What’s the Difference Between Shipping and Delivery? An Ecommerce Guide

To the average ecommerce shopper, “shipping” and “delivery” are the same thing. Most consumers care more about how long it takes or how much it costs than what they call it.  

But there is a difference between these two terms – and for ecommerce businesses, that nuance is very important. Shipping and delivery each play unique and vital roles in the ecommerce supply chain, your operations, and the customer experience, so it’s crucial to understand the key differences between them. That way, you can optimize both processes and run a more efficient, successful business.  

In this article, we’ll cover what shipping and delivery are, how they’re distinct from each other, their impact on ecommerce brands, and best practices for managing each.  

Shipping vs. delivery: What’s the difference? 

While the terms “shipping” and “delivery” are often used interchangeably, they each refer to different processes in the ecommerce supply chain. Let’s break down what each process entails and its role in the customer journey. 

What is shipping in ecommerce? 

In ecommerce, shipping is the process of transporting packages from one location to another. This can include: 

• Freight shipping: A manufacturer or supplier shipping inventory to an ecommerce brand’s warehouse in bulk. 

• Middle-mile shipping: An ecommerce brand shipping inventory from one of their warehouses or facilities to another of their warehouses or facilities. 

• Retail distribution: An ecommerce brand shipping inventory to a retailer’s facilities or brick-and-mortar locations.  

• DTC order shipping: An ecommerce brand shipping orders to a customer directly to a customer. 

Shippers can leverage many modes of transportation, including air, rail, ocean, and (most commonly) ground shipping via truck. 

What is delivery in ecommerce? 

Delivery in ecommerce refers to the process of transporting a package to its final destination (which is almost always the customer).  

Unlike the shipping process, the delivery process is largely outside of an ecommerce brand’s control. Merchants must rely on last-mile shipping carriers such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, and more to deliver packages to the end customer.  

Brands will either hand off packages that are ready to be shipped at the ecommerce brand’s fulfillment center or ship the packages to a shipping carrier’s distribution center. From there, the courier service will handle getting the packages onto customers’ doorsteps. This usually involves the carrier first sending the packages to regional distribution centers, and then delivering the packages via ground transit.  

The ecommerce impact of shipping and delivery 

Effective shipping and delivery management significantly impact customer satisfaction, as well as the efficiency and profitability of your ecommerce operations.  

Meeting and exceeding customer expectations 

When a piece of inventory or a package is moved from one location to another, it usually increases lead time (the amount of time between when a customer places their order and when they receive it). Customers expect to receive their orders in two days or less (with some looking for same-day delivery), so it’s crucial to streamline shipping and delivery processes to minimize wait time.  

“Because we sell a high-quality anti-aging product, we want to provide high-quality service throughout the whole customer experience — and that includes a quick and smooth delivery that shoppers have come to expect. ShipBob’s 2-Day Express ship option lets us meet these expectations for US customers, and compete with the likes of Amazon for speedy fulfillment.”

Maria Osorio, Logistics and Operations Director at Oxford Healthspan 

Beyond honing your shipping and delivery operations for speed, brands can also meet customer expectations by providing visibility. For instance, many businesses now offer an order status and tracking information page that communicates both ship date (the date the package is shipped from the warehouse) and delivery date (the date the package is expected to arrive on the customer’s doorstep). This lets customers check on their package, gives them a timeframe to work with, and ultimately creates a better experience. 

Reducing costs and improving efficiency 

Improving your shipping and delivery process isn’t just good for your customer – it’s also good for your operations. Optimized shipping and delivery processes can increase your overall operational efficiency while keeping costs low.  

For example, optimized shipping and delivery operations: 

• Minimize shipping errors and damages, which saves you the time and cost of reshipments. 

• Leverage bulk carrier rate discounts (often through a professional logistics partner like ShipBob) to reduce delivery costs. 

• Keep dimensional weight for parcels at a minimum by avoiding excess dunnage and using the ideal size box or poly mailer for each order. 

Best practices for managing shipping and delivery 

Shipping and delivery play a huge role in your ecommerce business, so it’s important to get them right. Here are some of the most popular and effective strategies for managing shipping and delivery operations.  

Optimize shipping for efficiency 

Unlike delivery, shipping is one of the areas brands have a lot of control over and can actively streamline. But to ship goods effectively, you’ll need to hone other supply chain functions, such as inventory management and fulfillment.  

Invest in inventory management software that provides real-time visibility into inventory levels across different channels and locations, and reorder point notifications to alert you when you’re running low on a product. This lets you reorder inventory at the correct time, so that you always have stock to ship to customers and can avoid lengthening lead times while waiting for replenishment stock.  

Some systems will also provide key inventory and order data that you can leverage to further optimize shipping. For instance, ShipBob’s dashboard automatically tracks and displays metrics such as your brand’s top 4 shipping methods, average shipping cost, average transit time, and more, so that you can make more data-driven decisions around your shipping strategy. 

“ShipBob’s reporting is very robust and meets all of our needs. We get visibility into receiving, order volume, SKU availability – everything from inbounds and inventory transactions to individual order statuses (whether it’s on hold, in processing, an exception order, and other detailed descriptions). All this data is real-time, meaning that we’re always seeing the most accurate, up-to-date information. Having this real-time data is crucial for my team, so the fact that there’s not hours of lag time waiting for data to update is huge.”

Ryan Steffenson, Senior Manager, Channel Operations at Tonies  

Additionally, make sure your fulfillment operations do not create problems for your shipping strategy. Fulfilling orders quickly and efficiently lets you get orders to customers even faster, and it gives you a buffer in case of shipping delays.  

Ensure timely delivery: Strategies for success 

Even if you can’t handle the final stage of delivery yourself, there are several ways to optimize the process to ensure timely delivery.   

• Choose the right shipping service and delivery options. Carriers can make or break the delivery experience, so vet your options carefully. Select a carrier that can offer the right delivery options, and that can deliver packages with minimal disruptions and leverage route optimization to ensure speedy delivery. 

• Distribute your inventory. Shipping from one fulfillment center forces faraway customers to pay more and wait longer. By splitting inventory across multiple strategically placed locations, your brand can place inventory closer to more customers and reduce shipping costs and times.   

• Craft an easy, effective returns strategy. Returns are often an afterthought, so spend some time up front to make the returns process straightforward and inexpensive for customers. That way, you can maximize customer satisfaction while minimizing logistics complexities for your team. 

Offer free and fast shipping whenever possible 

Ecommerce giants like Amazon have made fast and free shipping table stakes, even for smaller businesses. To convert more customers, consider how your brand can lower or even eliminate shipping costs for online shoppers without sacrificing delivery speed.  

To achieve this, many brands partner with a professional logistics platform like ShipBob that has the technology, fulfillment network, and expertise to reduce transit times and costs simultaneously.  

For example, dog shoe and accessory brand RIFRUF originally worked with a 3PL that could only provide free shipping if the customer was willing to use standard ground shipping and wait 5-8 days to get their order. After switching to ShipBob, RIFRUF’s average time to fulfill and the average time to send orders out has decreased – so much so that they can now offer deliver products in 3-5 days (38.5% faster) with free shipping. 

“Since partnering with ShipBob, we’ve found that the fees are transparent, packages are getting lost less (which means we file less claims), and customer service is much more responsive and attentive. Plus, the shipping is actually faster!”

Peter Liu, Co-Founder of RIFRUF 

Unlock ShipBob’s technology-driven shipping and delivery optimization 

As an expert fulfillment platform and logistics partner, ShipBob empowers your brand by optimizing its shipping operations and enhancing the delivery experience for your customers. Here are just some of the ways that ShipBob can help optimize your brand’s shipping strategy for cost and speed.  

Drive revenue with 2-day Express Shipping 

Leveraging ShipBob’s 2-Day Express shipping option, brands can offer 2-day shipping across the continental U.S. even from just one fulfillment center to boost conversion and delight customers.  

Distribute inventory to achieve 2-day ground shipping 

ShipBob’s network of 50+ global fulfillment centers is at our merchants’ disposal, so you can place inventory closer to more of your customers. Our Ideal Inventory Distribution Tool will even use automatically tracked order data to calculate the optimal the ideal distribution of inventory across our fulfillment network. That way, orders can be automatically routed to and fulfilled from the fulfillment center closest to the end customer, reducing your average shipping zone and minimizing shipping costs and times on each order. 

You can also automate inventory distribution through ShipBob’s Inventory Placement Program. Simply send your inventory to a single Shipbob hub facility, and we’ll handle allocation and distribution for you.  

“Right after we partnered with ShipBob, we joined their Inventory Placement Program, which streamlines inventory distribution across the US, taking multi-location inbound shipments, inventory allocation, and rebalancing off merchants’ plates. Since launching in the program, we’ve been able to allocate our inventory across 4 of ShipBob’s fulfillment centers in the United States, which cut our shipping times by a third – from 5.2 days down to about 3.6 days.

The Inventory Placement Program has also made my life a lot easier. It’s super easy for me to get the inventory where it needs to go – I just send it to one hub location, and it gets distributed across ShipBob’s fulfillment center network. Not having to worry about shipments and distribution saves me several hours every week.”

Matt Crane, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at Semaine Health 

Outsource fulfillment from your online store to your customer’s door 

With ShipBob, you can outsource the entire order fulfillment process, from receiving and storing inventory to placing orders on your customer’s doorstep. This allows you to leave the complicated parts of shipping and delivery to the experts, saving you time while enhancing efficiency and accuracy. 

ShipBob’s software integrates with major ecommerce platforms and tools, so that orders are automatically received, processed, and sent to a fulfillment center. Our fulfillment experts then take care of picking, packing, and shipping out your orders, which you can monitor through your ShipBob dashboard.  

Unlock omnichannel fulfillment with click-to-delivery services 

You can create a uniform, consistent experience for your customers no matter where they shop by partnering with ShipBob for omnichannel fulfillment and shipping.  

From retail dropshipping and distribution to Amazon and other marketplaces, fulfilling all your orders through ShipBob lets you simplify your life and manage multichannel fulfillment through a single dashboard – plus streamline your DTC and BTB shipping for efficiency and cost.   

For more information on how ShipBob can optimize your shipping and delivery, click the button below.  

Shipping vs. delivery FAQs

Below are answers to the most commonly asked questions about shipping and delivery.