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September 10, 2025
Is The Post-Purchase Experience Still An Afterthought?
A new study uncovers many shortcomings in retailers’ delivery experience, including vague delivery dates, spotty communications, inflexible return policies, and a lack of sustainable shipping options.
Post-Purchase Experiences Have ‘Room to Grow,’ Study Suggests
The research from parcelLab and ShipStation evaluated top 57 online retailers in the U.S. across electronics, fashion, homeware, health & beauty, and multi-category segments, tracking every step in the delivery journey from the “Buy Now” click on each retailer’s purchase page to delivery promises, packaging, returns, and customer updates.
Among the findings:
- Shipping costs: Only 14% of retailers offer unconditional free standard shipping. The vast majority charge between $5 and $10 regardless of category or product type. The average fee is $7.45. In fashion and apparel, it rises to over $8, while electronics averages just $5.49.
- Shipping speed: The average delivery time is four business days. In the best case, a package arrives the next day, in the worst, it can take 10 or 11 days, depending on the retailer. While 58% of retailers offer expedited shipping, a full 42% provide no faster option at all. None offer weekend delivery.
- Shipping guarantees: Only about 9% of retailers give a guaranteed delivery.
- Delivery options: About three-quarters (77%) offer click and collect. Curbside collection, where customers retrieve orders from designated parking spots outside the store, is available at just 17.5% of retailers. Dedicated off-site pickup stations, such as lockers in supermarkets or convenience stores, are only offered by 3.5%.
- Sustainable shipping options: Only one retailer (J.Crew) offered a carbon-neutral shipping option.
- Sustainable packaging: On the positive side, packaging size matched the item ordered in more than 90% of cases. Yet over half of all packages still contain plastic, whether as filler, wrapping, or protective film.
- Communication frequency: All retailers send order and shipping confirmations via e-mail, but only 72% notify customers when a delivery has been completed. Notifying when packages arrive can reduce theft.
- Communication medium: Two-thirds of retailers rely exclusively on e-mail to communicate delivery updates, with just under one-third using SMS.
- Return costs: About 51% of retailers offer free returns. The remaining 49% charge customers either through flat fees, deductions from refunds, or by requiring customers to arrange and pay for shipping themselves. The average cost of a paid return is just under $11.
- Return windows: Nearly two-thirds of retailers give customers 30 days or less to return their items. Retailers with broad assortments (multi-category) offer the most generous timelines, averaging 78 days. Homeware retailers follow with an average of 56 days, while Health & Beauty allows for about 48 days. Fashion retailers fall in the mid-range with an average return window of 45 days. Electronics retailers are the most restrictive, offering just 24 days on average.
- Return options: A wide majority (82%) of retailers allow customers to return items via designated drop-off points, either in-store or through logistics partners. Only 9% retailers offer the added convenience of at-home pickup.
- Exchange options: Two-thirds of retailers offer no exchange process at all. About a quarter (27%) allow basic “even exchanges” for the same product in a different size or color. Only 7% support “uneven exchanges” that let customers switch to different items or price points.
Discussion Questions
What’s your biggest pet peeve in the online delivery and post-purchase experience space?
What are some easy wins and harder fixes in improving the post-purchase experience?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
"Providing communication at each step of the process is important and an easy win. The more you communicate to your customer, the more they feel like they matter."
Ricardo Belmar
Retail Transformation Thought Leader, Advisor, & Strategist
"Look at each of these points and deep dive into how to improve each experience, analyze what competitors are doing for their customers, and survey customers for opinions."
Shep Hyken
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
"It isn’t easy for retailers, with the ever increasing number of channels they’re required to deliver 'omnichannel CS' on, but it’s certainly a way to stand out."
Karen Wong
Co-Founder & CEO, TakuLabs Ltd.
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Many retailers do not focus enough on this. However, it is increasingly important – especially with younger consumers who judge brands by the whole end-to-end experience. This goes quite deep with concerns about ‘behind the scenes’ functions such as what happens to returns from a sustainability perspective mattering as much as basics like returns fees and communication.
My biggest pet peeve in the post-purchase experience is the “out of sight, out of mind” treatment that often kicks in once the order is placed. Too many retailers still provide vague delivery timelines, limited tracking, and rigid return processes. From a customer’s perspective, it feels like the brand has stopped caring the moment the transaction is complete—and that’s a missed opportunity to build loyalty.
The easy wins are fairly straightforward: clear delivery expectations, transparent fees, real-time tracking updates, and simple return options. These don’t require a massive systems overhaul but go a long way in reassuring the customer that their order is being handled with care.
The harder fixes—like guaranteed delivery windows, flexible fulfillment choices, or sustainable shipping and return programs—take deeper investments in supply chain and technology. But in my experience as a merchant and eCommerce leader, those are the differentiators that move a retailer from “good enough” to truly best-in-class.
I think there’s something funadamentally wrong with a viewpoint that describes delivery as “post purchase”; oh, sure, it’s after you’ve hit the “buy” button, but it’s certainly an integral part of the purchase process. But maybe that’s really the whole point of thv study: that too many companies are only concerned with getting you to hit that button, and neglect everything else ?
I agree, Craig. When I read “Post Purchase Experience” I was thinking about a true purchase follow-up, as in “How’s the product? Any questions?” Certainly not delivery.
EXACTLY! Right now I’m the unwilling participant in an international trade experiment – I ordered an item online, not realizing it was actually coming from Spain, right after the ‘de minimis’ exemption ended – with the item in a Twilight Zone b/w The Hague and CA; Post purchase ?? I don’t think so!
My “post-purchase” experience starts when I open the package and plug it in. Anything before that is just “sales service”.
There is definitely room for improvement at most retailers, although we are in a better place than we used to be! The fact is, to the consumer, the “buy” isn’t completed until they have the product and are happy using it. This means the post-purchase experience that retailers are thinking about is actually part of the purchase experience to the consumer. It’s of equal importance so retailer should pay more attention to this part of the overall experience. Providing communication at each step of the process is important and an easy win. The more you communicate to your customer, the more they feel like they matter and that you care about them as a customer not just as a transaction.
All of the points the study highlights are important – shipping options, sustainability options (especially to younger shoppers), and return options. With shipping, customers want to know when their item ships, when to expect it, and if there are any hiccups along the way. Lack of communication just leads to more call into customer service which costs the retailer real money, so it’s in their interest to communicate fully. Certainly offering more shipping options and more return options requires more investment in logistics and supply chain so that may take more time for retailers, but these days it’s what most customers expect, thanks to their experience with Amazon!
Instead of viewing post-purchase as a cost center, savvy retailers should treat it as a conversion funnel for the next purchase. Shift from transactional thinking to relationship building. That conversion is just the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it; otherwise, you’ve wasted all that effort over conversion optimization and customer acquisition costs.
Absolutely. Too much retail is “one-and-done.”. That is not the time for the victory lap.
This list is filled with major “touch points” the brand has with its customers. This list is the perfect conversation starter. Look at each of these points and deep dive into how to improve each experience, analyze what competitors are doing for their customers, and survey customers for opinions on the appropriate touch points they experience.
This is an area most businesses need to focus on – not only product-based retailers. Many studies have shown that retention of an existing customer is more efficient and cost-effective than getting a new one, yet it’s rare to see retention metrics in performance reviews. It isn’t easy for retailers, with the ever increasing number of channels they’re required to deliver “omnichannel CS” on, but it’s certainly a way to stand out in today’s hyper-competitive market.
Yes, No new news. Many studies have shown that retention of an existing customer is more efficient and cost-effective than getting a new one. Those studies date back at least 65 years, since I was aware of them… probably longer, when you consider the historically great retailers.
For many shoppers, what happens after they buy can make all the difference in whether they come back. Retailers who make that experience seamless and clear are more likely to build loyalty and repeat business.
One of the most unclear parts of the purchase process is not clearly understanding the “processing time” (before the shipping happens) and then the shipping timeframe (how long until I get the order once shipped). Many retailers don’t do a great job about being clear about one or both of these items, which leads to uncertainty and dissatisfaction.
Sounds like some new definitions are in order. “Post purchase” used to be when the customer walked out the door of the physical store, with product in hand. Now post purchase is when the empty box in sitting on the counter and the product is in hand. It’s a long way with a lot of moving parts from ‘post hit the buy button’ to empty box sitting on the counter. I had a recent experience with Home Depot where the ‘post buy button’ experience was amazing. Precise, accurate, timely. It was an immediate confidence builder. I had another experience with another brand that can only be described as frustrating. Love the product, hate the ‘post buy button’ experience. Looking for alternatives.
Sending out a “your order has shipped” email when really only a shipping label has been printed is such a 2020s annoyance. I still have to go to the UPS or FedEx website to verify the package is actually in motion.