Ecommerce Unfiltered Recap: 2025 Delivery Trends & How They Impact Your Business
Industry experts Michael Haswell, Timur Eligulashvili, and Matt Crawford recently gathered to share game-changing insights on ecommerce delivery trends for 2025. This data-packed session revealed critical findings from ShipStation’s 2025 Ecommerce Delivery Benchmark Report, which surveyed over 8,000 consumers and 400 industry executives to uncover the delivery strategies that will define successful ecommerce operations.
The webinar panelists discussed key delivery trends and essential strategies for overcoming challenges. Watch it here or continue reading for a quick summary of the top insights.
What’s Driving Ecommerce Delivery in 2025?
Our expert guests focused on three critical insights from the benchmark report:
Omnichannel Shopping Revival: Despite the growth of online shopping, 54% of consumers plan to shop more in-store in 2025. This doesn’t mean ecommerce is declining, but rather that customers expect seamless experiences across all channels. The panelists emphasized the importance of “orchestration” – coordinating inventory, carriers, and customer experience effectively.
The Delivery Expectations Gap: A striking 60% of consumers expect free two-day shipping, but only 35% of retailers can deliver on this promise. This gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity for merchants looking to differentiate themselves.
Premium Delivery Demand: Despite economic concerns, 55% of shoppers are willing to pay for same-day or next-day delivery, revealing significant potential for premium shipping options.
The Importance of Delivery Management
Poor delivery management can significantly impact your business, hurting both profits and reputation. According to data shared in the webinar, delivery speed has accelerated from 6.6 days to 4.2 days between 2020 and 2023, raising customer expectations across the board.
When customers experience inaccurate shipping estimates or delayed deliveries, it can lead to frustration and lost business. Our experts noted that on-time, reliable delivery often matters more to customers than sheer speed alone.
Common Delivery Management Challenges
Companies face plenty of pitfalls they must watch out for. Here are some major ones our panel discussed:
- Cost Management: Balancing shipping costs with customer expectations
- Delivery Promise Accuracy: Setting and meeting appropriate delivery timeframes
- Channel Integration: Managing inventory and fulfillment across multiple selling channels
- Service Selection: Choosing the right shipping services for different order types
Best Practices for Delivery Management
How can you overcome these challenges? Our speakers offered several practical strategies:
What to Avoid:
- Relying on one-size-fits-all delivery options
- Setting unrealistic delivery promises
- Ignoring the value of premium delivery options
- Managing channels in isolation
What to Implement:
- Display precise delivery dates at checkout
- Consider tiered delivery options (free standard, premium expedited)
- Leverage stores as micro-fulfillment centers when possible
- Experiment with different free shipping thresholds
- Use technology to optimize carrier selection and routing
How ShipStation Can Help
There are plenty of tools to help solve delivery challenges, and ShipStation is designed to address many of the issues discussed in the webinar. ShipStation helps reduce shipping costs through discounted rates and automation that selects the most cost-effective services. The platform simplifies integration by connecting with marketplaces like Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and others to maintain accurate inventory and order information.
During the webinar, our experts specifically referenced how ShipStation’s automated rules can help merchants implement different shipping strategies without increasing operational complexity.
What This Means For Your Ecommerce Business
As our discussion made clear, well-managed delivery has implications far beyond the warehouse—it’s critical to business success and creating great customer experiences.
But you’re not alone in facing these challenges, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Implementing ShipStation is one way to reduce costs, save time, and overcome delivery management headaches. For a three-month free trial, head to the webinar for details.
