eCommerce sales growth is expected to increase 7% annually and reach a total of $7.89 trillion in 2028, making eCommerce delivery one of the most frequent retailer-shopper interactions. When delivery goes well, it reinforces trust. So much so that 65% of shoppers say they would buy from that retailer again, even if the price is higher than a competitor’s.
But when delivery goes wrong, the opposite is true: 50% of shoppers say they stopped buying from a brand after a negative delivery experience. Bad delivery impacts loyalty, leads to attrition, and affects customer lifetime value.
Delivery failures can no longer be treated as isolated incidents or inconsequential. Now, brands win (or lose) customers at the front door.
What defines a bad delivery experience?
The 2026 Delivery Experience Survey asked 1,040 consumers what factors contributed most to a poor delivery experience. Damaged items and high-costs are major risks but those are largely considered table stakes. Consumers pointed toward a broader set of delivery failures, most of them tied to broken reliability and lack of control.
Broken reliability signals
- Late delivery
- Wrong or damaged items
- Delivered in the wrong location
- Early or unexpected delivery
Visibility and communication breakdowns
- Poor or missing tracking updates
- Lack of proactive communication during delays
Lack of control
- Inability to reschedule or make changes
- Rigid delivery windows that don’t align with consumers’ schedules
The most common delivery failures
Late delivery is the single biggest driver of a negative delivery experience. Shoppers have far less tolerance for missed delivery windows than for baseline issues like damaged packages, difficult returns, or deliveries left in the wrong spot. When a delivery arrives late, it signals a broken promise that directly undermines brand confidence.
That impact compounds when there’s no order visibility: 23% of shoppers cite a lack of tracking or communication as a negative factor, demonstrating that it’s not just lateness that frustrates customers, but being left in the dark when plans change. Late deliveries without proactive updates feel less like operational hiccups and more like neglect, which erodes trust faster.
Delivery failures risk brand reputation. Most shoppers (62%) hold the retailer either fully or jointly responsible when deliveries go wrong, even if it’s the carrier’s responsibility. In practice, this means delivery failures are rarely viewed as external issues—they are inherent brand issues.
Late delivery is #1 cause of negative delivery experiences
When things go wrong, recovery determines loyalty
Negative experiences alone don’t automatically lead to churn; unresolved ones do. More than half (54%) of shoppers say they would abandon a retailer if they don’t receive adequate support after a delivery issue occurs.
This highlights a critical point: post-purchase support is part of the delivery experience and not a separate function. When resolution is slow, unclear, or inconsistent, even minor issues become loyalty-breaking events
Explore more insights in the full 2026 Delivery Experience Survey
Shoppers are more likely to leave than complain
After a late delivery, shoppers are more likely to stop buying altogether than to leave a negative review. Forty-two percent say they would stop shopping with the retailer altogether, while only 33% say they would leave a negative review.
This imbalance creates a dangerous blind spot. Retailers that rely on reviews, complaints, or tickets as a customer satisfaction indicator often miss the true scale of the problem. Shoppers churn silently after late delivery, and the results are only visible later in declining repeat purchases or lifetime value.
How bad delivery breaks trust
Bad delivery experiences disrupt loyalty in three compounding ways:
- Lower reliability means lower confidence: Late, wrong, or damaged deliveries signal that the retailer can’t consistently meet expectations.
- Inflexibility accelerates frustration: When shoppers can’t reschedule, adjust, or recover easily, friction spikes both before and after delivery.
- Poor resolution creates churn: Without fast, empathetic recovery, a single failed delivery becomes a permanent break in the relationship.
In an environment where delivery is a weekly touchpoint for most shoppers and expectations change regularly, not delivering excellence simply isn’t an option. The Bringg 2026 Delivery Experience Survey confirms that brands with the best chance of maintaining customer loyalty are those that invest in reliability, offer flexibility, and resolve problems quickly.
