If you’re looking for the latest statistics on eCommerce fulfillment, you’ve come to the right place!
We’ve put together a list of the most relevant eCommerce fulfillment statistics from around the web, and we’ve organized them into one convenient, easy-to-access place.
Whether you’re an online seller or a buyer, there’s something here for everyone. From shipping costs to order fulfillment time, we have all the information you need at your fingertips.
Once you see all these helpful stats, we know you’ll be inspired to take action. Whether it’s improving your own e-commerce business or sharing this information with friends and family members who are also interested in e-commerce fulfillment statistics, we hope this list inspires you!
General eCommerce Fulfillment Statistics
1. 38% of online shoppers will abandon their order if the estimated delivery time exceeds a week.
Online shoppers are a busy bunch. They want the things they buy to be delivered as quickly as possible, and if the estimated delivery time exceeds a week, they’ll likely abandon their order.
That’s according to a study conducted by Comscore and Econsultancy, which found that 38% of online shoppers will abandon their order if the estimated delivery time is more than a week away.
The study also found that 24% of online shoppers will abandon their order if they do not obtain accurate and timely information about shipping. And another 16% will not place their order if takes 6-7 days for their purchase to arrive after ordering it.
This statistic really shows how important it is for companies to offer reasonable delivery times and clear communication about when their customers can expect the order to arrive.
(Comscore, EConsultancy)
2. 69% of online shoppers say they will be significantly less likely to shop with a retailer if they do not deliver within two days of the promised date.
Statistics further reveal that all it takes is just one incorrect delivery date for 16% of online shoppers to take their business elsewhere. Additionally, another 14% of online shoppers say they would stop shopping with a retailer if their product gets delivered late, just once.
Moreover, 86% of consumers say that their expectations about timely deliveries are even higher around the holidays. Namely, 45% of shoppers expect their items to be delivered within four to five days, while 36% bank on five to six days of delivery, even when the shipping is free.
(Website Magazine)
3. 25% of online shoppers say that an unexpected shipping cost would cause them to abandon their cart.
One-fourth of consumers say they would abandon their cart if the total billing amount is not presented to them up front, making it the biggest reason for online cart abandonment.
In addition, 22% say they would leave without checking out if the website asks them to create a new account, while 17% say they sometimes abandon carts because they were only browsing for research purposes.
Furthermore, 15% are worried about payment security, 9% left their carts because of a long and complex checkout process, and 8% have done it because they were unable to find a coupon code.
Finally, 4% of online shoppers say they would abandon their cart if there is no express shipping option available.
(VWO)
4. 5% of online shoppers who abandoned carts say they’ve bought the same product from a different website with faster shipping.
Even though the majority (or 28%) of online shoppers say they ultimately ended up never buying that product, faster delivery times were decisive for a small portion of them. Moreover, 22% say they purchased it from another website that offered them a better deal, while 18% decided to get it from a physical store.
Finally, 14% made the purchase on a different website, one that they trust more, and 13% say they bought it from the same store, later, at a discount.
(VWO)
5. 4% of online shoppers say they purchased from a website they were unfamiliar with because it offered cash on delivery option.
When it comes to buying from an online store they are not familiar with, customer reviews make the difference for the largest portion, or 30%, of consumers. However, the option to pay with cash upon delivery is also convincing enough to make a small percentage of buyers make the purchase.
Additionally, 19% of online shoppers would buy from a store they are not familiar with if it has trust seals, like Norton and McAfee.
Furthermore, 17% say that they would buy if the offer is too good to miss out on, while 14% would make the purchase if their need for the product is urgent.
Lastly, 10% would buy from a store they have no experience with because they don’t mind taking risks every now and then.
(VWO)
6. 45% of online shoppers who admit to adding products to their cart with no intention of buying say they do it to check the price with shipping.
In other words, just about half of the consumers expect online stores to increase the price just before checkout, so they add products to their cart to find out the shipping costs. Statistics show that there are other reasons customers do this, but this is the most prevalent one.
24% of online shoppers say it is more convenient to add products to cart, rather than to add them to a wishlist.
In addition, 10% say they do it to get an alert in case of a discount for that product later, while another 10% say they added items in their carts by mistake and were too lazy to remove them.
(VWO)
7. 32% of online shoppers say that a limited-time free shipping offer would encourage them to buy a product they had no intention of buying earlier.
After a limited-time discount, which is the main motivation for 48% of online buyers to make a purchase while they are just browsing, limited-time free shipping is the next best thing.
In total, 99% of shoppers say there is a way for them to be encouraged to buy something, even when they are not actively looking to buy, while only 1% say nothing will convince them.
In addition, 10% say they would buy a trending product, and 9% would buy if the item is running out of stock.
(VWO)
8. The most frustrating part of the checkout process is filling in the same information twice, according to 32% of online shoppers.
In addition, 26% of consumers say they get frustrated when there are too many form fields to fill out, while 16% cite the back button not being able to go back to the previous page as the main source of their frustration.
Furthermore, 14% say they get frustrated when they are unable to change their order, 7% get upset when error messages they don’t understand pop up, and 5% say not being able to log in with their Facebook credentials is the most frustrating.
(VWO)
eCommerce Fulfillment Statistics on Online Shoppers
9. 63% of online shoppers say they had abandoned a cart before because the shipping costs were too expensive.
According to the results from a recent survey, shipping that costs too much was the most prevalent reason why online buyers have abandoned their carts.
Moreover, 36% say they have left without checking out because their order needed too much time to ship, which is another shipping-related reason customers leave their carts.
In addition, 46% of online buyers say they left without purchasing because their discount code didn’t work, 30% because they had to re-enter their credit card info, and 25% because they had to re-enter their shipping information.
(Statista)
10. 30% of Amazon users cite its fast shipping as the main reason they shop at Amazon.
While convenience is the primary motivation for the largest percentage of online shoppers, or 49%, to shop at Amazon, its quick delivery times are imperative for just under a third of them as well.
Additionally, the stats show that 38% of consumers prefer amazon because of the wide range of items it offers, while 31% favor it because of its low prices.
(Efulfillment Service)
11. The opinions of online shoppers regarding what is more important, shipping price or shipping speed, are split fifty-fifty.
However, a recent survey reveals that 70% of consumers always choose the least expensive shipping option when submitting an order. Only 23% say they always choose the same-day delivery option, and 25% say they would be willing to pay a premium for it.
Moreover, only 2% of consumers say they would pay more than $3 for same-day delivery.
(Efulfillment Service)
12. 97% of online shoppers agree that same-day shipping is fast shipping.
Next-day shipping is also considered fast by the largest portion of online buyers, or 95%, while 89% of them consider within two days shipping as fast. However, once it gets to three to four days of shipping, the percentage of shoppers who sees it as fast drops to only 42%.
Furthermore, shipping within five to seven days is only considered fast by 10%, and only 5% of consumers view shipping within one or two weeks as fast.
(Efulfillment Service)
13. 94% of online shoppers have taken a certain action to qualify for free shipping.
Moreover, nine out of ten consumers say that free shipping is the most attractive incentive that would cause them to shop online more frequently. In addition, 74% of online buyers consider free shipping the most important option at checkout.
Statistics show that 31% of them have delayed their purchase, 41% have searched for promo codes, and 44% have chosen the slowest transit time to qualify for free shipping.
(Efulfillment Service)
14. 31% of online retailers cite order splitting as the most costly aspect of order fulfillment.
Furthermore, 28% of online retailers believe that low ship velocity and an equal percentage cite the high number of returns as the most expensive part of order fulfillment.
Moreover, according to online retailers, the average cost of fulfilling an order is 70% of the average order value.
(Efulfillment Service)
eCommerce Fulfillment Statistics on Online Sellers
15. 39% of micro sellers do all their shipping from only one store.
The online retailer statistics also reveal that 26% of micro sellers use one warehouse, while 20% do their shipping using multiple stores.
In addition, 15% use multiple warehouses, 6% rely on their suppliers for their shipping needs, and another 6% rely on third-party logistics and drop shippers.
(Efulfillment Service)
16. Almost half (or 47%) of small-sized online retailers do all their shipping from one warehouse.
Moreover, 20% use only one store, 18% use multiple stores, and 12% rely on third-party logistics and drop shippers for their shipping needs. Only 10% of the small sellers use multiple warehouses, while the smallest portion, or 8%, rely on their suppliers for shipping.
(Efulfillment Service)
17. 40% of mid-sized online retailers say they use multiple warehouses for their shipping needs.
Another 39% say they only ship from one warehouse, while 28% use multiple stores to meet their order fulfillment needs.
One in five, or exactly 20% of mid-sized sellers, say they rely on drop shippers and third-party logistics for their shipping, 16% rely on their suppliers, and the smallest portion of them, or 13%, use only one store.
(Efulfillment Service)
18. 88% of enterprise-level online retailers say they use multiple warehouses to do their shipping.
In addition, one-fourth (or 25%) say they rely on drop shippers and third-party logistics, while 19% rely on their suppliers to take care of their shipping needs.
Furthermore, 13% of enterprise sellers say they use multiple stores, and just as many say they only use one warehouse for their shipping.
Interestingly, 0% of the biggest online retailers rely on only one store to meet their order fulfillment demands.
(Efulfillment Service)
19. Order spikes are not considered an issue by 22% of online retailers.
However, these retailers account for the smallest percentage of sellers, and most of the others had to do some sort of adjustment to deal with the spike. Namely, more than half, or 52%, of online retailers say they hired temps to deal with such situations.
In addition, 45% did not hire any extra help but had their employees work longer hours and ended up paying them overtime.
Finally, 38% of online retailers say they had to reallocate staff to deal with order spikes.
(Efulfillment Service)
20. An estimated 165 billion packages are shipped annually in the US.
According to experts, the number of trees needed to create the cardboard for these packages exceeds 1 billion.
For example, the meal delivery service giant Blue Apron ships 8 million meals every month. Moreover, on Prime Day in 2018, Amazon alone sold and shipped out 100 million products and over 5 billion items through prime the same year.
In 2022, Amazon offered sold more than 300 million items during its Prime Day sale.
(Forbes)
21. 90% of global consumers believe that packaging plays a major role in ensuring the safety of the product.
However, statistics show that the eCommerce fulfillment processes require the products to be manually handled up to 20 times before they are shipped out. A recent study reveals that packages are dropped 17 times on average during drop tests.
Even though 58% of US consumers say that receiving a damaged product would have an effect on their relationship with the retailer, data suggests that between 7% and 10% of eCommerce packages are delivered with some degree of damage.
Finally, a damaged product can cost an eCommerce retailer up to 17 times the original price, resulting in a $6 billion loss per year.
(Ameripen, Marketplace)
Global eCommerce Fulfillment Statistics
22. Delivery is so important to online shoppers that more than half, or 54% of them, say it defines who they always shop with.
Additionally, just one negative delivery experience with an online retailer is enough for a staggering 39% of consumers to never shop with that retailer again.
Moreover, 43% of online buyers say that they have used social media channels to voice their frustration with a negative eCommerce delivery experience. For consumers between the ages of 18 and 26, this percentage rises to 48%.
Finally, 54% of online shoppers from metropolitan areas say they expect websites to offer one-hour deliveries to their homes.
(PR Newswire)
23. 31% of global consumers say they would pay a monthly fee to become a part of a loyalty program that offers unlimited next-day deliveries.
A recent survey reveals that the consolidated delivery model is an idea that is most popular with US shoppers, 84% of which are open to it. Its popularity drops slightly in other countries, but it is still backed by 81% of the buyers in Spain, 73% in Italy, 71% in France, and 65% of the shoppers in the UK.
Similarly, most, or 75% of US shoppers, say they would prefer an e-retailer that offers a delivery loyalty program over one that doesn’t. The percentage of online buyers who agree is 71% in Spain and 59% in Italy.
(PR Newswire)
24. 42% of global consumers say that the ability to select the carrier that carries out the delivery is important to them.
This feature is particularly important to US consumers, 63% of which view it as important, while 32% of them even consider it vital.
The age group that is the most interested in having this ability are shoppers between the ages of 27 and 38, 55% of which consider it important and 20% of which consider it essential to their online shopping experience.
The interest in selecting the delivery carrier is not as high among Millennials, as only 38% say this feature is important to them.
(PR Newswire)
Current State of eCommerce Fulfillment
25. The click-and-collect in-store delivery method is the most popular in the UK, with 68% of them being happy with it.
Furthermore, the delivery to a local store or a pick-up point is the most popular in France, as 76% of the French buyers favor it.
Delivery to a locker is not a particularly popular method, and it is best accepted in Germany, where it is good enough for only 31% of the shoppers.
Similarly, delivery to the workplace is also not very popular, having the favor of only 20% of the global shoppers. The only countries where it enjoys some level of popularity are Italy, where 25%, and the UK, where 23% of online buyers appreciate it.
Weekend delivery services are only somewhat popular in the US and the UK, where they are favored by an equal portion of 34% of the shoppers. In Italy and France, it is a method that is only appreciated by 14% and 13% of the consumers.
(PR Newswire)
26. In 2022, 43% of online retailers offer free delivery for all orders.
In addition, 40% of online retailers say they only offer free delivery after a minimum order amount is met, while 34% only offer free delivery as a promotion.
Historically data shows that just two years earlier, in 2020, 57% of eCommerce businesses offered required a minimum order to include the free delivery option, while only 24% offered free delivery on all orders.
(SC Logistics)
27. The online order volume has increased for 59% of eCommerce businesses in 2022.
On the other hand, 27% of online retailers say that their order volume has decreased this year. The rise in order volume seems to be more prevalent among big and mid-sized businesses, as nearly two-thirds of them report an increase, while 40% of businesses with annual revenues less than $50 million report growth.
Furthermore, fluctuating order volumes were cited as one of the three main challenges for the previous year by 21% of online retailers. This issue is also more prevalent among large organizations, 32% of which say they struggled with it. In comparison, 20% of mid-sized and only 12% of small businesses say they faced such an issue.
(SC Logistics)
28. 51% of eCommerce companies say their fulfillment costs have increased in the past year.
The main reason for the increased fulfillment costs is a shortage of labor, as cited by 59% of online retailers.
Conversely, of those who saw decreased fulfillment costs, 53% cite the increased usage of automation as the reason for their cost reduction. Moreover, 37% of them report requiring less labor in the past year.
(SC Logistics)
29. 57% of eCommerce companies say they outsource some or all of their fulfillment processes.
The above figure indicates a significant increase from 2020 when only 29% of eCommerce businesses reported outsourcing fulfillment. Additionally, 20% of online retailers say they plan to begin outsourcing fulfillment in the next 12 to 18 months.
Outsourcing fulfillment is a practice that is more common among small and mid-sized businesses, 61% and 59% of which report doing it, whereas only 40% of big companies say they rely on outsourcing.
(SC Logistics)
30. Delivery expectations are the most common fulfillment challenges, cited by 45% of online retailers.
Additionally, 36% of eCommerce businesses cite transportation capacity as the biggest fulfillment challenge they are currently facing.
To tackle these challenges, retailers rely on traditional methods, with 36% of them saying they rely on negotiating rates and 31% relying on switching carriers, though many of them utilize technology too.
Namely, 48% of eCommerce companies say they upgraded their parcel TMSs, while 36% say they are automating their parcel sortation. Additionally, 32% say they are utilizing rate shopping software, and 29% say they rely on parcel analytics.
Finally, only 27% of eCommerce businesses are leveraging consolidation, and 21% rely on zone skipping to deal with their fulfillment obstacles.
(SC Logistics)
31. 77% of online retailers say that labor shortage has affected their fulfillment operations in some way.
In addition to increased costs, eCommerce companies report negative effects of labor shortage in almost every area of their fulfillment processes. For example, 50% report slower order processing times, 46% report delivery delays, and 39% customer service failures.
To mitigate the negative effects of the labor shortage, 51% of online retailers say they are increasing the wages of their workers, 49% are offering bonuses, and 47% say they hire temporary workers.
(SC Logistics)
Conclusion
So there you have it—the latest stats on eCommerce fulfillment. If you’re in the business of selling merchandise, whether online or in a brick-and-mortar store, the data here will help you make better decisions about how to keep your customers happy and how to grow your business.
As you can see, there are many ways to go about ensuring that your eCommerce business is successful and profitable, but the most important thing is that you stay focused on what matters: your customers.
A great product alone will not guarantee success—you need to make sure that people can easily access it, too!
Thanks for reading!
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