When Someone Else Makes the Delivery, Who Owns the Customer Experience?
As retailers turn to a gig-based delivery to meet growing demand for speed, the last mile raises an important question: How much control are brands willing to give up at the doorstep?
The race to make orders faster is accelerating.
Consumers have grown accustomed to increasingly short windows, and retailers are looking for ways to provide same-day and even sub-hour delivery without building an entirely new delivery operation from the ground up. One common solution is to turn to third-party, on-demand delivery networks.
In a Nutshell:
Faster delivery can help retailers meet rising customer expectations, but speed is only part of the delivery experience.
Customers often associate the delivery experience with the retailer itself, even when a third party handles the last mile.
Outsourcing delivery can expand a retailer’s capabilities without eliminating its responsibility for what happens at the customer’s doorstep.
A recent example comes from Gap, Kohl’s, Barnes & Noble and Carter’s, which have expanded their delivery options through DoorDash. The partnership gives customers access to hundreds of thousands of retail products through the gig-based service, with some orders eligible for delivery in under an hour.
The appeal is easy to understand. Retailers can offer faster delivery options, reach customers in more markets, and respond to demand without necessarily investing in their own fleet of vehicles and drivers.
For companies trying to compete on convenience, that can be a significant advantage.
However, speed introduces another consideration: what happens when the delivery itself becomes part of the customer’s experience with the brand?
The answer matters because the customer doesn’t experience a retailer’s fulfillment strategy the way its operations team does. They don’t see behind-the-scenes decisions, the contracts with delivery providers, or the technology connecting an order to a driver.
Instead, they see a package arrive at their doorstep.
And more and more, research suggests that what happens during that final interaction can influence how customers evaluate the retailer itself.
Delivery Is No Longer Just Logistics
For much of retail, delivery has traditionally been treated as the final operational step. The order is purchased, the product is fulfilled, and someone gets it to the customer.
That view is becoming harder to sustain.
A recent study published in the Journal of Service Research examined more than 35,000 customer reviews across 28 online retailers. The researchers found that nearly 60% of the reviews containing written text took the delivery process into account when evaluating the retailer in question. They also found that positive and negative delivery experiences were associated with the differences in customers’ evaluations of the retailer.
Nearly 60% of reviewed online shopping experiences considered delivery when evaluating the retailer.
The researchers describe this interaction as the “moment of delivery” — the point at which the customer’s online shopping journey reaches the doorstep.
That moment is particularly important because it can be one of the few times a customer has a direct interaction with someone representing the fulfillment process. The experience can involve much more than whether an order arrived on time. It can also include the courier’s professionalism, how the package arrived, how the package is handled, how the delivery is communicated, and whether the experience meets the expectations established by the retailer.
More importantly, customers may not distinguish between the retailer and the company making the delivery.
If an order arrives late, is mishandled, or is left somewhere unexpected, the customer may know that a third-party courier was responsible. But the complaint can still be directed toward the retailer — and the retailer’s reputation can absorb the impact.
The Customer Sees One Brand
From the retailer’s perspective, the delivery process may involve multiple companies. There may be a retailer, a technology platform, a third-party delivery provider, and an individual driver — all connected through a series of systems and contracts.
The customer doesn’t experience any of that.
They placed an order with the retailer. They received a delivery from someone carrying that order. From the customer’s point of view, the entire experience is part of one transaction.
Let’s return to the 2026 Journal of Service Research study. The findings suggest that customers frequently incorporate the delivery experience into the evaluation of the retailer, meaning what happens at the doorstep can influence how customers feel about the company they purchased from — not just the provider transporting the order.
The researchers also found that the type of courier can influence these reactions. In some cases, a third-party courier can help insulate a retailer from the negative effects of a poor delivery experience. When customers associate the courier with the retailer, however, a problem during delivery can become a problem for the brand.
That creates an important distinction between outsourcing an operation and outsourcing an experience.
A retailer can outsource the physical movement of an order. It cannot assume that customers will separate that delivery experience from the brand that sold them the product.
The Gig-Delivery Dilemma
That doesn’t mean gig-based delivery is inherently incapable of providing a good customer experience.
In fact, research suggests that we should be careful about making that assumption.
A 2022 study published in Technology in Society analyzed approximately 3,000 consumer reviews of food-delivery services to compare gig-economy delivery platforms with traditional professional service companies. The researchers expected gig-based services to receive poorer evaluations of service quality.
However, they did not find evidence to support that assumption.
That finding is important because it shifts the conversation away from a simple gig versus professional debate.
A more useful question for retailers is “What systems are in place to make sure the delivery experience consistently reflects my brand?”
That question becomes particularly important when delivery is handled through a large, decentralized network.
A 2025 study in the International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications examined user reviews of crowdsourced couriers and compared them with traditional courier services.
The researchers found that satisfaction with crowdsourced delivery was highly volatile, reflecting variability and inconsistency in service experiences. Traditional courier services, by comparison, showed lower but more stable satisfaction levels. Customers also placed significant importance on factors such as accuracy, package safety, convenience, and tracking.
It then becomes a matter of consistency.
A customer doesn’t receive the average delivery experience. They receive one specific delivery.
If that experience is excellent, it can reinforce the retailer’s promise of convenience. If it falls short, the retailer may have to deal with the resulting frustration regardless of who actually made the delivery.
This is an important notion, considering that companies continue to make increasingly ambitious delivery promises. Same-day delivery raises the customer’s expectations. And sub-hour delivery raises them even more.
The faster the promise, the less room there is for the execution to undermine it.
The goal, then, shouldn't simply be to find the fastest way to move an order from a store to a customer's home. It should be to build a delivery model that can deliver speed without sacrificing consistency, accountability, or the customer experience.
What Should Retailers Looks for in a Delivery Partner?
The answer isn't necessarily to bring delivery operations in-house. Third-party delivery can give retailers access to capacity and geographic reach without the cost and complexity of building their own fleet.
The more important question is whether the delivery partner can provide that flexibility without sacrificing the experience the retailer has promised its customers.
Retailers should consider:
Consistency: Can the provider deliver reliable service across markets and orders?
Professionalism: Who represents the retailer at the customer's doorstep?
Accountability: What happens when a delivery doesn't go according to plan?
Visibility: Does the retailer have meaningful insight into the delivery process?
Scalability: Can the model support growing same-day demand without compromising service?
These considerations shift the conversation away from simply finding the fastest way to deliver an order.
The goal is to find a delivery model that supports speed and service quality at the same time.
The Last Mile Is Part of Your Brand
Retailers have more options than ever for offering fast delivery. On-demand networks can help them expand their reach and meet growing expectations for convenience.
But delivery is more than the final step in fulfillment.
It is one of the last — and often most personal — touchpoints between a retailer and its customer.
For retailers, that means outsourcing the delivery operation doesn't mean outsourcing responsibility for the customer experience.
Hypr Delivery gives retailers a professional alternative to gig-based delivery, connecting them with a network of professional delivery companies and drivers to provide reliable same-day service without requiring retailers to build their own fleet.
The objective isn't simply to deliver faster. It's to make sure the experience at the doorstep reflects the brand that made the sale.
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