Signed, Sealed… Stolen? Understanding Why Your Package is Still in Transit

Delivery delays are no longer just a nuisance—they’re a growing business risk. From porch piracy to supply chain hiccups, packages are getting lost in transit and taking customer trust with them. How can retailers respond?

Up until a few years ago, the biggest mystery in online shopping was whether your chosen piece of apparel would arrive in the right shade of colour. Now, it’s whether the package will arrive at all.

Across doorsteps and distribution centres, deliveries are going missing—not just due to porch theft, but because of a jumbled mess of supply chain disruptions, last-mile chaos, and flawed logistics planning. For consumers, it’s frustrating. For retailers, it’s far more costly.

Delayed or undelivered parcels are no longer just operational hiccups—they’re eroding customer trust, damaging brand reputation, and chipping away at revenue. In an age where convenience is king, every missing package is a threat to loyalty that takes years to build.

Lost in Logistics: The Anatomy of a Delivery Delay

From the warehouse to the customer’s doorstep—what’s behind the growing uncertainty? To begin with, the last-mile delivery segment—the most complex and expensive part of the logistics chain—is under immense strain.

Carriers are struggling trying to balance surging ecommerce volumes with tight delivery windows, often without the infrastructure to support it. Outdated technology systems only add to the challenge. 

Then there is the rise in porch theft—earlier this year, the BRC revealed theft reached an all time high in 2023/24, costing retailers £2.2 billion. “The facts speak for themselves: In 2023 alone, over 120 million packages were stolen in the US,” says Fredrik Fenberg, Head of Sales & Business Development at Cleveron, a logistics solution provider specialising in automating click-and-collect for retail. Fenberg emphasises that the issue of porch theft can’t be solved without a smarter infrastructure.

On a broader scale, supply chain disruptions—manufacturing delays, poorly planned logistics, inconsistent route planning—only to name a few, continue to shake delivery networks.

Common reasons disturbing the delivery process include:

• Logistical bottlenecks: Issues in sorting centres, warehouse congestion, last-mile delivery failures.
• Labor shortages: Impact of driver and warehouse staff shortages.
• Supply chain disruptions: Global shipping delays, port congestion, customs holdups.
• Weather events and natural disasters: Snowstorms, hurricanes, floods affecting transportation routes.
• Technology failures: Outages in tracking systems, misrouted parcels.
• Peak season volume surges: Holidays, sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• Strikes and labor disputes: Postal workers, delivery personnel walkouts.

Delivery companies also face operational challenges like inadequate infrastructure in high-demand areas, balancing cost-efficiency with speed, dependency on third-party delivery partners, and real-time tracking expectations and system limitations.

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Fixing the Final Mile: Rethinking Delivery in the Age of Delays

Research from Metapack, an ecommerce delivery management provider, reveals that UK and European retailers lost £464 million in revenue due to lost parcels in the peak shopping season. The firm estimates the number of lost parcels could be as high as 0.7% due to a number of items declared ‘potentially lost’ due to an absence of tracking updates for more than five days.

Two things are suffering: retailers’ revenue and customers’ trust. The answer here isn’t just faster shipping; it is smarter shipping. Damaged brand equity and lost customers need retailers to invest in real-time tracking systems, predictive logistics, and dynamic route optimisation.

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“The solution lies in offering customers a secure and reliable alternative — one where accessibility is key! Parcel lockers and robotics provide exactly the flexibility and convenience that today’s consumers are looking for,” says Fenberg. PUDO locations and automated solutions aren’t just a trend, they represent the future of last-mile delivery, he adds.

Other solutions include collaborating closely with delivery partners. Further, diversifying delivery partners can help reduce over-reliance on a single, strained network. The experts at Metapack suggest retailers implement a multi-carrier strategy using the most efficient carrier for each region. Only one in four retailers currently uses a multi-carrier strategy, while those that do report a 10% reduction in delivery delays on average. 

“Lost parcels aren’t just an inconvenience – they represent a significant financial drain, particularly in today’s challenging economic landscape,” says Emma Clarke, Senior Product Director at Metapack. 

“Retailers must deploy targeted solutions to minimise losses across the entire delivery chain. This includes analytics to detect anomalies and prevent fraudulent activity within warehouses and utilising dynamic shipping rules that leverage secure carrier services to reduce doorstep theft. Not only does this protect revenue but it also strengthens customer trust and loyalty in an increasingly competitive market.”

Small delays can snowball into long-term brand damage. Transparency and setting realistic delivery expectations is the best defense for retailers. For key decision makers in the business, the takeaway is to prioritise logistics as part of brand strategy.

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