Amazon Is Doing Weddings

It’s not Tiffany’s, but Amazon.com’s new wedding registry may have its own cachet for couples who want a DVD player instead of a duvet.

The registry, which launched last week, is the online retailer’s latest strategy to steal customers from bricks-and-mortar stores.

Though several traditional retailers, such as Macy’s and Williams-Sonoma, already have online wedding registries, Amazon is promoting its registry as an alternative for couples who already have the basics and don’t want another set of china.

“We’re not intending to launch something that’s going to compete with that tradition,” said Jeff Blackburn, general manager of product development for Amazon’s wedding registry.

The registry could be lucrative for the company, as each individual registry could generate several thousand dollars, said Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group.

It “sets a different expectation” than individual book or DVD purchases, Freedman said.

However, Amazon may have some difficulty going up against conventionalstores, where couples can examine products before adding them to their list and placing them online. Couples registering at Amazon also will have to deal with the hassle of shipping unwanted wedding presents rather than simply returning them to the store, Freedman said.

If “the bride and groom has to repackage crystal, it’s kind of a pain,” she said.

Amazon’s wedding registry consists of 12 categories, ranging from housewares to home improvement to home entertainment. Couples can register for anything on the site, however, including millions of books.

Once a couple have saved their registry on the site, friends and family can view the registry online and purchase gifts directly from Amazon.

Since Amazon introduced its all-occasion “wish list” registry in October 1999 and its baby registry in May, about 6 million registries have been created, although the company would not disclose how many purchases have been made through them.

About 40% of bricks-and-mortar retailers offer online wish lists or gift registries, but they have been slow to gain popularity, said Rob Leathern, an analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix. Before the holiday season, only 26% of online buyers had viewed, created or purchased an item from an online registry, according to the Internet research firm.

As retailers improve their registry software and consumers become more comfortable sharing their wish lists, those numbers should increase, Leathern said.

“This is something that can only grow over time,” he said.