If you waited until the last minute to order a Valentine’s Day gift, don’t worry — you still have options.
AP/Andy Wong
Valentine’s Day is approaching — are you prepared?
Luckily, the modern lover doesn’t have to be always on their A-game, as long as they’ve got a credit card or an Amazon Prime membership.
Though many have already thought through their Valentine’s gift to their significant other, we’re betting there are still more who haven’t given it a second thought until today. Instead of picking out thoughtless grocery-store flowers, however, you could actually still buy something online and have it brought to your home or office.
Last-minute shopping is a good opportunity to use services like Amazon’s Prime Now 2-hour delivery service. Amazon frequently boosts Prime Now’s services, filling it with seasonal merchandise, when it gets close to holidays. For Valentine’s Day, for instance, Prime Now can deliver fresh flowers, themed chocolates, and holiday cards. It’s also offering gift items like candles, jewelry, soaps, and electronics, plus gift wrap.
Outside of Amazon’s own shop, customers can order from local liquor stores as well.
Prime Now is available only to Amazon Prime members in select delivery areas. Its two-hour delivery is free for orders over $35, or $5 if it doesn’t meet that threshold. Need it sooner? There’s also one-hour delivery for $7.
Prime Now still does require some thinking ahead, however. When we tested it, we found that it took closer to four hours than the advertised two.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has gone out of its way to stock seasonal items, and we doubt it’ll be the last. Amazon did something similar during the winter holidays, when it stocked commonly purchased and given gifts, along with wrapping paper and holiday cards.
Other options for last-minute online shopping include the GiftNow service, which allows shoppers to buy and send items via email. Since it’s sent in an instant, it’s a great option for last-minute gifts. The item is then sent to the recipient in the mail once they accept it online.
The only catch — they’ll have to be happy getting an email as a gift. To ease that burden, Target is giving shoppers who choose GiftNow a 5% discount.
If you’re near a store, like Target or Walmart, that offers same-day pickup for online orders, that’s also a good option.
Other startups like Bloomthat and Bouqs offer same-day delivery for flowers and still have some availability for the holiday. They don’t offer the breadth of product that Amazon does, however.
If booze is more your plan, there are also alcohol delivery startups like Drizly and Minibar.
Whatever you decide to do, the only wrong answer is to do nothing when you still have a chance.
