Ten years ago, retailers raced to the bottom to compete with Amazon’s two-day shipping promise. But this pursuit to accelerate their last-mile delivery strategies overlooked an Amazon advantage they simply couldn’t match.While every other retailer attempted to innovate its shipping and fulfillment operations across an existing supply chain system, Amazon leveraged the strategic benefit of building its own two-day supply chain from scratch.
This miscalculation proved costly. In attempting to beat Amazon at its own game, retailers sacrificed profit margins on expedited shipping, increased their carbon footprint, and still fell short on fulfillment promises—damaging their bottom line and eroding customer trust.
To rectify that industry-wide misstep, retailers shifted their last-mile strategies toward a “make a promise, keep a promise” mindset. Instead of pouring all of their resources into chasing impossible delivery times, they began to cultivate distinctive experiences through transparent communication and personalized service for customers—creating competitive advantages on their own terms.
From two-day shipping to a proactive customer experience
Two-day shipping has its place, but customer priorities have evolved and industry research shows that reliability often matters more than speed: customers want to feel confident their purchases will arrive by the date they’re counting on, and without errors.
A reliable, transparent fulfillment forms the foundation of the last-mile experience today’s consumers seek, delivering tangible benefits beyond operational metrics.
Here’s how enacting this strategic shift can deliver tangible, measurable results for your business:
Managing customer expectations through personalization
Amazon’s customer experience is oriented around efficiency and convenience. It offers the largest inventory of any retailer in the world, along with free, fast shipping and frictionless checkout.
But this low-touch experience, deployed on a massive scale, comes with limitations. Returns and exchange processes are automated and rigid. Reaching a human customer service representative can be difficult, forcing customers to rely on self-service tools and impersonal experiences.
This approach may work for Amazon because of its brand reputation and high level of convenience but for direct-to-consumer (DTC) and other retail brands a personalized experience creates competitive advantage and goes beyond conventional order tracking by offering:
- Proactive communication updating shipping status across SMS and email
- Clear, accessible customer service for in-transit questions
- Supportive onboarding that sets realistic expectations—including shipping timelines and how to handle incomplete or damaged orders
- Personalized assistance when issues arise
Turning service recovery into loyalty opportunities
When fulfillment issues occur—as they inevitably will—retailers with high-touch approaches can transform these moments into loyalty-building opportunities to push customer satisfaction higher.
If that sounds counterintuitive, you’re not alone. It’s a phenomenon called the ‘service recovery paradox,’ and here’s how it works:
- A service failure such as a shipping delay occurs, creating a problem for a customer.
- That customer, out of frustration and/or a need for help, then contacts the company’s customer service for assistance.
- Assuming your business provides prompt, personalized customer service and addresses the issue in a way the customer deems fair, they are likely to emerge with a higher level of satisfaction than when they first placed the order.
By empathizing with the customer and offering fast, fair solutions, your brand actually proves itself worthy of a customer’s continued business, despite the fulfillment failure.
Improving performance metrics beyond your last mile experience
Proactive management of your last mile experience offers business benefits that extend far beyond your supply chain operations. Over time, these strategic changes will boost a number of key performance metrics reflective of your overall e-commerce experience, including:
- Net promoter score (NPS)
- Customer lifetime value (LTV)
- Average order value (AOV)
Where to focus last mile improvements to have the greatest impact
Once e-commerce businesses recognize the value of building a high-touch last-mile experience, they need the right infrastructure, vendor support, and communication tools to deliver an experience that is responsive, consistent, and personalized to individual customers.
These key areas can transform your last-mile experience from a potential liability into a loyalty-driver.
1. Enhanced data visibility across your supply chain
Whether you’re providing real-time updates to customers or identifying opportunities to improve last-mile operational efficiency, you need comprehensive data that draws information and insights from all across your supply chain, enabling you to:
- Transform raw shipping data into actionable insights for operations and customer service
- Build predictive models based on historical trends to set accurate delivery expectations
- Identify patterns and optimize routing to improve efficiency and reliability
- Enable real-time visibility that benefits both your team and your customers
| See it in action: Learn how historical data can be used to provide real-time shipping updates and other communications through project44’s Consumer Visibility solution. |
2. Building a resilient, diverse carrier network
When the pandemic ushered a surge in e-commerce shipping that pushed carriers beyond their capacity, retailers learned a valuable lesson: they couldn’t depend on a single carrier for order fulfillment.
Recent natural disasters and severe weather events have only reinforced this belief. But in solving one problem, retailers began to confront other challenges.
Diversifying a carrier network creates complexity. The challenge lies in managing this complexity while maintaining consistency in customer experience. Finding the right balance between speed, reliability and cost requires careful analysis and continuous optimization.
| CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT How Indigo Built a Resilient Multi-Carrier Network When Canadian retailer Indigo expanded from one to eight carriers, they needed a “single source of truth” for delivery data to maintain their exceptional customer experience standards. Despite the complexity, Indigo successfully navigated unprecedented supply chain challenges while reducing customer service inquiries and improving delivery visibility. Read the full Indigo success story |
3. Proactive, automated, and self-serve customer service
With enhanced visibility as your bedrock and a diverse carrier network as your framework, you can implement a customer communication strategy that balances automation with personalization to:
- Design proactive notifications that anticipate customer questions before they arise
- Create branded tracking experiences that keep customers within your ecosystem
- Offer self-service tracking that reduces common inquiries like, “Where’s my order?”
- Reserve valuable customer service resources for complex issues that benefit from human touch
Build a last-mile experience on your terms
A high-touch experience creates value that extends far beyond last-mile operations, so retailers can continue to improve the operational efficiency of their carrier network without winning the speed race against Amazon.
When it comes to last-mile fulfillment, trust and transparency matter more than sheer speed. By focusing on delivering personalized experiences, setting clear expectations, and providing exceptional service when issues arise, retailers can transform logistics from a cost center into a powerful loyalty driver.
project44’s suite of solutions supports this more holistic last-mile strategy. Our platform provides the visibility, analytics, and communication tools needed to deliver consistent, personalized experiences that differentiate your brand. Whether you’re working to make delivery promises with confidence, maintain communication throughout the shipping journey, or recover gracefully when issues arise, project44 offers the infrastructure to keep customers satisfied with their delivery experience.
See for yourself—request a personalized demo today.
