Amazon is a great site to do your online shopping. It's easy and convenient, and you can find pretty much everything on a single platform. However convenient, though, Amazon isn't the end all be all.
There's a myriad of other easy-to-use platforms that offer the same level of shopping experience, if not a better one. Or, you might be looking to support smaller or local businesses.
Regardless of why your eye is swaying away from Amazon, here are nine alternatives to Amazon for your next online shop.
1. Hive
If you've undertaken a sustainability journey or are simply looking to do so and cut down on your carbon footprint, check out Hive.
It's a running joke that if you order a deck of cards from Amazon, you'll receive them packed in a massive cardboard box that's otherwise empty. That's hardly good for the environment.
Hive is trying to do better on that front, using recyclable boxes and packing materials. Even the ink used on the boxes is non-toxic. Hive also lets you shop by Dietary Need or Social Cause, allowing you to support the Environment, Education, Human and Animal Rights, and more.
You can select from a slew of categories, like food, wellness, snacks, beverages, household items, and more, and shop cruelty-free, vegan, and organic. Hive has done the vetting for you, so you can just shop.
2. Package Free
Package Free is another eco-friendly Amazon alternative that tries to help you be more sustainable. The platform's founder is an environmental activist, and that shows when you shop on it.
Package Free offers plastic-free products and ships everything to you with carbon-neutral packaging that's recyclable and compostable.
The platform's goal is to be as close to zero-waste as possible. It also does its best to help you reduce your waste by offering reusable alternatives to products that are usually hard to recycle, like razors and dental floss.
Browsing the platform, you'll find anything from bath and body products to kitchen and home ones, and a selection of self-care and travel items.
3. Thrive Market
If you're looking for a new place to stock up on food and everyday essentials, Thrive Market is your best choice.
The site strives for sustainability and aims to provide a variety of organic and natural products. The best thing about the site is that it's affordable, which isn't always the case when it comes to sustainable items.
On Thrive Market, you can find over 6,900 products from every major category, like healthy and diet-specific foods, wine, home goods, bath and body products, beauty and skincare, supplements, and even baby care.
A big difference from Amazon is that Thrive Market is a membership-based service. You can subscribe monthly, for $12, or annually, for $59.95. A membership gets you access to all manner of discounts, sales, free gifts with orders, and more.
4. Uncommon Goods
Uncommon Goods is an outside-the-box gift-giving platform. It helps you find the perfect present that's as far away from boring as can be.
We've all found ourselves in a bind, trying to shop for someone and coming short of ideas. If you're low on ideas, you can always turn to the web for some help with gift recommendations first, and then go straight to Uncommon Goods.
It's chock-full of unique things. You can find artisanal creations, like pottery, handmade jewelry, self-care kits, and so much more. There's also a whole lot of experiences to choose from, like getting someone an online mixology class, for example.
Uncommon Goods is also making efforts in sustainability, using environmentally responsible packaging. It's the handmade marketplace of your dreams.
5. Etsy
And, speaking of a handmade marketplace of your dreams, one can't fail to mention Etsy. It's yet another great alternative to Amazon for online shopping as it's excellent for unique, custom findings, and a wonderful way for you to support small businesses.
You can find anything and everything on Etsy, including handmade things like jewelry and clothes, paintings, candles, the list goes on. Etsy is the place to score a bargain, especially if you modify your searches in the best ways to get you the best items.
The platform's reputation may have suffered a bit over the years, but if you're vigilant, you can spot the scams and still nab the best products.
6. Made Trade
Made Trade prioritizes sustainable and ethical shopping. It curates everything it displays, ensuring every item fits the description of sustainably and ethically made while also being beautiful.
The platform aims to provide a wide selection of products that check at least one of the following boxes: made in the USA, recycled/upcycled, fair trade, BIPOC-owned, women-owned, handcrafted, vegan, and, of course, as mentioned, sustainable.
You can find home goods, furnishings, and decor pieces alongside clothing items, accessories, and shoes.
7. Chewy
Chewy is a platform designed for pet owners. It aims to meet the needs of pets and their people, providing a wide variety of food and medical items, toys, treats, accessories—everything that's even remotely pet-related you can find on the platform.
Chewy provides access to more than 2,000 pet brands and doesn't only cater to cats and dogs. You'll find products for all kinds of pets, including horses and reptiles.
8. Bookshop
It's so easy to turn to Amazon when book shopping, especially since in recent years, many small and independent bookshops appear to be closing down at a rapid pace. Bookshop is an awesome alternative to Amazon that offers a great way to do your book shopping online while also supporting local bookstores.
The online platform offers access to books, audiobooks, textbooks, and so on. It aims to provide financial support to local, independent bookstores and certainly puts its money where its mouth is.
When using Bookshop for your bookish needs, you can pick a specific store to support directly with your purchase. If you don't, your contribution goes to the platform's profit-sharing pool between over 1,600 stores. At the time of writing, Bookshop has managed to raise more than $26 million in support of local bookstores.
9. Instacart
Amazon Fresh is a subsidiary of Amazon that offers same-day grocery delivery, like Instacart. The service can be just what you need when you're not feeling up to a trip to the grocery store. But there are better alternatives to it, and Instacart is one of them.
Instacart is the world's largest online grocery service, and it offers a wider variety of products than Amazon's one. You can find a catalog with over 500 million products.
The Instacart service is available in most major US cities and offers both delivery and curbside pickup. It includes national and local retailers, like Target, Aldi, Costco, and so on. Apart from food and drink, you can also get flowers, household, and self-care items delivered, too.
You can sign up for the service for free, but if you get the Instacart+ membership, you'll get unlimited free delivery on certain orders, plus some other perks. The annual fee is $99, while the monthly one is $9.99.
There's More to Online Shopping Than Amazon
Whether you're looking for household items, pet supplies, self-care products, a new fit, or a book, remember that there's more to the world of online shopping than Amazon.
You can find similar if not better platforms that work on improving their sustainability efforts and aim to reduce waste or simply try to provide you with the best shopping experience. Worried that you'll miss Amazon's fast delivery? There are other online shopping sites with free and fast shipping as well.