Best QuickShip Standing Desks

Which Are the Fastest Standing Desks to Get?

We get this question a lot, especially since the arrival of COVID-19. It seems people are more anxious than ever to get a standing desk the very minute they learn their employer will pay for it or subsidize it. So if you’re in state of mind, what are your options? And what will you be trading off to in exchange for speed of delivery?

The first thing that needs to be said on this subject is that the age-old adage applies. “You can get it fast, cheap or good—pick any 2.” In other words, if you want the highest quality desk that’s customized to your exact space, decor and other requirements, it might take a week or two to ship out. But if you’re willing to settle for either lower quality or fewer choices in size and color, there are some relatively fast options newly available. And don’t forget to consider the warranty when making your choice. For more information on warranties, be sure to read our primer on How to Compare Warranties on Standing Desks.

Until recently, if you wanted a standing desk on the very same day you decided to get one you basically had the option of picking up a Bekant or Idasen standing desk from IKEA, and hoped it would work after spending half a day dragging it home and assembling it. Though not here quite yet, we have heard on good authority that you’ll soon be able to buy a standing desk at some major office supplies retailers; and we’ll update this round-up review as soon as that’s confirmed.

The revolutionary ZipDesk is the first SIOC (Ships In One Container) standing desk on the market.

Major retailers have the same problem Amazon does when it comes to stocking standing desks in their stores. Anything that ships in more than one box will get separated in their warehouses, so they won’t carry products that aren’t “SIOC” (Ships In One Container). Standing desks, with few exceptions, ship in two or three boxes, so they can’t be fulfilled by Amazon or stocked at an Office Depot. That’s why the only furniture you see on the floor at an Office Depot these days is simple “flat pack” SIOC products that you put together yourself like an IKEA project. No standing desks are currently offered.

Even if you select “Prime” to narrow down the dozens of models available through Amazon, these are all seller-fulfilled and have delivery times typically ranging from 4 days to 2 weeks, depending on inventory levels near you. Pretty much all of these are made in China, come in very limited sizes and colors, and are inexpensive – meaning the assembly labor is on you, the customer. And few have free returns so this is definitely a caveat emptor decision.

⁣The new iMovR Lander Desk QuickShip program offers a limited set of size and color options but these desks ship in 24 hours instead of one business week.

As we write about in our primer on The Best Made-in-USA Standing Desks, if you want to reduce the risk of failed componentry or a botched assembly, and then needing to return an extraordinarily heavy product on your own nickel, you might want to consider an American-made standing desk instead. There are now some very exciting quick-ship options in American-made desks that have been introduced in response to exploding demand post-covid, includes in our round-up below.

There’s a Pandemic Going On, So Expect Some Delays

In preparing this round-up we revisited some of the most popular standing desk sites and found that all of them have added a little more padding to their shipping times. Sites that used to claim “Ships in 1 to 3 business days” are now say “1 to 4” or “3 to 5 days,” but many items are out of stock and backordered several weeks to as long as several months. With the many supply chain disruptions going on these days, particularly with Chinese-made products, this has almost become the new normal. So if you’re in a hurry definitely check with the seller before you plunk your money down. We’ve heard from too many readers that they saw no shipping delay notices until AFTER receiving their emailed receipt.

And that’s just getting the product out the door. It still has to arrive at your door, and there are rampant delays throughout both the parcel and freight transportation networks. The coronavirus has placed an immense strain on the logistics industry not just with creating unpredictable shortages of drivers (out sick or in quarantine) but a lack of delivery vehicles, as home deliveries have more than doubled since March of 2020. So the bottom line is prepare to be patient, and don’t be surprised if it takes an extra 1 to 10 days just to ship out your desk, and another 1 to 10 days to receive the shipment.

Frequently Bought With Standing Desks