5 ways to guarantee first time delivery

Today is the day your brand new doodad is supposed to get delivered. You’ve been researching for weeks, comparing product to product, and it all pays off tonight. You check your tracking number, crap, delivery is expected by 6pm and there is no way you’ll be home by then. To make matters worse, this is the ominous “final delivery attempt”, which means your weekend now involves a trip to the DMV of e-commerce, the carrier’s distribution hub.

We’ve all been here, and we all hate it. There has got to be a better way. Why hasn’t anyone solved this problem yet? Turns out there are quite a few people that have.

Solution #1 Send your stuff to work

If you are fortunate enough to work at a place that lets you ship your personal items to work, you should. Most work environments have a receptionist, or at the very least someone present in the front of house that can help flag down a delivery person. Doesn’t get much easier than grabbing an item from a place you already are.

Advantages

• Convenient, you are probably already at work at least 5 times a week so grabbing your items should be relatively easy.
• You can give your receptionist a heads up when something is expected to come in

Disadvantages

• Not always an option. Some work environments just aren’t set up to do this.
• Unless you work at more than one location, you can’t utilize this anywhere but near your home base. We send a lot of things to friends, and this doesn’t solve that problem.

Solution #2 Amazon locker

Ordered from Amazon? Utilize their locker service. Amazon has tons of lockers throughout the world and more than likely there is one near you.

Advantages

• Easy to use if you are buying through Amazon
• Free
• Deliveries are insured

Disadvantages

• Must buy through Amazon
• Somewhat limited package sizes

Advantages/Disadvantages

Solution #3 Box lock

If you own a house, this option may be for you. Box lock lets you set secure a spot somewhere on your property that is only accessible if you have a code associated with your delivery. This makes it so your delivery person can access a secure location and lock your item up until you get home.

Advantages

• Secure delivery on premise, no outside source is required to get this going

Disadvantages

• If you don’t have a home, probably not going to be able to use this service.
• May require a little carrier training. Its hard to change delivery habits, so your carrier may not always be able to accommodate this solution.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Solution # 4 Carrier access points

Most carriers have something similar to amazon locker. These come by a few different names, UPS Access points for one. These function in a similar fashion as Amazon lockers with limitations set by your carrier vs the site you purchase from. For example, to use a UPS access point you have to ship through, you guessed it, UPS.

Advantages

• Easy to use
• Sign up is fairly simple
• Lots of locations
• Free

Disadvantages

• Limited by carrier

Solution #5 Catchall

A relatively new startup called Catchall is looking to combine a few of the above solutions and make them available to you. Catchall puts together a list of local business that are willing to accept deliveries on your behalf. Effectively giving you access to something like an Amazon locker, without being limited to purchases from Amazon, or like a UPS drop off point but without having to ship through UPS. We see this as a big win as it lifts the limitations some of these other options place on you. Another cool thing about this service, local businesses in the network often offer a discount on store bought items at the time of pick up. So when you swing by Timbuk2 in downtown Seattle to grab your delivery, you might also score a 20% discount off of a brand new backpack. Pretty cool.

Advantages

• Secure delivery locations
• Helps support local business
• Occasional pick up discounts
• Free for up to 2 deliveries a month

Disadvantages

• Being a new startup they don’t have many locations, but you can help change that. Their app allows you to request local businesses join the network of delivery locations.
• There is a bit of typing involved with this app. After you “request” to use one of their delivery locations, you have to type the delivery address into your the online order form. Luckily I tend to use the same business for all of my deliveries so I only had to do this once, but if I were to change locations frequently I could see this getting annoying.
• After 2 deliveries a month, they charge a 5 dollar monthly fee. While we site this as a disadvantage the cost is recovered by the discounts you get pretty quickly.