The Hidden Foundation of Retention (and how to get it right)

Where even the best CX gets let down.

Author

Pietro Saccomani
July 17, 2025

Picture this: your team’s spent eight weeks refining ad creative, optimizing PDPs, and dialing in conversion rates.

But when the courier drops the package on your customer’s doorstep, all of that vanishes. In that moment, your customer isn’t thinking about your A/B test wins. They’re thinking about whether the box arrived on time, in one piece, and whether it feels like the brand they bought into.

It’s the moment of truth. And too many brands still treat it like an afterthought.

On the latest Retention Edge podcast, we hosted John Heenan, CEO of The Distribution Solution, a 3PL based in Northern Ireland.

John’s been in fulfillment since 1998, so he’s seen a lot of brands make costly mistakes with fulfillment and distribution. He’s also had a front seat to the evolution of fulfillment in ecommerce, from the rise of Amazon and one-day shipping, to Brexit.

He filled us in on some of the most common mistakes, and how he sees fulfillment fitting into the overall customer journey.

He had some fascinating takes, including a couple I hadn’t thought of before. Today we’re going to share some of what John talked about on the pod, and more you need to know about getting your shipping experience right.

Why Fulfillment Moved from Back-Office to Brand Center

Fulfillment isn’t just logistics anymore. It’s a crucial part of the customer’s experience — and how they see your brand.

It’s the last link in the buyer’s journey. If you’re serious about a customer experience that brings people back, you’ve got to get it right, because it’s what leaves the most lasting effect.

1. The “Amazon Effect”

Amazon rewired consumer expectations. One-day shipping isn’t a delight anymore. It’s a baseline.

But here’s the problem: most brands don’t have Amazon’s infrastructure, and trying to mimic it can lead to fragile promises and eroded trust.

You don’t need to match Amazon. You need to set expectations you can consistently meet.

2. Fulfillment as Marketing

Packaging, shipping updates, tracking links, and even returns…. all of it shapes how your customer remembers your brand.

Great DTC operators treat fulfillment like a continuation of the brand experience. Others treat it as just another touchpoint. Some don’t even think of it as a touchpoint at all.

If your box looks like an afterthought or the delivery process feels clunky, it undoes a lot of the work your marketing team did to earn that sale.

3. Retention Economics

Late deliveries. Wrong items. Damaged goods. These don’t just create support tickets. They kill repeat purchases.

It’s the last thing the customer remembers.

On the flip side, brands that have a smooth, branded post-purchase experience are more likely to see those customers come back to buy again.

Fulfillment is a retention lever hiding in plain sight.

Four Common Fulfillment Fails (and How to Fix Them)

Fulfillment is less about providing an exceptional experience, and more about avoiding major mistakes.

For all we talk about fulfillment, it’s one of those things that people don’t necessarily notice when you get it “right”. Just when you mess up.

Similarly, from an operational standpoint, it’s typically not a value driver (with Amazon being a notable exception). But the cost of getting it wrong can be brutal.

Here are some major mistakes that brands make — and what you can do to avoid the same missteps.

1. Over-Promising Speed

We get it. Everyone gets it. Fast shipping drives conversions.

But promising speed you can’t deliver is a CX timebomb.

Most bad reviews don’t come from bad products. They come from broken expectations.

Imagine this: two brands, both shipping a product in four days.

The first brand said it would be there in two. The second gave a timeline of 5-7 days.

Same speed. Two wildly different customer experiences.

Instead of trying to out-Amazon Amazon, own your shipping timeline. Communicate it clearly at checkout. Hit your SLA 95%+ of the time.

It’s not always about raw speed. It’s about reliability — especially with high-LTV customers who want to trust you.

Don’t let your mouth write a check your… brand can’t cash.

2. Gift-Spoiling Packaging

Sometimes, a box isn’t just a box. It’s a make-or-break CX moment.

Take Davik, a brand that sells umbrellas. John tells a story about meeting their CEO, discussing the brand, and finding out he didn’t see it as being in the “umbrella” business. He said, “we’re in the gift business.”

The brand realized that the kind of product they sold was much more likely to be bought as a gift, than bought for one’s self.

This distinction has a major impact on how you approach your CX, and especially when it comes to fulfillment.

Many brands break their gifting CX by shipping in loud, obvious packaging.

John’s example? A golf accessory (the exact kind of product brought more as a gift) arrived in a loud, branded box, spoiling the surprise for the gift recipient.

A small packaging toggle (“gift mode” or “stealth packaging”) could have solved that. Overkill for some types of products, but for commonly gifted products, this can be a major retention driver.

Lesson: Know who the real buyer is, and what their context is. Especially if you sell giftable or seasonal products, packaging needs to flex to fit.

3. The Cost-Cutting Doom Loop

Fulfillment costs money. But cutting corners to improve margins often backfires.

When brands cut ops spend too deeply, slashing packaging quality, choosing cheaper 3PLs, or reducing headcount, they create ripple effects: more errors, slower delivery, more returns, and support tickets.

Suddenly your margin win is eaten alive by churn and complaints.

Yes, be lean. But not at the expense of trust.

Think CX-first. Not spreadsheet-first.

4. Choosing the Wrong Fulfillment Partner

Your 3PL isn’t just a vendor. They’re a co-owner of your brand experience.

From pick-and-pack accuracy to the delivery driver’s behavior, your fulfillment partner has the power to elevate (or destroy) how your customer perceives you.

Stockouts, damaged goods, slow replenishment… these aren’t just operational issues. They break trust and hurt loyalty faster than a bad ad ever could.

How to avoid it:

  • Vet 3PLs like you’d vet a co-founder. Visit the facility. Talk to other brands in your volume/SKU range.

  • Track hard data: pick/pack accuracy, SLAs, error rates.

  • Run campaigns only when inventory is ready. Marketing without product is just brand sabotage.

Key Takeaways

John Heenan has been in ecommerce since the dial-up days. And if there’s one thing he’s seen brands learn the hard way, it’s this:

Fulfillment isn’t just about getting things from A to B. It’s about keeping promises.

Here’s what to keep in mind:

  • Set expectations you can keep, and beat.

  • Treat every shipment as a branded moment.

  • Think beyond the transaction. Is your packaging aligned with your customer’s real context?

  • Don’t view fulfillment as an expense on your balance sheet. It’s a CX engine and a margin lever — if you do it right.

Every ad, every email, every PDP; none of it matters if the package shows up late, damaged, or off-brand.

Fulfillment isn’t a cost center; it’s the last mile of storytelling. Nail it, and you turn first-time buyers into lifelong fans.

Want to see everything John had to say on CX from a fulfillment lens? Watch the full pod below 👇

We’ve got more great guests lined up for the coming weeks. Make sure you go to YouTube or Spotify and subscribe, so you don’t miss out.

Quick Hits

There’s a lot of content out there. Here’s what you need to know about.

OpenAI & Shopify

We’ve been hearing it’s coming for a while. But we’re getting closer and closer to native shopping in AI.

Here’s the latest:

Mid-may, Shopify was quietly added as an official third-party search provider for ChatGPT (as per their official documentation).

Multiple sources claim that OpenAI will receive commissions from merchants who make sales via ChatGPT embedded checkouts.

The storefront MCP & OpenAI responses API is making it possible to build automated shopping agents.

These are major steps towards an AI-first era for online shopping. Make sure your brand is prepared. (Also, a good time to re-read our AI Commerce article)

See how customers choose between you & the competition

I just came across this — and it’s amazing.

It’s a custom GPT, where you put in your website and it automatically gives you:

  • Top competitors

  • Who their ICP is

  • The questions they’re likely to ask when comparing you vs them

  • Answers to each of these questions (who AI is likely to recommend)

  • The reasoning behind the verdict, and what you can do to change it

Here’s an example:

This is a powerful way to see how AI sees your brand — and thus, how AI-native shoppers are going to see your brand as well.

Q1 Roundup for DTC Brands

Up: Meta Ad spend, discounts, DTC market share.

Down: Consumer sentiment, new customer revenue, Temu.

Solid insights into where the industry stands through the first part of 2025.

FB Sales Down… But Retention Up

How to Build a $100M Brand

A fantastic 10-step, stage by stage breakdown on how to get to 9 figures (from a brand owner who’s done just that).

Sean Frank is your guide — here are the parts that resonated the most with me:

  • “You want a category with strong macro tailwinds - maybe it's not a massive TAM yet, but it is obvious it will be. Look for categories growing at 8-16% per year, with trends pointing up and to the right.”

  • “When you're doing a million dollars a year or $3 million a year and you send an email that looks ugly, nobody cares. Nobody will read it.”

  • “Your messaging cannot be "we're the same thing but 10% off.”

  • “ Be Ruthless With Product Expansion. More brands should make more products. They're really worried about hurting brand. Here is the truth - your customers never f***ing thinks about you. You are lucky if somebody is mad you launched something.”

  • “If you create good content and post across everything and make that your whole thing, you can get to $5 million organically. The algorithm will reward you if you put the work in and have a good product.”

Is SMS Marketing Broken?

On the whole, maybe not. But there are some great brands, as Jeremy shows, that are getting it wrong.

For all the benefits of SMS, it’s also really easy to deliver messy SMS experiences like this.

It’s one of the reasons push is so powerful. It’s just a better user experience by default. The reach isn’t as high, but for your best customers — those who want to be loyal to you, it’s a huge upgrade.

What Gen Z Shoppers Buy

Good breakdown of how Gen Z shoppers respond to brands. If you want your brand to be modern and relevant with younger shoppers, take note.

How to Use Real Urgency to Sell More

We all know urgency sells. But fake urgency is a cheap, and increasingly ineffective way to hack this in your favor.

Better? Create and show real urgency that makes your customers feel like they have to buy your product — immediately.

That’s all for now.

I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.

If there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here, or drop a comment in our Subreddit.

Until next time,

Pietro and The Retention Edge Team

PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.

See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.