Revising Delivery Deadlines for the D2C Channel

• [SITUATION]:
Within the D2C delivery management process, the company were facing a recurring misalignment between the promised delivery lead times displayed on their e-commerce platform and the actual performance achieved by their carriers. In some regions, the 'Requested Delivery Date' (RDD) was overly conservative, while in others, it was too optimistic - resulting in inconsistent customer experiences, increased service complaints, and operational strain.

• [TASK]:
My goal was to enhance delivery predictability and customer satisfaction by revising and calibrating the promised delivery times across all regions, based on factual operational data and performance metrics.

• [ACTION]:
We conducted a cross-functional data-driven review initiative involving Logistics and IT. We extracted and segmented delivery data by ZIP code range and gathered:
➢ Actual delivery performance (average + 2 standard deviations),
➢ Promised delivery times configured in the e-commerce platform, and
➢ Contractual SLAs agreed with each carrier.

By overlaying these datasets, we identified gaps between 'promised', 'contractual', and 'real-world' delivery times - revealing both overpromising and underpromising regions.
Where the contractual SLA consistently outperformed actual delivery times by more than two standard deviations, we shortened the promised RDD to improve competitiveness and customer appeal.
In parallel, we adjusted overly optimistic promises in underperforming regions to prevent frustration and service escalations.

• [RESULT]:
The revised RDD matrix was implemented across our e-commerce and marketplace platforms, improving delivery accuracy and expectation management. As a result, we achieved:

➢ A measurable improvement in OTD.
➢ 'Improved operational efficiency', as carriers were no longer pressured by unrealistic delivery promises.