For retail and e-commerce brands, delivery management is a defining component of customer experience, but also one of the most exposed parts of the supply chain. Volatility is the name of the game in 2026 for those attending the Total Supply Chain Summit: weather disruption, labour constraints, carrier capacity fluctuations, geopolitical shocks and demand spikes are now built-in operating conditions. The retailers that perform best are those redesigning delivery operations for resilience, not just efficiency…
Moving beyond single-carrier dependency
One of the clearest lessons of recent years is the risk of over-reliance on a single carrier or delivery model. Best practice is a deliberate multi-carrier strategy, with clear rules on when and how volume is flexed between partners.
This is not about adding complexity for its own sake. Leading retailers define primary, secondary and contingency carriers by geography, service type and peak demand scenarios. Contracts increasingly include capacity triggers and service-level flex provisions, giving delivery managers options when disruption hits.
Designing networks for flexibility
Network design is evolving to support optionality. Retailers are re-examining fulfilment strategies, balancing centralised DCs with regional nodes, stores-as-fulfilment points, and third-party hubs.
In e-commerce, this often means enabling inventory to be fulfilled from multiple locations and allowing delivery management systems to dynamically choose the best fulfilment route based on real-time conditions. The aim is not to eliminate disruption, but to absorb it without breaking customer promises.
Using data to anticipate disruption
Resilient delivery operations are increasingly data-led. Predictive analytics and real-time visibility allow teams to spot risk early: rising depot dwell times, route congestion, weather alerts or carrier performance drift.
The most advanced retailers link these signals directly to action: re-routing orders, switching carriers, adjusting cut-off times, or proactively notifying customers before a delay becomes a complaint. This shifts delivery management from reactive firefighting to controlled exception handling.
Balancing resilience with cost
Flexibility has a cost, and senior leaders are under pressure to justify it. Best practice is to be explicit about trade-offs. Retailers are increasingly segmenting service levels: premium resilience for high-value customers or peak periods, and leaner models where risk tolerance is higher.
Clear governance is essential. Resilience decisions should be guided by agreed thresholds — when to pay more for speed, when to accept delay, and when to pause promotions to protect service levels.
Resilience as a competitive advantage
Customers often don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty and reliability. Retailers that design delivery networks to cope with disruption, communicate clearly and recover quickly are turning resilience into a differentiator.
For retail and e-commerce leaders, delivery management is about protecting trust in an unpredictable world.
Are you searching for Delivery Management solutions for your organisation? The Total Supply Chain Summit can help!
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash
