In eCommerce, delivery expectations are high. Consumers expect fast, transparent, and frictionless service. But exceptions happen—weather delays, bad data, traffic, or a missed handoff. Retailers and carriers can’t eliminate them entirely, but they can contain the cost and customer impact with the right systems in place.

What is a delivery exception?

A delivery exception occurs when something unexpected disrupts an order's delivery timeline, which often causes delays or failed fulfillment.

Common exception causes include:

  • Incorrect or missing delivery information
  • Failed delivery attempts due to customer unavailability or miscommunication
  • Traffic accidents and severe weather conditions
  • Lost or damaged items
  • Customs delays (for international shipments)
  • System-generated errors in documentation or routing

Why delivery exceptions matter

Delivery exceptions are more than operational headaches and customer annoyances. They are often a key driver of customer churn, rising costs, and lost revenue.

According to the 2025 Bringg State of the Last Mile report:

  • 65% of consumers stop shopping with a retailer after 2-3 late deliveries
  • 81% churn after receiving the wrong item twice

The impact compounds for businesses that operate with thin margins or seasonal volume spikes:

  • Higher WISMO tickets that overwhelm support teams
  • Increased redelivery costs and truck rolls
  • Lower fleet and route efficiency
  • Poor visibility, especially across third-party or crowdsourced fleets

For big and bulky retailers, which often work with more than 3-4 3PLs and operate across large regions, the operational cost of a single failed delivery is even higher.

Legacy tech and manual workarounds don’t scale

Retailers and 3PLs were never meant to scale last-mile operations on outdated infrastructure. But that's exactly what's happening. Systems designed for pre-2020 order volumes are now pushed to manage high-speed, high-visibility fulfillment across multiple fleets, fulfillment nodes, and delivery windows.

The result: avoidable delivery exceptions.

Legacy systems and the manual workarounds used to fill their gaps create friction across every stage of fulfillment. So exceptions go undetected longer, cost more to resolve, and often end with no clear accountability.

Common breakdowns include:

  • No real-time exception detection: Manual tracking and siloed systems delay awareness of late or failed deliveries until after the customer complains.
  • No automated recovery: Missed deliveries or returns re-enter the warehouse without system recognition, often requiring days—or weeks—of manual coordination to redeliver.
  • No dynamic rescheduling or rerouting: Delivery windows can’t adapt to real-world events like traffic delays, high time-on-site, or driver shortages.
  • No exception prioritization: Teams rely on support tickets or tribal knowledge to determine what to resolve first, missing SLAs and draining time.

How to prepare for disruption

Visibility is the foundation of exception management

Real-time visibility enables faster recovery and fewer support tickets. Exception-ready delivery systems allow retailers and carriers to:

  • Detect delays and failures as they happen
  • Send automated alerts to dispatchers, drivers, and consumers
  • Adjust delivery windows and reroute in real time
  • Trigger fallback flows to avoid manual intervention

This is especially important in complex delivery environments. Big and bulky retailers, for example, face higher service time variability and longer time-on-site, which make dynamic ETAs and automated updates essential.

Automate recovery workflows to move faster

Exception handling at scale requires automation. Modern systems should:

  • Trigger downstream workflows (reroute, reschedule, notify)
  • Adapt workflows based on business rules, region, or delivery type
  • Surface analytics to understand why exceptions occur and prevent repeat issues

Effective last-mile solutions detect ETA breaches and automatically alert the next customer or re-sequence the route. The result: reduced idle time, customer complaints, and dispatcher load.

Predict exceptions before they disrupt

The most efficient approach is to prevent exceptions before they occur. AI-powered exception prediction models use historical data and real-time variables to:

  • Flag over-capacity routes
  • Catch mismatched delivery promises
  • Proactively reroute based on traffic patterns
  • Alert drivers when they’re falling behind schedule

According to Gartner, LMD vendors increasingly integrate these predictive models as part of their roadmap to improve speed and flexibility.

Flexibility is the fallback strategy

Retailers that can reroute deliveries quickly recover faster. In Bringg’s State of the Last Mile report, 68% of surveyed retailers reported increasing their use of third-party fleets and contractors year over year.

Hybrid fleet orchestration lets businesses:

  • Allocate orders across owned, 3PL, or crowdsourced fleets
  • Prioritize cost, SLA, or availability in real time
  • Stay responsive when primary carriers fall short

Don’t let exceptions fall into a black hole

Once a delivery fails, how a shipper reassigns and recovers matters. Digitized exception handling ensures:

  • Inventory is scanned and rerouted—not forgotten
  • Customers are updated immediately, not days later
  • Dispatchers are freed from manual recovery tasks

A failed delivery should never result in a lost customer or a lost package.

Leadership takeaway: Turn exceptions into a competitive advantage

Retailers and 3PLs that treat exceptions as inevitable fall behind. Those that automate exception handling and prioritize predictive recovery gain greater efficiency, protect their margins, and boost brand equity with loyal customers.

Leading retailers today are investing in:

  • Real-time delivery visibility
  • Automated fallback flows
  • Predictive exception alerts
  • Hybrid fleet orchestration

Because even in the face of disruptions, the savviest businesses deliver with confidence and keep customers coming back.