Ecommerce logistics: the delivery promise, and who keeps it
Moving stock in, orders out and returns back. You make the delivery promise at checkout. Your carrier keeps it or breaks it, and your emails explain which.
- 077Logistics
- The detailed coordination of complex operations involving people, facilities, or supplies, crucial for efficient order fulfilment.
- Runs three ways
- Stock arriving, orders leaving and returns coming back
- Usually handled by
- Your own team, a third-party logistics company (3PL), or both
- Customers see it as
- Delivery options at checkout, tracking links and returns
- Emails should run on
- Carrier events: dispatched, delayed, delivered, returned
Inbound, outbound and back again: logistics for an online shop
Logistics is the physical half of the business. For a shop selling online it runs in three directions, and each one goes wrong in its own way.
- Inbound: freight from your manufacturer, customs, and a booking-in slot at the warehouse
- Outbound: picking, packing and handing parcels to carriers like Royal Mail, DPD or Evri
- Reverse: returns coming back, getting checked, and going back on the shelf or in the bin
Plenty of shops hand outbound and returns to a 3PL once the spare room gives up. That changes who does the work. It doesn't change who the customer blames.
The delivery promise you make at checkout
Every delivery option at checkout is a promise with your name on it. Next day means next day, and the carrier's cut-off, the warehouse's cut-off and the bank holiday calendar all decide whether you can keep it.
Peak season is where it bites. Carriers publish their Christmas cut-off dates every autumn, and your warehouse has an earlier one of its own. The date in your campaigns should be the earlier of the two, with a day in hand.
International orders add customs. Ship from the UK to the EU without settling duties and import VAT upfront, and your customer can meet a bill before they meet the parcel. That's a first order and a last one.
Carrier events your emails should run on
Your shop knows when a parcel leaves. A tracking app can also tell your email platform when it's delayed, out for delivery or delivered, and those make better triggers than the order date.
| When the carrier says | Send this |
|---|---|
| Dispatched | The shipping confirmation, with a tracking link that works |
| Delayed | A short note, before the customer has to ask |
| Delivered | How to use it now, the review request a few days later |
| Returned to sender | A check on the address, and a way to send it again |
| Return received | The refund confirmation, then a sensible exchange idea |
Delivered is the most useful event of the lot. A review request timed from the order date asks people to judge something still in the van. Time it from delivery and the post purchase flow lands when it makes sense.
Related terms
FAQs
What is the difference between logistics and fulfilment?
Fulfilment is the job done on one order: pick it, pack it, label it and hand it to a carrier. Logistics is everything around that: stock arriving from your supplier, storage, the carriers you use and the returns coming back. Fulfilment sits inside logistics, and both sit inside your supply chain.
Should we send our own tracking emails or let the carrier do it?
Pick one. Carrier emails are reliable but generic, and they send your customer to the carrier's site. Your own keep your voice and can carry something useful, like how to use the product. Whichever you choose, switch the other off where you can, because two tracking emails for one parcel looks like a mistake.
When should the Christmas last order date go out to customers?
Once your carriers have published their dates and your warehouse has confirmed its own cut-off. Put it in campaigns from early December, repeat it as the date gets close, and show it on the site. After it passes, switch to gift cards and say plainly that new orders arrive after Christmas.
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