On-time order delivery is one of the most important aspects of an ecommerce business. According to recent research from McKinsey, respondents ranked on-time delivery as more important to their satisfaction than even speedy delivery. To ensure a first-class customer experience and retain customer trust, your order fulfillment must run efficiently from click to delivery.
However, as businesses expand (by branching out into new locations, product lines, or sales channels) or see seasonal spikes in orders, keeping delivery promises can become more complex. To manage high-order volumes without shipping delays and late deliveries, many businesses outsource their order fulfillment operations to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. In fact, the global 3PL market is projected to exceed 2.6 trillion by 2034, fueled by the rise of ecommerce companies.
A 3PL with a proven track record of on-time delivery—like Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) and its Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) service with a 96.4% average on-time delivery rate for all MCF orders worldwide1—can help your business overcome many of the causes of late deliveries. And because MCF is part of the broader end-to-end (E2E) supply chain solution and 3PL that is ASCS, you also get access to other supply chain services that your business might need, from ground freight to warehousing to last-mile shipping and more.
In this blog, we will discuss three common causes of late deliveries and explain how a 3PL can help you handle them.
1Based on all orders placed and delivered between October 2024 and September 2025, and measuring the percentage of orders that were delivered on or before the estimated delivery date generated upon order confirmation.
Cause of late delivery #1: weather
As we all know, the weather can be unpredictable, and inclement weather can quickly derail your delivery timelines. Even if the picking and packing process runs smoothly, poor weather conditions can become a hurdle and sabotage a delivery, especially in the last mile.
Bad weather can slow down delivery drivers or damage packages and, in the event of heavy rain or snow, make it impossible for delivery drivers to leave unattended packages at the delivery address. This can cause logistics problems, hiccups in your tracking process, and higher order fulfillment costs.
Most 3PLs have contingency plans to handle weather issues (along with supply chain disruptions and other unexpected events). Get in touch with your 3PL in advance to learn about their weather policies and ensure they will be able to deal with any delays caused by inclement weather.
Cause of late delivery #2: seasonal order spikes
During peak holiday shopping seasons, ecommerce companies typically experience increased order volume, and handling logistics for the surge in orders can be challenging. In fact, sales from 2025 online holiday shopping saw a 6.8% year-over-year increase, and if your operations aren’t equipped to run smoothly, your customers will likely experience shipping delays and late deliveries.
A 3PL can help you handle seasonal spikes in orders and prevent delivery delays.
- 3PLs can provide additional workforce and warehouse capacity to manage the high volume of orders. Through its MCF service, ASCS for example, helps businesses handle seasonal spikes by offering flexible, on-demand fulfillment and storage services. (Read about how Halloweencostumes.com used MCF to handle a 15x increase in order volume during its peak period.)
- 3PLs can streamline your inventory management, ensuring you have the right products in the right locations at the right times to satisfy increased demand, whenever and wherever it arises. For example, when you engage ASCS as your 3PL, you get access to Amazon’s world-class logistics network, which stretches across 27 countries and has over 2,000 facilities (including more than 200 fulfillment centers) as well as over 100K trucks, vans, and planes, and 1.5M+ employees and partners. A vast logistics network can reduce shipping times and dramatically decrease the likelihood of late deliveries during peak shopping seasons and throughout the year.
Cause of late delivery #3: order processing inefficiency
From the moment a customer places an order on any of your sales channels, the race to fulfill it on time begins. Any inefficiencies or lags in order processing can lead to late deliveries.
Minimizing order processing times—when orders are received, picked, and packed in the warehouse and shipped out to customers—is one of the biggest challenges that ecommerce companies face.
Streamline your order processing (and, in turn, reduce late deliveries) with the help of a 3PL.
- Utilize ecommerce integrations to automatically route your orders from your sales channels to the 3PL’s systems, a faster and more efficient process instead of manually entering order information. ASCS’ MCF service, for example, offers over 100 integrations to seamlessly connect with your back-end systems and automate order fulfillment across all your channels.
- Optimize the picking and packing process by leveraging state-of-the-art warehouse management systems to rapidly retrieve your products from the warehouse shelves, transport them to packing stations, and pack and label them for shipment.
- Provide fast, first-class shipping services. Some 3PLs—like ASCS—are carriers themselves and will handle the shipment of your orders, while other 3PLs work closely with carriers to ensure your packages arrive on time.
Overcoming causes of late deliveries
Keeping your delivery promises to your customers is crucial to gaining and retaining their trust. According to McKinsey, they expect two- to three-day delivery, and almost half will shop elsewhere if shipping times are too long.
Working with a 3PL can help you address and overcome the causes of late deliveries, including weather, seasonal spikes in orders, and processing inefficiency, so you can meet your customers’ expectations for fast and reliable fulfillment.
