Why Delivery Reliability Now Matters More Than Speed

Retail leaders spent the last decade chasing Amazon.com's delivery speed. Billions went into same-day windows, next-day guarantees, and two-hour fulfillment. Here's what that investment bought: a trust problem.

Only 9 percent of shoppers believe retailers consistently meet their fast delivery promises. Another 69 percent say those promises get kept "sometimes," according to a recent Locus consumer survey.

Your logistics team might hit delivery windows 85 percent of the time. Respectable numbers in any operational review. But customers aren't averaging your performance — they're remembering the one Saturday when the package didn't show or the Tuesday when they found out at 7 p.m. that the 5 p.m.-6 p.m. delivery window was missed hours earlier with no advance notice.

Speed got you into the game. Reliability keeps you in it. So, how do you build last-mile operations that keep promises even when conditions change? You close the execution gaps that have nothing to do with speed.

What Your Customers Actually Expect: Execution Over Promises

Customer frustration clusters around reliability failures. Our same survey found that:

• 21 percent of respondents cite missed delivery windows as their top complaint;
• 17 percent point to last-minute cancellations;
• another 17 percent cite items were left in unsafe locations; and
• 11 percent flag inaccurate product shipment tracking.

Notice what's missing from that list: complaints about speed. No one's demanding for faster delivery. They're asking you to keep the promises you already made.

The fix is better communication. Ninety-three percent of consumers say proactive updates compensate for delays, and 96 percent assert that transparency matters more than perfection. Miss a window but alert customers two hours ahead? Recoverable. Miss it and go silent? Lasting brand damage.

The challenge is that customer expectations don't adjust for peak season and major annual shopping moments. For example, 51 percent of consumers in the same Locus survey expect holiday shipping to match or exceed normal speeds. Your fulfillment capacity planning — across ship-from-store; buy online, pick up in-store; and traditional channels — needs to deliver the same service levels in December that you maintain in March.

Static planning can't solve for this. You need systems that adapt when drivers call out, traffic re-routes deliveries, or order volumes spike mid-shift.

Building Operational Agility That Protects Brand Equity

What do those adaptive systems look like in practice? They share three characteristics:

1. Adjust routes while deliveries are live. When drivers become unavailable, inventory shifts between locations, or last-minute orders arrive, your system needs to re-route without manual intervention. For omnichannel operations, this means unified visibility across stores, distribution centers, and third-party partners. Siloed decision-making is what causes delivery failures.
2. Alert customers before windows are missed, not after. Automate notifications when delays become likely, not when they become certain. Every delivery update either reinforces or erodes brand trust. Treat them accordingly.
3. Plan for real-world constraints from the start. Build routes that account for traffic patterns, dock schedules, delivery windows, and vehicle capacity upfront. This closes the gap between what you planned and what actually happens.

Speed gets a customer to convert once. Reliability gets them to come back. In a market where 92 percent of customers leave after two or three delivery failures, building operations that adapt when conditions change is how you turn logistics from a cost center into a retention driver.

Nishith Rastogi is the CEO and co-founder of Locus, where he leads global strategy, innovation, and product development.