A wishlist is a shopper keeping track of what they want. A gift registry is that same list pointed outward — built for an occasion, shared with guests, and designed so two people never buy the same thing. Registries are where wishlists start bringing you buyers who have never visited your store before, because every guest who opens the link arrives already intending to purchase.
Turn registries on
Go to Wishlist > Lists & Guests
Turn on Gift registry
Click Save
Registries are a paid feature — the setting is disabled on the free plan.
Once it is on, shoppers get a Create Registry option alongside their ordinary lists. Existing wishlists are untouched; a registry is a separate kind of list.
What the shopper sets up
When a shopper creates a registry they fill in:
Registry Name — for example “John & Jane’s Wedding Registry”
Event Type — Wedding, Baby Shower, Birthday, Housewarming, or Other
Names — who the registry is for, shown to guests
Event Date — optional, and shown to guests so they know the deadline
Greeting Message — a short note that appears above the items
If public sharing is enabled on your store, the shopper also gets a Generate a public link for sharing option. That link is what they send to guests, and it opens without anyone needing an account.
Quantities and purchase tracking
This is what separates a registry from a shared wishlist. Each item carries a quantity the shopper wants, and Wishlist keeps count of how many have already been bought.
Items requesting more than one show a progress bar — “2 of 6 purchased”, “4 remaining”
An item that has been fully bought is marked as such, so guests stop buying it
The registrant sees the same progress on their own registry
Counting happens automatically when an order is paid in your store. Wishlist records the buyer’s name, email and quantity against the item, and the same order can never be counted twice.
What does and does not get counted
A purchase is matched to a registry item by the guest going through the registry. If a guest opens the registry link and adds an item from there, it counts.
It does not count when:
Someone buys the same product from your ordinary product page, without going through the registry
The gift is bought somewhere other than your store
The order is placed but never paid — counting happens on payment, not at checkout
This means a registry’s progress reflects what was bought through the registry, which is usually what the registrant wants. It also means the count can understate reality if a guest goes off-script, so treat it as a guide rather than a guarantee.
What registries do not do
Items are never reserved or held. Marking an item as purchased is a record of what already happened, not a lock — two guests who check out at the same moment can both buy the last one. Wishlist does not touch your inventory, and it does not stop a sale.