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My pregnant friend recently mentioned that she could use my guidance on creating a registry. I immediately got excited (as I do about most anything baby related) and told her that I have some greats tips for her. I started rattling them off and she slowed me down, saying that she is only four months along and not quite ready to start on her registry. She asked me to remember all of my tips and share them with her in another month or two. Instead, I decided to turn them into a two part post series. In this post I cover why, when and where to register (as well as some tips about each store) and in the next post I will list my top registry picks.

Why create a registry?

If you don't have a registry, your friends and family will just get you whatever they fancy. Even if they all have great taste, you may end up with 15 monogrammed blankets and be missing other essentials. By sharing a registry with them you are offering them guidance to buy you the things you really want and need (I say "guidance" because some will still buy whatever they please no matter what).
Having a registry helps you keep track of what has been purchased for you -- even if you haven't received it yet.
It also keeps you from needing to keep track of your receipts (or needing to worry when someone forgets to include a gift receipt) as most stores will allow you to return or exchange registry items without a receipt.
Some stores incentivize you to create registries by giving you registry rewards on purchases off of your registry or offering you a registry completion discount (e.g., Target offers a 15% registry completion discount (details below)).
I even purchased things off of my own registries both for tracking purposes and to take advantage of the incentives listed in the preceding bullet.
It can be helpful to have a "secret" registry to keep track of items that you are considering (I did this at Amazon and found it really helpful for keeping organized). More details below.

When should you create your registry?

This really depends on your own comfort level and personal situation. But I suggest that you have it up and running at least a month or two before your shower (or before the birth of you aren't having a shower).
Some people are superstitious and don't want a registry until they are well along in their pregnancy or even until after the birth! Most stores allow you to set up a registry either privately or under a fake name and change it to public or it to your real name later. Amazon lets you set up as many registries as you want and customize the privacy settings for each registry. See below for more details on creating a secret registry just to keep track of items that you are considering.

Where should you register?

There is no shortage of stores at which you can register. If you have a local boutique that you love and want to support, go ahead and register there. You should still also register at at least one major online retailer like Amazon so that your family and friends across the country and the world can easily send you gifts and also at one major brick and mortar store like Target.

Amazon

Amazon is amazing and at the top of this list for many reasons:

Amazon sells pretty much anything and everything. I've been able to find the Guava Lotus travel crib, which is one of my registry must haves only on the Guava site and on Amazon. For more information on why it is a registry pick, click here.

Lotus Travel Crib and Portable Baby Playard

Guava Family

Buy on Amazon

Amazonoffers a 10% registry completion discount (or 15% if you are an Amazon Prime member). Amazon also offer Prime members free shipping and everyone else free shipping for orders over a certain price point. Prime members are eligible to enroll in Amazon Mom, which entitles you to major discounts on certain diapering and other baby supplies. You can sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime here:

One really nice thing about Amazon is that they let you set up multiple registries and allow you to customize the privacy level for each registry. For example, if you find a bunch of awesome looking products the first week that you find out you are pregnant, you can add them to a private registry while you figure out what you really want. You can later sort the registry by category to narrow down your selections within each category. You can ultimately convert one of these to become your "real"registry or start from scratch with a new list. You can also create a "shopping list registry" of items that you plan to buy for yourself (such as the items in my posts on nursing bras, nursing supplies and pumping supplies).
Amazon's customer service is amazing. I got an Amazon gift without a packing slip. I called Amazon and they were able to figure out who it was from and gave me a store credit for the entire amount of the gift (about $75!) for the inconvenience.
If you do end up returning registry items, you will have no trouble using Amazon store credit because, as I mentioned above, Amazon sells everything.

Target

Target is a great place to start your registry for many reasons:

Target fits within both the major online retailer and classic brick and mortal categories (it has 1,800 storefronts across the U.S.).
Target makes returns and exchanges really easy. I've returned non-registry baby gifts with no receipt and received a Target store credit for the retail price.
Target offers a 15% off completion discount -- meaning you get 15% off any item that is still in your registry, starting six weeks before your due date.
Target has a great selection, they even carry Honest baby products.

Buy Buy Baby or Bed Bath and Beyond

These store(s) also fit within both the major online retailer and classic brick and mortal categories. They have a great selection but don't carry quite everything. I do shop here but find their websites to be surprisingly clunky.

In case you aren't aware, Buy Buy Baby (BBB) and Bed Bath and Beyond (Bed Bath) are owned by the same parent company. All BBB inventory is available on the Bed Bath website. If you register at BBB, you can still make purchases off your registry through the Bed Bath website. You can also walk into any Bed Bath and have them special order a BBB item for you -- if you ask nicely, they will waive shipping even if it falls below $49. They both offer 20% off coupons and you can use coupons from one store at the other. Both offer a 10% registry completion discount.

Here is why I make my purchases at Bed Bath:

better return policy -- Bed Bath allows you to return any item, in any condition and for any reason. BBB doesn't allow you to return opened boxes (though they will if the item is defective). I bought a carrier from Bed Bath and it came in an unsealed box. I took it halfway out of the box and realized that it wasn't for me. I brought it to Bed Bath to return it. They told me that if I had bought if from BBB I wouldn't be able to return it because I had opened the box. See my post on carriers for the carrier that I ended up loving.
expired coupons: Bed Bath will let you use expired print coupons from either store. BBB won't accept expired coupons.
lower free shipping minimum (I believe $49 for Bed Bath and $99 for BBB).
better rebate on mrrebates. When I shop online I click through from mrrebates or ebates to get cash back. The Bed Bath rebate is currently 3% while the BBB rebate is only 2%. Not a big difference, but it adds up.

Bloomingdales or Nordstrom

I didn't register at either of these stores, but I did get many adorable baby outfits as gifts from them. What is great about Bloomingdales and Nordstrom is that they sell adorable baby clothes and there is no time limit for returns. If you receive a size 12 month outfit and put it away only to realize at 12 months that it is already too small or the wrong season you can easily return it.