---
id: KB-LG-006
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/logistics/ecommerce-and-order-fulfilment
idioma: en
categoria: sector-logistica
subcategoria: ecommerce
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CS-020, KB-LG-005]
citadoPor: [KB-LG-012]
---

# E-commerce: high volume, thin margins

_Thousands of shipments where each incident costs more than the order._

**Responde a:** documenting ecommerce deliveries · delivery incidents in online retail · proof of delivery ecommerce · online retail returns

In e-commerce the problem is not each shipment: it is the proportion. With three thousand orders a month, one per cent of incidents is thirty disputes, and each costs more in handling than the margin on the order that caused it.

## Where the margin goes

| Incident | What is disputed | What closes it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "It never arrived" | Whether it was delivered and to whom | Proof of delivery signed by the recipient |
| "It arrived broken" | Whether it left that way or broke in transit | A certified photo at picking |
| "This is not what I ordered" | What went into the box | The picking record with its batch |
| Return in poor condition | What condition it came back in | A photo on receiving the return |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> At this volume you cannot document everything in detail: you document what gets disputed. Photographing three thousand orders is impossible; photographing high-value ones or those from customers with an incident history is half an hour a day.

## The rule that makes volume sustainable

Document by exception. The normal flow leaves the minimum trail — what left, when and to where — and detail is reserved for the stretches where money is actually lost. Trying to document everything equally ends with nothing being documented.

**En corto**

- Proof of delivery always: it is cheap and closes half the disputes.
- A picking photo only for high-value orders.
- And a photo on receiving every return, which is where most is lost.

> [!WARNING]
> Watch the last one: returns are e-commerce's blind spot. They leave documented and come back with nothing, and three months later nobody can say what condition that now-unsellable product arrived in.

> [!NOTE]
> If you use subcontracted couriers, proof of delivery signed by the recipient counts for far more than the courier's own record: it identifies who received, not who delivered.

**Is it worth it for low-value orders?**

Proof of delivery yes, always. The rest no.

**What about pickup-point deliveries?**

You document delivery to the point; what happens after is the point's.

**Can I filter by incidents?**

Yes, and it is the list worth reviewing weekly.

## Ejemplos

**An e-commerce operator absorbs the cost of thirty damaged returns a month.**

- Certified photo on receiving every return

→ Damaged ones are claimed against the carrier with evidence, instead of being written off.

**Volume makes reviewing delivery by delivery impossible.**

- Reviews only what falls outside the pattern

→ Effort goes where things actually fail.

**A client complains and there is no proof of delivery.**

- Keeps evidence of every delivery

→ Refunding stops being the only way out.

**Each delivery partner works differently.**

- Agrees what is captured on each delivery

→ The evidence is consistent.

**Complaints arrive weeks later.**

- Keeps evidence beyond the order

→ The answer does not depend on someone else's retention.

**Nobody knows which route generates most incidents.**

- Checks incidents by route

→ The cause is tackled where it sits.