By Nicole Nguyen
I ordered some gifts -- a hand salve, some tea, soap and a
cookbook -- from a Washington, D.C.-based boutique on March 19, a
Thursday. My friend's birthday wasn't for another week and I
figured the package could take a while. But it arrived on her New
York doorstep two days later. I was stunned. The same cookbook on
Amazon is currently delayed until late April.
Massive order volume, fueled by the global coronavirus crisis,
is causing a logistics backlog at Amazon. Shoppers accustomed to
receiving packages in a matter of days -- the main perk of the
$120-a-year Prime membership -- are now waiting for up to a month
for items like laptop chargers, coffee makers and hair-cutting
kits. And for a good reason: Amazon is prioritizing essential items
such as medical supplies.
In a statement, an Amazon spokeswoman said the company is
focusing on those essential items, and "selectively bringing more
products" into its fulfillment centers.
Meanwhile, retailers with temporarily closed bricks-and-mortar
spaces are rivaling, and sometimes even beating, the e-commerce
giant on shipping times. "We're nimble and can implement changes
quickly without any big corporate wheels to turn," said Amanda
McClements, who owns Salt and Sundry, the shop that shipped my
package with Prime-like speed.
Still, Ms. McClements, who has 40 employees across four
locations, had to reduce pay for full-time staff and cut hours for
part-time workers.
We're often reluctant to venture away from Amazon -- the site
sells just about everything we need, our billing info is already on
file and, in non-pandemic times, deliveries reliably arrive in
days, if not hours. We're also understandably wary of handing out
our credit-card number to online retailers we've never ordered from
before.
But express checkout software has made online purchasing more
secure and convenient on nearly every website that sells goods. In
other words, non-Amazon shopping is more Amazon-like than ever. And
that's a good thing, because smaller stores could really use our
business right now.
Here's how to take advantage of that payment tech, and find what
you're looking for while shopping small.
Find in-demand items -- or the best alternatives. While hand
sanitizer and other sought-after products remain limited on Amazon,
they can be found elsewhere.
Many businesses are making their own sanitizers. Search "[your
state] distillery sanitizer" to see what's near you. Hanson of
Sonoma and Prohibition Distillery are two examples in my area. Also
in-stock: just-released bottles from Eir NYC, my husband's favorite
surfing sunscreen brand, and Uncle Bud's, a hemp skin-care line
typically sold at Target.
Reminder: The CDC recommends using hand sanitizer with at least
60% alcohol, but only if soap and water aren't available.
Medical masks are hard to come by these days, because
health-care workers on the front lines desperately need more of
them. But now they're encouraged while you're in public (along with
social distancing and handwashing). You'll likely need to buy a
handmade one or make your own.
Many Etsy shops are selling nonmedical fabric masks. Get faster
shipping by filtering the shop location by your state. Have sewing
chops? Kaiser Permanente hospital has a guide on how to make
personal masks.
Locate small businesses in your city. Give and Get Local by
Square and American Express' Shop Small show establishments near
you. Rally for Restaurants, Save Our Faves, and Support Local list
eateries in your town. Many cities have an Office of Small Business
or Chamber of Commerce with comprehensive lists of locally owned
merchants.
Need a book? Buy titles from independent bookstores online using
Indiebound or Bookshop. If you prefer e-books, Hummingbird and Kobo
sell copies for participating booksellers. If you prefer
audiobooks, Libro.fm splits the profits with bookstores.
Try searching "[product name] near me" in Google Maps. A
successful search for puzzles yielded Chronicle Books, a San
Francisco publisher with many in-stock options. Just be wary of the
millions of fake listings on the platform.
For everything you can't find locally, use Google Shopping. The
site scours listings from megastores like Best Buy, as well as
smaller boutiques online. It helped me track down a pair of hair
clippers at Target, estimated to arrive in one week. The "Available
Nearby" filter is also handy.
Try ordering directly from the manufacturer. A recent win: On
Amazon, a Belkin surge protector was delayed for weeks, while
Belkin's own website offered free two-day shipping for the same
product.
Skip the credit card, and speed up your checkout. Annoyed about
handing out your credit-card number over and over again? Set up one
or two online services that you can trust, to reduce the exposure
of sensitive information like your credit card and address.
-- PayPal: One big reason to use the service: Purchases made
through PayPal are protected. If an item is damaged during
shipping, you can open a reimbursement claim.
But before you start shopping, enable two-factor authentication
and, for the fastest checkout, turn on One Touch, which lets you
skip the username-and-password dance. It should only be enabled for
personal -- not shared -- devices.
-- Apple Pay: Apple's payment system works in Safari on Mac and
iOS. If you already use Apple Pay on your phone, it's easy to set
up on your Mac. Go to Wallet & Pay in System Preferences, where
you'll be prompted to enter your iCloud credentials.
-- Shopify: You've probably used this e-commerce software
without realizing it -- over one million merchants are powered by
Shopify. When you check out from a Shopify store, you can choose to
save your information. Next time, Shopify will send you a
verification code via text and auto-populate the appropriate
fields. (Just make sure you have a PIN protecting your mobile
account.) You can opt-out at any time.
Consider using a virtual credit-card number. Both Capital One
and Citi offer single-use card digits as a safety feature.
Privacy.com can also create up to 12 virtual cards a month for you
-- but it can only link to your debit card, so you can't take
advantage of credit-card perks.
Use your password manager to auto-fill information. LastPass,
Dashlane, and 1Password all help fill in your address and other
info on websites. Because password managers have strict security
measures (like requiring a password or biometric confirmation when
you open the app), it's safer than letting your browser fill out
the same information.
Track your deliveries. Arrive is a free iOS and Android app by
Shopify that automatically pulls order information from your email
and sends you notifications about its progress. (Just know,
Shopify's privacy policy says it could use this data to assist with
marketing.) If you don't want to grant access to your email,
Deliveries is a beautiful $5 iOS-only app, made by a small
Michigan-based software company, that allows you to add orders
manually.
Non-Prime vendors on Amazon might be able to get packages to you
more quickly. Of course, there may come a time when Amazon is your
best option. On some orders, we've seen initially long shipping
lags get shorter; with others, we've had luck with third-party
sellers that don't use Amazon's fulfillment centers. But that type
of listing -- which you can identify under the Add to Cart button
from the text "Shipped and sold by [seller]" -- comes with a bit of
risk: For refunds or exchanges, you need to deal with the seller
directly.
How are you shopping for hard-to-find items you need during the
coronavirus crisis? Are your Amazon items delayed for a month or
more? I'd love to hear from you: nicole.nguyen@wsj.com. And don't
forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter for more WSJ Technology
analysis, reviews, advice and headlines.
Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2020 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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