Last updated: May 2026
Nowadays, almost everyone shops online. The need for land-based retailers is starting to decrease now that it has become so much easier to get anything you need with a simple click on the web. Ecommerce now accounts for roughly 16% of total US retail sales as of 2025, according to the US Census Bureau, with global Ecommerce on track to surpass $6.8 trillion in 2025. The Ecommerce industry has experienced staggering growth, which has had a massive impact on last-mile Ecommerce delivery.
But what changes has the last-mile delivery landscape actually experienced? In this article, we'll cover four key areas affected by the rise of Ecommerce.
Last-mile Ecommerce delivery is the final leg of the fulfillment process, when a packed order moves from a local hub or fulfillment center to the customer's door. It's the shortest leg of the supply chain by distance and the most expensive leg by cost.
This stage in the supply chain is often the most important and difficult because it sits closest to the end consumer. Any issues that arise during last-mile delivery lead to more complex solutions and higher costs.
Capgemini puts last-mile at 41% of total supply chain costs. More recent industry reporting from McKinsey places it even higher for parcel-heavy Ecommerce flows. For every dollar a DTC brand spends moving product from factory to customer, roughly half is burned on the last few miles.
The reason this matters: the rest of the supply chain has been optimized for decades. Last-mile is where the inefficiency lives. It's also where customers form their entire opinion of your brand: the box, the tracking experience, the delivery window, and the doorstep photo. Everything that happened before that moment is invisible.
For Ecommerce operators, last-mile is the leg that compounds. Get it wrong and you lose the customer. Get it right and you build the kind of repeat purchase rate that funds growth.
Last-mile work covers route optimization, transporting goods, scheduling deliveries, tracking them, and communicating with customers.
The popularity of Ecommerce in the modern world has taken a real toll on last-mile logistics. Here are the most direct changes the industry has recently experienced.
The first change is an obvious one. As more customers choose to order products online, the number of parcels needing delivery climbs. Global parcel volume hit 356 billion parcels in 2023 per the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, more than doubling pre-pandemic levels. Volumes are projected to reach 800 billion by 2030. With this growth, last-mile logistics providers cannot use the same strategies they used for fewer parcels.
Although more parcels are coming in, customer expectations for fast delivery and good service haven't changed. Many customers also have more niche demands, such as where the parcel can be left. Delivery companies need to complete the final stretch of the supply chain without skimping on quality. New strategies and technologies need to be implemented, and that has triggered even more changes in the industry.
The increase in parcels means Ecommerce logistics and last-mile delivery providers have had to find new ways to handle their processes. They need to maintain the same level of efficiency while also meeting the increased demand. That pressure has forced last-mile delivery services to adopt advanced technologies to avoid bad delivery experiences.
With higher consumer demand for online shopping and faster delivery, delivery companies have started to adopt tech in areas such as route optimization, real-time tracking and shipping options, and automation to improve supply chain management. It makes all processes more efficient, reduces costs, and gives customers a better experience because they can order more without worrying about delays or lost packages.
As an Ecommerce or delivery company, you can no longer give a customer a vague time frame like three to five working days. Customers want to know exactly when they're getting their packages, and they want them as quickly as possible. Ecommerce logistics companies need to offer a range of flexible delivery options to keep everyone happy, according to the McKinsey last-mile report.
Brands now need to offer next-day delivery, time-window choices, and in-store pickups to stay ahead of the competition. Providers can use real-time tracking and shipping options to speed things up, but they also need to invest in more human power to meet these demands. That includes using other shipping methods and having people organize the order of products to make sure they reach customers on their chosen date and at their desired location.
If final mile delivery procedures stayed the same even with the increased demand, customers would be unhappy. To make these changes and provide faster deliveries with the same level of quality, Ecommerce companies need to spend more on operational costs. That eats into their overall revenue and doesn't always seem worth it.
Companies are looking for alternative ways to improve their last-mile delivery operations without spending heavily. Ecommerce and DTC delivery brands are rethinking the shift away from bulk container shipping and exploring direct fulfillment models, including approaches like how direct fulfillment cuts emissions by up to 40% while removing entire legs of the legacy supply chain.
Last-mile delivery now accounts for 41–53% of total Ecommerce shipping cost depending on the product category and route, according to Capgemini and McKinsey. For a DTC brand shipping $5M in product per year, that's a line item large enough to wipe out an entire marketing channel.
The math gets worse when you stack the legacy model on top of it:
Every step compounds. And every step happens whether or not the customer ever clicks buy.
Direct fulfillment cuts the middle steps. Product ships from a fulfillment center next to your factory, straight to the customer's door, in five to eight days. You skip the domestic warehouse rent, the bulk freight cost, and the cash tied up in unsold inventory. Last-mile cost is still a real expense, but you stop paying for the four legs that came before it.
Portless powers direct fulfillment from manufacturers in China and Vietnam to customers in 75+ countries, replacing the legacy 3PL model entirely. Brands using Portless typically cut inventory lead times by up to 90%, free up cash by making inventory sellable days after production, and reduce the working capital tied up in bulk freight cycles.
The four shifts above — parcel volume, tech adoption, flexible delivery, and cost — all point at the same conclusion. The legacy model of bulk ocean freight into a domestic warehouse, then last-mile out to the customer, was built for retail distribution. It was never built for DTC Ecommerce.
Portless replaces that model with direct fulfillment from the point of manufacture. Inventory stays close to the factory in China or Vietnam, gets picked and packed within hours of an order, and ships via air directly to customers in 75+ countries. See how direct fulfillment from China actually works for the operational detail. The last-mile leg still happens, but it happens from a fulfillment center sized for your actual order volume, not a domestic warehouse holding three months of forecasted demand.
For DTC brands doing $1–15M in revenue with lightweight products, the math usually breaks in favor of direct fulfillment. Run your own numbers using the Portless ROI calculator before you renew your next 3PL contract. It also lines up with sustainable logistics for Ecommerce: fewer touches, less warehousing, and less wasted inventory.
Last-mile delivery is the visible cost, but it's the four legs before it that quietly drain DTC margins. If bulk freight cycles, domestic warehousing fees, and locked-up capital are stacking on top of an already expensive last-mile, it's worth talking to our team about what direct fulfillment would change for your specific cost structure.
Last-mile delivery is the final leg of the Ecommerce fulfillment process, when a packed order moves from a local hub, fulfillment center, or distribution point to the customer's door. It's the most expensive and most visible part of shipping.
Last-mile delivery is the only part of the supply chain the customer actually sees. It directly shapes customer satisfaction, repeat purchase rate, and brand reputation — and it's where most delivery complaints, returns, and WISMO (where is my order) tickets originate.
The biggest challenges are rising delivery costs, failed first-attempt deliveries, fragmented carrier networks, customer demand for faster shipping windows, and lack of real-time tracking visibility. Each adds cost or erodes margin if not solved.
Brands cut last-mile delivery costs by shortening the distance between inventory and customer, using dynamic carrier routing instead of single-carrier contracts, and shipping in smaller, demand-matched batches instead of bulk freight to one domestic warehouse.
The future is regional and origin-based — fulfilling closer to either the customer or the factory, using AI-driven routing, and replacing bulk ocean freight with direct factory-to-door air shipping for lightweight DTC products.
