New research finds only 34% of brands deliver as promised, while 93% fail to recover abandoned carts, leaving significant revenue unrealized
ATLANTA, November 3, 2025 – Stord, The Consumer Experience Company powering seamless pre-purchase, checkout, delivery and returns for today's leading brands, today released its 2025 Mystery Shopping Report: "Are U.S. E-Commerce Brands Delivering on Consumer Expectations?" The comprehensive study evaluated over 250 e-commerce transactions across leading brands in Nutrition & Supplements, Apparel & Accessories, Beauty & Personal Care, and Food & Beverage, revealing a critical disconnect between what consumers expect and what brands actually deliver in the full-cycle purchase experience.
As e-commerce sales approach $1.6 trillion in the U.S., brands have invested heavily in digital storefronts and customer acquisition. Yet Stord’s research reveals that operational foundations have not kept pace. Operational gaps translate directly into lost sales and eroded customer trust.
"Most brands have invested heavily in their product and their marketing, but are not meeting critically important consumer expectations on every order," said Sean Henry, CEO and Co-founder of Stord. "Our research shows that a scalable consumer delivery experience is now the biggest barrier to growth in e-commerce. For brands to see success in a saturated environment, they must be able to create a holistic experience that starts with the marketing and flows all the way through to the product arrival at their front door. Failing to do so risks customer loyalty and lost market share."
The study examined the end-to-end customer journey across pre-purchase, delivery, unboxing, and returns and compared them to an internal survey panel of over 1,000 U.S.-based online shoppers. The findings reveal that brands are losing customers and revenue at every stage:
Cart Recovery: 93% of brands don't send abandoned cart reminders. For a brand generating 1,000 monthly orders with a $50 average order value, recovering just 5% of typical abandoned carts could generate $13,000 in incremental monthly revenue.
Delivery Reliability: Only 34% of brands delivered as promised, 14% missed commitments by an average of 7 days, and 40% made no delivery promise at all.
Communication: Only 12% of brands send order updates via SMS, despite 56% of consumers preferring text notifications. 6% fail to provide real-time tracking.
Product Integrity: 12% of products arrived damaged, with consumers stating this would prevent them from shopping with the brand again.
Returns: 12% had no returns policy, 26% left terms vague, and 10% imposed restocking fees, creating friction that discourages trial.
Stord helps brands close these consumer expectation gaps through an integrated platform that combines fulfillment services with commerce enablement technology. By positioning inventory closer to customers through a global fulfillment network and purpose-built technologies, brands can reduce delivery times and costs while maintaining the visibility and control needed to meet consumer expectations consistently.
The full 2025 Mystery Shopping Report is available for download at stord.com/reports/mystery-shopping-2025.