At Aesthetic Movement we’ve decided to pull together and highlight our one-of-a-kind community of resourceful, brave, and insightful retailers and brands, as well as our own hardworking team. We want to focus on what we can do; how we keep on keepin’ on, and what we’re all doing in the face of our biggest-ever challenge.
Our hope is that these weekly, community-focused newsletters will add, in some small way, to the developing channels that allow us to “sing from our balconies” to each other in this unprecedented time.
Each Monday we’ll shine a light on tiny victories, on best practices, on resources and useful information, and on stories from our fellow merchants and makers that tap into the reality of this moment.
Sign up below for weekly updates:
Salt & Sundry
Bigger Isn’t Better
Shipping Delays? Out-of-Stock Items? Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online
Don’t wait for a delayed Amazon delivery. Small businesses around the country are turning around orders, fast.
By Nicole Nguyen
April 6, 2020 5:30 ET
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.
Salt & Sundry
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.
Plant Along at Home Kit - DIY Cactus Bowl