, and add help gifts like cooked meals or a night of babysitting.
5. 5Add your delivery address. Guests see it only after leaving their email, then copy it in one tap at checkout.
6. 6Share one link. Send it in the family WhatsApp group. Guests open it in the browser in their own language — no app.

Family abroad: who buys where?

This is the part that trips people up. Your aunt in London wants to send a gift to you in Lahore. If she buys on her own country's store, it may not ship to you at all. The fix is simple: the guest buys in the parents' country. A registry built for this sends every guest, wherever they are, to your country's store and gives them your delivery address at checkout. Many online stores accept international cards, so the gift is paid abroad and delivered locally.

Country guides

Each of these pages names the stores the registry uses there and answers local questions:

• Baby registry in the UAE — Amazon.ae, with Noon for Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
• قائمة هدايا المولود — in Arabic, for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the whole Arab world.
• Baby registry in Pakistan — Daraz.
• Baby registry in India — Amazon.in.
• Daftar kado bayi — Indonesia, Tokopedia.
• Lista de presentes de bebê — Brazil, in Portuguese.
• Lista de regalos de bebé — Mexico and Latin America, in Spanish.
• Baby registry for any country — everywhere else.

Not sure what to put on it? Our baby registry checklist by category covers what you actually need — and what can wait.