Last-Minute Holiday Shopper? Options to Ensure Your Packages Arrive In Time
Here are some options to solve your last-minute shopping delivery dilemma.
— -- For some people, the last week before Christmas brings a frantic scramble to shop for last-minute gifts.
What's a procrastinator to do?
For starters, you can absolutely still shop online -– via mobile or mouse -– but it is going to cost you.
Consumer expert Lisa Lee Freeman has some advice: "If you're planning on shopping for gifts this week, prepare for sticker shock."
Shoppers can pay two to three times the cost of regular shopping just to ensure their item is delivered by Christmas Eve.
The deadline for two-day shipping is Dec. 22 for UPS. For one-day shipping, the FedEx deadline is Dec. 23. In order to meet that shipping deadlines, most retailers have an order cutoff of between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern.
Your next option is to ship to store –- that is, purchase the product online and then pick it up at the customer service desk in a store. And when you get to that store, you can double-check to make sure the deal isn't better there.
There's something new this year that can make last-minute shopping even easier. There's a free service called Curbside that lets you order from your phone from many retailers and then schedule a pickup. Once you arrive at the store, someone will bring your items right out to your car.
If a trip to the curb is too much, a service named Deliv can help. It's like Uber for delivering things to your home. First, you order online and then a driver brings the item or items to your home for as little as $5.
It currently only operates in 17 markets but if you're in one of those locations, it could help save Christmas.
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