When TechCrunch first covered the gift registry platform Thankful Registry eleven years ago, its philosophy was to turn the act of asking for gifts into a thoughtful process, rather than a greedy grab for things. Fast forward more than a decade, Thankful It continues to rely on that mentality with its relaunch. In addition to the redesign, the Thankful app also has new features like the ability to send cash through more transfer apps.
When Amazon Remove capacity To add items from other locations to its wishlists and registries in 2023 has opened up a new opportunity for Thankful. Founded in 2013, the startup, run by Cathy Cheng in Taipei, wants to become the world’s most popular global gift registry and wish list. It also wants to be one of the most beautiful, focusing on design and user experience. As Cheng says, “Gifting is inherently a social transaction. You can’t just be an online tool.”
Currently, 80% of active accounts on Thankful are wedding registries, 10% are baby registries, and the rest are started by non-profit organizations and general users. Half of its users are in the US, while the rest are spread across Australia, Canada, the UK and the rest of the world. Since Thankful relaunched in October, 1 in 4 new trial accounts have converted to paid accounts.
Cheng first got the idea for Thankful when one of her friends got married and Cheng used her online Macy’s registry. She told TechCrunch that she “hated” the experience. “It was like a shopping list. Everything was so small, the pictures were so small. It was like you were just ticking an item off someone’s list. There was no information about the couple, no pretty pictures, no message,” she says. welcome”.
I set out to create a registry platform that would make ordering and giving gifts a more rewarding experience. In addition to focusing on design, Thankful also has features, such as one that lets people write messages when purchasing a gift.
Before its redesign, Thankful’s homepage remained unchanged for 10 years. The new version was designed by Cheng and Corey Li, a freelance UX designer based in Kaohsiung. Cheng says she wants to update the design and add more functionality, including a focus on cash gifts for international users. The new version also makes it easier for users to add gifts to their registry. Previously, they used a bookmark app, but now they can also paste links and upload images.
For countries where cash gifts are very popular, Thankful has a wallet feature that allows people to request multi-currency cash gifts through popular direct cash transfer platforms. These include PayID in Australia, Monzo in the UK, e-Transfer in Canada, and Wise for global gifts. In the US, available platforms are Stripe, PayPal, Chime, Zelle, Venmo, and CashApp. One out of every five gifts given through the Thankful program is cash, Cheng says.
Cheng points out that gift registry companies like The Knot, Zola, Joy, and Babylist have expanded their registry businesses through dropshipping models, making money by processing orders and shipping them to customers. But Thankful avoids dropshipping because Cheng says she hates the “shop til you drop” mentality of registries that encourages people to order more items so they can generate revenue. Instead, Thankful uses a two-option pricing model. Customers make one-time payments of $60 for one-year registration or $90 annually for permanent registration.
As a global gift registry, many people use Thankful to add items from small businesses, including mom-and-pop stores, independent designers, and Etsy.
Screenshot of Thankful Kids recording
“There are a lot of D2C brands now,” Cheng says. “People are choosing to buy from D2C brands rather than Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Kmart, and Target. So you could have someone with 20 retailers on their signup page, and it would all look good and work together.”
In addition to wedding and baby registries, the Thankful app is also used by nonprofit organizations to request donations. They include the Cincinnati Zoo, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Perth Inner City Youth Services, and Refugee Education UK. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, many of the donations came through Planned Parenthood records. Before that, people asked for donations to go to the ACLU when Donald Trump was elected in 2016.
“You have to be very flexible, which is why I think global is the way to go, but competitors, because they make their money through dropshipping, don’t want to go global,” Cheng says.
Although donation accounts make up less than 2% of total gifts given on Thankful, the platform has facilitated more than $412,000 in donations to date, Cheng says. About 80% of these donations, or $330,000, went to US-based nonprofits, with an average amount of about $100. Thankful charges no transaction fees or platform fees for donations and gives non-profits and educators free accounts forever for fundraising.
The relaunch marks the first time Thankful has updated its pricing model in a decade, and one reason is that it’s founder-owned and competes with other registries, including ones with venture capital funding like Joy and Zola. Cheng points out that Thankful is still less expensive than other competitors such as cash-only honeymoon boxes, Hitchd and Traveler’s Joy.
Cheng says she wants customers to view Thankful as a service that stays with them at different stages. Many couples register first for their weddings, before using the Thankful app for baby registries. Other users include people who use the platform as evergreen gift lists for their extended families, dog adoption registries and lists of needed items for people with serious illnesses.
“Gifts touch many aspects of our lives,” Cheng says. “We just want to make it as easy and thoughtful as possible.”