Bringing home a stroller is about far more than wheels and fabric. It is your baby’s first vehicle, your mobile command center, and often one of the biggest investments of the newborn stage. As your Guardian of First Journeys, I want you to feel not only emotionally ready for that first walk around the block, but also confident that you timed your purchase wisely and protected your budget.
According to a USDA estimate cited by Gerber Childrenswear, a middle‑income family can expect to spend nearly $13,000 per year on each child. That number can feel daunting, especially when you start adding up big items like strollers, car seats, and nursery furniture. The good news is that stroller prices are genuinely flexible over the course of the year, and major baby brands and retailers run predictable sales that you can use to your advantage.
At the same time, brands like Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear emphasize another truth that matters just as much as price: you need time. Time to research, compare safety and comfort features, wait for shipping, assemble the stroller, and practice using it before you are buckling a newborn into the seat. The goal is not to chase every deal, but to choose the right moment when savings, readiness, and peace of mind meet.
In this guide, I will walk you through how your pregnancy timeline, the annual baby‑sale calendar, and your own life circumstances fit together so you can decide exactly when to buy your stroller on sale, without compromising safety or sanity.
Why Timing Your Stroller Purchase Matters
A stroller sits at the intersection of cost, safety, and daily practicality. That is why timing matters more than it does for many smaller baby items.
When you purchase early and intentionally, you give yourself room to compare models, read reviews, and test the stroller’s fold and maneuverability before your third trimester or the haze of those first postpartum weeks. Chicco points out that buying key baby items ahead of time reduces third trimester stress, helps you avoid last‑minute shopping, and lets you focus on your baby instead of tracking shipping notices.
On the other hand, buying too early can mean missing better sale windows, or discovering after your baby shower that a relative wanted to gift you a stroller or travel system. Both Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear note that friends and family often cover big‑ticket items such as strollers and high chairs. Waiting until after your shower, or at least planning around it, can prevent duplicate purchases and wasted money.
There is also the question of storage and fit. Chicco encourages parents to look realistically at their living space and prioritize compact, foldable, or multi‑function gear if space is tight. That matters for your timeline as well: if you live in a small apartment, you may not want a bulky stroller arriving in the first trimester when you are still rearranging furniture and planning the nursery.
The sweet spot, for most families, lies between buying early enough to feel calm and prepared, and late enough to capture meaningful savings and avoid unnecessary clutter.
Mapping Your Stroller Purchase to Your Pregnancy Timeline
Different families will choose slightly different timing, but there is a consistent pattern in expert guidance. Both Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear suggest using each trimester differently: planning and research early, followed by targeted purchases once you have more energy and more information.
First Trimester: Quiet Planning, Not Panic Buying
In the first trimester, many parents instinctively hold off on big purchases. Chicco notes that this is a natural time for planning rather than spending, and Gerber Childrenswear suggests focusing on budget and organization before you start shopping in earnest.
This is an ideal window to clarify your stroller needs. Think about your lifestyle: Will you mostly walk city sidewalks or suburban paths? Do you need a stroller that pairs with a specific infant car seat? Do you climb stairs regularly or store your stroller in the trunk of a compact car? You do not need a credit card in hand to answer these questions; you need a notebook and a bit of honest reflection.
Gerber Childrenswear recommends creating a baby budget early, prioritizing essentials like a car seat, crib, and diapers. The stroller belongs on that top‑priority list. Seeing the stroller’s price range in the context of your overall plan makes it easier to decide which sales are genuinely worth waiting for and which are simply distracting.
This is also the right time to start reading stroller reviews, checking safety ratings, and browsing trusted sources such as Chicco’s buying guides or editorial roundups from What to Expect and The Bump. Those editorial teams spend time testing and comparing gear, and The Bump specifically notes that their recommended sale strollers have gone through real‑life product testing with families.
The key in the first trimester is to prepare your mind and your budget, not your hallway.
Second Trimester: The Expert‑Backed Sweet Spot
Both Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear highlight the second trimester as a particularly smart time for big purchases, and Chicco is explicit that the best time to buy a stroller and car seat is in the second or third trimester. There are a few reasons this window stands out.
First, many parents have more physical energy and mental bandwidth in the second trimester. That makes it easier to visit stores, lift and fold display models, and ask in‑person questions about accessories, warranty, and service. It is also a practical time to choose a travel system or confirm that your stroller frame and infant car seat are compatible if you are mixing brands.
Second, the sale calendar starts to work in your favor. What to Expect’s month‑by‑month guide shows that some of the most stroller‑friendly events happen around this stage, depending on when your due date falls. In spring, there are baby gear sales and big online furniture events. In mid‑summer, Prime Day, Target’s competing events, and the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale can bring significant discounts on premium strollers from brands like Nuna, Cybex, Thule, Stokke, WonderFold, and UPPAbaby.
Third, Chicco recommends selecting large items like cribs, car seats, and strollers by the second trimester, both to avoid shipping delays and to leave time for assembly and practice. Gerber Childrenswear echoes this approach, advising parents to start ordering nursery furniture early so everything arrives with a comfortable buffer.
If you are aiming to maximize savings without cutting it too close, the second trimester is often the ideal blend of better prices and low stress.
Third Trimester: Final Purchases and Safety Checks
The third trimester is a natural deadline, especially for gear you absolutely must have before your baby arrives. Both Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear emphasize that the car seat needs to be ready for the hospital ride home, and because many families buy a matching travel system, that advice generally extends to the stroller as well.
This stage is less about browsing and more about finishing your list. Chicco suggests having your baby shower in the third trimester, then assessing what remains and buying any missing essentials. Many registries offer discounts or incentives when you “clear the list” as your due date approaches, which can stack nicely with retailer promotions and help you stretch your stroller budget.
Gerber Childrenswear recommends using late pregnancy to stock up on must‑have essentials and to keep an eye out for deals on items your baby will use later, such as high chairs and playpens. You can apply the same strategy to secondary stroller items, like a lightweight travel stroller or a jogging stroller for when your baby is older.
The trade‑off of waiting until the third trimester is that you have less time to manage backorders or shipping delays. Retailers like MacroBaby explicitly warn that Black Friday and holiday periods can bring heavier shipping volumes and longer delivery times. If you are aiming for a big November sale and your due date is also close, build in a safety margin rather than waiting for the very last flash deal.
The Baby Sale Calendar: When Strollers Actually Go on Sale
Parents often sense that “there will be sales,” but it helps to know that there is a real pattern behind that intuition. What to Expect tracked major baby sales across the year and found that certain months reliably bring strong promotions on strollers and other gear. At the same time, specialty retailers and open‑box outlets run their own deep discounts.
Here is a simplified view of the sale calendar based on those guides and retailer updates:
Time of year |
Example events and retailers |
Why it can be good for strollers |
February–March |
Carter’s Baby Love Sale, Amazon February Baby Sale, Walmart Baby Days, Gerber Childrenswear Semi‑Annual Sale |
Early in many pregnancies, these events often feature discounts on baby gear alongside clothing and basics, giving you a first chance to save if your second trimester falls in spring. |
April |
Carter’s Baby Boom Sale, Target Car Seat Trade‑In Event, Wayfair Way Day |
Target’s trade‑in program offers a 20% coupon valid on a new stroller or other baby gear, and Way Day includes nursery furniture and sometimes stroller deals, ideal for spring second‑trimester shoppers. |
July |
Amazon Prime Day, Target Circle Week, Nordstrom Anniversary Sale |
What to Expect and The Bump highlight July as a key month for premium stroller and car seat discounts from brands such as Nuna, Cybex, Thule, Stokke, WonderFold, and UPPAbaby. |
September–October |
Fall Carter’s Baby Love Sale, Target Car Seat Trade‑In, Amazon fall Prime Day, Target Circle Week |
Helpful if your third trimester lands in fall; you can recycle an old car seat for a stroller discount and combine store events with registry completion offers. |
November |
Black Friday and Cyber Monday, including retailers like MacroBaby |
MacroBaby describes exceptional Black Friday deals on strollers from brands like Silver Cross, Doona, Bugaboo, Maxi‑Cosi, Peg Perego, and more, with bundle promotions and open‑box savings. |
December |
Wayfair End of Year Clearance, specialty gear clearance events |
End‑of‑year clearance can offer up to roughly two‑thirds off nursery and kids’ items, and some stores mark down remaining stroller inventory. |
In addition, open‑box and overstock retailers run strong stroller discounts throughout the year. REBEL advertises strollers up to 70% off retail by partnering with top brands and retailers to sell open‑box and overstock gear. The Stork Exchange describes its focus on premium open‑box and overstock baby products. MacroBaby operates an in‑store open‑box section with discounted strollers, cribs, and high chairs, noting that these items are typically returns, gently used, or removed from original packaging but still in excellent condition. Specialty boutiques such as Posh Baby also showcase significant markdowns on gear, with examples of strollers dropping by hundreds of dollars.
What this means for you as a parent is that you do not need to rely on a single sale weekend. You can scan these predictable events, match them to your trimester, and decide where you are most comfortable placing your bet.
Should You Wait for a Big Sale or Buy Sooner?
Knowing the calendar is one thing; deciding how long to wait is another. In practice, families tend to fall into three patterns: buying whenever a good deal appears, timing purchases around major sales such as Prime Day or Black Friday, or purchasing steadily after the baby shower once they see what is still needed. Each approach has pros and cons.
Buying very early, perhaps as soon as you see a discount in the first trimester, can feel exciting and proactive. It can lock in a price that you are comfortable with and spread out costs over a longer period. The downside is that many of the strongest sale events outlined by What to Expect and MacroBaby happen later in the year, so there is a real chance you will see the same stroller at a deeper discount months down the road. Early buying also increases the risk of duplicates if someone was quietly planning to buy you a travel system as a surprise.
Buying in the second trimester, especially aligned with a major sale window, often offers the best balance. If your second trimester overlaps with April, you can pair Chicco’s advice about choosing big items early with the Target Car Seat Trade‑In coupon, using that 20% discount on a stroller. If your second trimester falls in July, you have access to Amazon Prime Day, Target Circle Week, and the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, all of which What to Expect and The Bump identify as rich in stroller and car seat deals. You still have ample time to handle backorders, exchange a stroller that does not feel right, or learn the folding mechanism before the third‑trimester fatigue hits.
Waiting until the third trimester can make sense when you expect substantial shower gifts, or when your pregnancy only became public later and you want extended family to have the option to contribute to big items. Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear both suggest waiting to buy some gear until after your shower so you can fill in gaps rather than duplicating gifts. The risk, particularly if you are aiming for Black Friday or holiday clearance, is that popular stroller models sell out or that holiday shipping delays cut into your buffer. MacroBaby explicitly notes that high‑demand brands like Doona, Bugaboo, Cybex, and Silver Cross can sell out quickly during Black Friday promotions, and that shipping times may lengthen around that period.
In my experience guiding families through their stroller decisions, the most confident parents are the ones who set a personal deadline and stick to it. For many, that deadline is sometime in the late second trimester or very early third trimester, even if an enticing sale appears later.
Matching Sale Windows to Your Due Date
One practical way to make this decision is to work backward from your due date and align it with the sale calendar.
If you are due in late winter or early spring, your second trimester may fall around the summer sales. For example, a March due date often means a second trimester spanning September through November, which lines up with fall Target Circle events, fall Prime Day, and Black Friday. You could use early fall to research and narrow your choices, then aim to purchase during one of those promotions while still leaving a cushion for shipping and assembly.
If you are due in late spring or early summer, you might find that your second trimester overlaps with winter and early spring. In that case, February baby sales at major online retailers, Walmart’s Baby Days, or early furniture and gear events may be your first big chance to save. You can also treat April’s Target Car Seat Trade‑In and Way Day as an opportunity to secure both nursery furniture and your stroller in one focused push.
If your baby is due in late summer or early fall, July becomes a very interesting month. What to Expect and The Bump both highlight July’s Prime Day and Nordstrom Anniversary Sale as unusually strong for high‑end strollers and travel systems. Planning your research in advance and being ready with a shortlist when those sales go live can help you capture meaningful savings without impulse buying.
If your due date sits close to the end of the year, you may be tempted to wait for Black Friday. MacroBaby’s Black Friday overview confirms that the savings can be substantial, with extensive promotions on stroller brands and bundle deals, plus deep discounts in open‑box sections. Just be careful not to cut it too close; if your due date is in November or early December, consider whether an earlier fall sale might offer a safer timeline, even if the discount percentage is slightly lower.
There is no single “correct” answer, but anchoring your decision to both your trimester and the sale pattern can turn a vague goal of “buy when it’s on sale” into a clear plan.
Making the Most of Sales Without Losing Control
A sale can be a powerful ally or a powerful distraction. Retailers such as MacroBaby point out that limited‑time offers and early promotions can tempt you into buying more than you actually need. The key is to approach stroller sales with a strategy rather than a sense of scarcity.
Start with research, not with the sale. Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear both urge parents to spend time reading reviews, understanding safety ratings, and thinking about real‑life needs before buying. When you know which stroller models or features best fit your family, you can use the sale calendar simply to decide when to pull the trigger instead of letting discounts dictate your choice.
Make your registry work for you. Chicco recommends creating a registry in the second trimester and including both essentials and nice‑to‑have items. If you list your stroller and travel system, loved ones have the option to gift them. After your shower, you can see what remains and use registry completion discounts to close the gap, often stacking these with retailer sales.
Leverage trade‑in and rewards programs. What to Expect highlights Target’s Car Seat Trade‑In Events, where you bring in any old car seat and receive a 20% coupon valid on a new stroller, car seat, or select baby gear. MacroBaby describes a rewards program where shoppers earn points on purchases and redeem them for future savings. These programs work best when they are part of your plan, not an impulse response to an email.
Consider open‑box and overstock thoughtfully. Retailers like REBEL and The Stork Exchange build their entire model around premium open‑box and overstock baby gear, often advertising very high percentages off retail. MacroBaby’s in‑store open‑box section similarly offers strollers, cribs, and high chairs that are returns, gently used, or simply out of original packaging. These options can be a smart way to stretch your budget if you are comfortable with a product that is not factory‑sealed and you have time to inspect it and understand the return or warranty policy.
Be mindful of storage and season. Chicco reminds parents to consider the season of birth and actual living space when buying baby items. If you are expecting a summer baby and live in a hot, walkable neighborhood, your stroller may be in constant use right away, and buying earlier in pregnancy can make sense. If you expect to drive more than walk during the first months, or you are navigating winter weather, you might prioritize having the car seat ready and be more flexible on exactly when the stroller arrives, focusing instead on catching a favorable sale.
Above all, remember that the goal is not to collect gear but to support your daily life with your baby. A thoughtfully chosen stroller, purchased at a time that respects your budget and your energy, is far more valuable than a garage full of discounted equipment that does not quite fit.
FAQ: Common Questions About Timing Your Stroller Purchase
Is it better to buy a stroller before or after my baby shower?
Brands like Chicco and Gerber Childrenswear point out that many big‑ticket items, including strollers and high chairs, are often given as shower gifts. A balanced approach is to add your preferred stroller to your registry during the second trimester, share that registry with family and friends, and then reassess after the shower. If no one purchased it, you can use any registry completion discount combined with an upcoming sale to buy it yourself. This strategy protects you from duplicates while still taking advantage of promotions.
How far in advance should I order my stroller?
Chicco recommends buying your stroller and car seat during the second or third trimester to allow enough time for delivery, assembly, and installation. Gerber Childrenswear notes that larger items and nursery furniture can take weeks to arrive, especially during busy seasons. A practical rule is to aim for a comfortable buffer: place your stroller order with enough time to receive it, assemble it, and practice folding and lifting it before you reach the very end of your pregnancy. For many families, that means ordering by late second trimester or early third trimester, even if the absolute lowest price might appear later.
Are open‑box or overstock stroller deals a good idea?
Open‑box and overstock deals can be a powerful way to save, especially on premium brands. REBEL describes offering up to 70% off retail by selling open‑box and overstock strollers from top brands. The Stork Exchange focuses on premium open‑box and overstock gear, and MacroBaby highlights its in‑store open‑box section with heavily discounted strollers, cribs, and high chairs. These options are worth considering if the retailer clearly explains why the item is discounted, what condition it is in, and what return or warranty protections you have. Take the time to inspect or ask detailed questions, just as you would with a full‑price stroller.
A Final Word from Your Guardian of First Journeys
Your stroller is the bridge between your home and the wider world your baby is about to discover. When you align your purchase with your trimester, your budget, and the predictable rhythm of baby sales, you give yourself the gift of both savings and calm. Trust that it is not about chasing the single biggest discount, but about choosing the right moment for your family so that, when you finally buckle your baby in and step outside, you feel ready, resourced, and at ease for that very first journey together.
References
- https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1660175350583133&disposition=inline
- https://www.albeebaby.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopRbCqvOwjjqNC6im660jb0PWj_PCJyRZ8CP6H9nc0eUkLKmyb1
- https://storkexchange.co/?srsltid=AfmBOopoNUNe7MhmRfaOFog9fxPG23TQOu_X_Rv22EIM6eASTEQb3vc-
- https://wilsonhand.com/?i=190462016
- https://www.babylist.com/hello-baby/baby-staples-on-sale
- https://fromrebel.com/collections/all-strollers?srsltid=AfmBOooss9fSVXcrSg_12ulklAbs-bD6XnIbpUpTG0rv2ZVEwtgtm5Eu
- https://www.poshbaby.com/collections/gear-sale
- https://www.thebump.com/a/nordstrom-sale-baby-gear
- https://www.whattoexpect.com/baby-products/best-baby-sales-year
- https://www.babycenter.ca/thread/2284995/when-are-the-baby-sales
Disclaimer
This article, 'When to Buy a Stroller on Sale: Timing Your Purchase for Maximum Savings' is intended to provide a helpful overview of available options. It is not a substitute for your own diligent research, professional advice, or careful judgment as a parent or guardian regarding the safety of your child.
Reliance on any information provided in this article is solely at your own risk. The author and publisher are not liable for any injuries, damages, or losses resulting from the assembly, use, or misuse of any products mentioned, or from any errors or omissions in the content of this article.
Never leave your child unattended in a stroller.
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The views, opinions, and product recommendations expressed in this article are for informational and educational purposes only. They are based on the author's research and analysis but are not a guarantee of safety, performance, or fitness for your particular situation. We strongly recommend that you:
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