What do consumers expect and are brands delivering? | Stord’s 2025 Mystery Shopping Report

2025 Mystery Shopping Report:

At A Glance

This report is the culmination of more than 250+ E-COMMERCE TRANSACTIONS from the most in-demand U.S. brands across four key product categories:

Pre-purchase

95% of brands had readily available inventory. A contributing factor to this performance is the deliberate build-up of larger stockpiles in response to ongoing trade policy uncertainty and the accelerating shift to domestic fulfillment.

93% of e-commerce brands do not send abandoned cart reminders even though 84% of consumers report abandoning carts. If even just a small percentage of those abandoned carts were recovered through reminders, a brand could earn thousands in incremental monthly revenue.

Post-purchase Communication

56% of consumers prefer receiving order updates and tracking information via SMS, however, only 12% of brands are meeting this baseline expectation.

6% of brands do not provide real-time order tracking information despite it being ranked as a highly essential post-purchase feature.

Shipping and Delivery

58% of consumers want estimated delivery dates but only 1% of brands provide them. Even when a brand’s product quality and its broader shopping experience is strong, uncertainty around delivery timelines can lead to abandoned carts.

14% of brands failed to fulfill their stated delivery promises, largely missing the mark by 7 days on average. These brands are highly at risk of losing ground to competitors that set realistic, prime-like expectations and consistently deliver against them.

Unboxing

12% of the products arrived damaged. Further investigation shows that the issues originated prior to shipping, either during manufacturing, handling at the fulfillment center, or in the use of inadequate protective materials inside otherwise sturdy boxes.

Only 36% of brands included samples or inserts, even though they are among the top drivers of a memorable unboxing experience.

Reverse Logistics

12% of brands had no returns policy. This lack of clarity introduces friction and hesitation, particularly when the brand is unfamiliar or the purchase value is high.

10% of brands imposed restocking fees costing $5 or up to 25% of the item’s price. These brands risk losing customers to those that treat returns as an extension of their value proposition.

Executive Summary

This report presents the findings of a comprehensive mystery shopping study conducted by Stord that evaluates the end-to-end e-commerce experience of leading U.S. brands across four major industries: Nutrition & Supplements, Apparel & Accessories, Beauty & Personal Care, and Food & Beverage. The study assessed performance across the critical elements of the buying journey to benchmark how effectively brands are keeping pace with rising consumer expectations.

Our mystery shopping results point to a consistent imbalance across industries. Brands have invested heavily in digital storefronts, product storytelling, and customer acquisition, but their operational foundations have not kept pace. Many still fall short in meeting even the most basic customer expectations when it comes to fulfillment and the post-purchase experience. While the severity differs by category, what emerges is a consistent trend: most brands are not meeting the rising baseline of delivery speed, transparency, reliability, and personalization that defines consumer trust today.

Understanding this expectations-experience gap matters for at least two reasons. First, they reveal where brands risk undermining conversion despite significant investment in customer acquisition. Second, they highlight where competitive differentiation is now most likely to emerge. Best-in-class e-commerce brands prove that these challenges can be systematically addressed with the right operational infrastructure. The brands that close these gaps in consumer experience will be the ones to capture disproportionate growth and define the next standard in U.S. e-commerce.

Introduction

E-commerce has shifted beyond being an additional retail convenience for digital savvy customers. It is now the default for a growing share of consumer purchases. In 2024, global online retail reached a staggering $6 trillion, with U.S. sales accounting for more than 20% of that total. Forecasts show no signs of slowing down with U.S. e-commerce sales alone projected to exceed $1.6 trillion by 2027. While recent pandemics, wars, and trade policies may influence the accuracy of these forecasts, each of these disruptions has ultimately led to more adoption of e-commerce shopping. As digital transactions become increasingly embedded in everyday life, the standards consumers apply to delivery speed, reliability, and communication have sharpened.

With same-day and next-day delivery becoming normalized through services like Prime, a new delivery benchmark has emerged. For many shoppers, anything longer is viewed as suboptimal. As a result, e-commerce businesses across all verticals now face heightened pressure to meet accelerated delivery expectations, prompting a renewed focus on fulfillment operations as a core driver of customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

To better understand how brands are adapting to these elevated consumer expectations and how they can close the gap, Stord conducted a comprehensive mystery shopping study. The evaluation covered the end-to-end consumer experience across multiple brands and industries with a particular focus on the 5 key stages of the customer buying journey: (1) pre-purchase, (2) post-purchase communication, (3) shipping and delivery, (4) unboxing, and (5) reverse logistics.

This report offers a detailed, data-backed look into how brands are performing on critical delivery metrics, where gaps exist, and what steps are most urgent to meet the new standards of fulfillment and delivery.

Objectives

Stord recognizes that fulfillment and delivery are core value drivers that directly impact conversion, retention, and unit economics. With this in mind, the primary objective of this mystery shopping study was to evaluate the end-to-end performance of leading industry brands, with a focus on operational performance and customer experience across five key stages of the customer buying journey:

  1. Pre-purchase: Determine the extent to which brands provide clear and accurate visibility into product availability and assess the presence of cart recovery strategies.

  2. Post-purchase Communication: Assess the channel consistency and clarity of order confirmation emails and shipping information provided throughout the delivery process.

  3. Shipping and Delivery: Compare shipping costs against delivery speed, while assessing a brand’s reliability in meeting stated delivery expectations.

  4. Unboxing: Evaluate the overall unboxing experience by documenting any damage or handling issues to product and packaging, while also assessing branding, personalization, and included extras.

  5. Reverse Logistics: Review the clarity of stated return promises by reviewing policies for indicators such as free returns, restocking fees, or vague and missing terms.

In addition, industry trends were evaluated alongside each of the elements above to contextualize performance against broader market norms and reveal categorical disparities in speed, reliability, and consumer experience.

Mystery Shopping Methodology

The mystery shopping exercise was conducted across three operational periods: Q3 2024 and Q1 to Q2 2025. No evaluations were performed during Q4 2024 as this period includes Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) and the broader holiday shopping season. These events significantly elevate order volumes and can introduce atypical service patterns, temporary process adjustments, and resourcing that do not reflect a merchant’s standard operating environment.

To ensure a geographically representative assessment, orders for each brand were placed for delivery to three regions across the U.S.: the West Coast, Central, and East Coast, represented by California, Texas, and Georgia, respectively. This geographic distribution allowed for a comparative view of whether brands are equipped to meet their stated delivery promises and deliver on consumer expectations consistently nationwide.

Mystery shopping provides a clear view of how brands perform in real-world interactions. However, to assess how effectively e-commerce brands deliver on their stated promises, it is essential to first understand what consumers expect from their online shopping experiences. Stord conducted a dedicated consumer survey to capture these expectations and offer benchmarks against the mystery shopping results.

While the full findings of the survey will be published separately in the upcoming proprietary Stord Consumer Expectations Report, here is a summary of the priorities and preferences shaping consumer behavior today:

01. Most Carts Are Abandoned, but They Can Be Won Back

Cart abandonment is one of the most persistent issues in online retail. The majority of consumers in the survey report having left items in their cart without completing the purchase. The leading causes stem mostly from high costs and out-of-stock items.

02. Instant and Real-Time Order Tracking Is Non-Negotiable

Order visibility has become a baseline expectation when shopping online. Our survey found that the vast majority of consumers expect real-time tracking information and prefer to receive relevant, timely updates through email, text message, and in-app notifications.

03. Shoppers Want Flexible Shipping Options

While faster delivery options such as same-day or next-day delivery have become normalized through services like Prime, our survey found that consumers are generally unwilling to pay significant premiums for speed. Free shipping remains a powerful expectation, with many respondents believing free shipping should be unlocked at relatively low cart value thresholds.

04. Clear, Accurate Delivery Dates Matter Most to Consumers

Consumers place high value on reliable and predictable delivery. The respondents identified packages arriving later than promised and changes to delivery timelines as critical factors that negatively influence their perception of a brand.

05. Tangible Experiences Can Influence Overall Brand Perception

For e-commerce brands, building trust and driving conversions begin online, either through a website, app, or social platform. Digital personalization, such as tailored recommendations, customized offers, or targeted messaging, has become an essential lever for attracting customers and nudging them toward purchase.

06. Fair and Transparent Return Policies Build Trust

Returns have become a routine part of the consumer journey, with a majority of consumers having returned a product at least once. The survey revealed that among all the factors, consumers have a particularly strong sensitivity to return fees and costs.

The Current State of E-Commerce

The following key insights examine how e-commerce brands are performing against consumer expectations across the most critical elements of the buying journey.

Inventory Availability

Stord’s Mystery Shopping results showed consistently strong inventory performance across e-commerce brands, with 95% of products in stock, only 5% at low stock levels, and no instances of products being out of stock.

Abandoned Cart Reminders

Cart abandonment remains a major challenge in e-commerce, but most brands are failing to address it effectively. Stord’s Mystery Shopping study revealed that 93% of brands do not send abandoned cart reminders.

Post-Purchase Communication

Order Updates

Post-purchase communication is a critical moment in the shopping experience that shapes consumer confidence and brand trust. Data from our Mystery Shopping study showed that while most e-commerce brands reliably provide updates, there were meaningful gaps in how these updates were delivered compared to consumer preferences.

Tracking Information

Delivery tracking represents another critical dimension in the post-purchase communication stage. Our Mystery Shopping findings revealed that 94% of brands provide tracking information as part of their standard communication.

The Delivery Promise

From the results of Stord’s forthcoming Consumer Experience report, 58% of shoppers want to see an exact delivery date before committing to a purchase, while only 10% find value in vague indicators such as business days or broad day ranges.

The Costs of Fulfillment

Stord’s Mystery Shopping findings revealed that only 12% of brands offer free shipping with no minimum purchase requirement, while the majority rely on threshold-based models.

Delivery Promise vs Actual Performance

Stord’s Mystery Shopping results found a clear misalignment between stated delivery promises and actual performance. Our findings revealed that only 34% of orders were delivered as promised, with an additional 12% arriving earlier than expected.

Product & Packaging Integrity

Across all brands and transactions studied by Stord, 88% of products were received without any issues, while 12% arrived damaged.

Branded & Personalized Unboxing Experiences

Unboxing is one of the most visible and emotionally resonant moments in the e-commerce experience. However, Stord’s Mystery Shopping results revealed that only 56% of e-commerce brands are leveraging branded packaging, while only 36% are including samples or inserts to enhance the unboxing moment.

Reverse Logistics

Returns remain a critical pressure point in e-commerce, both logistically and in terms of the consumer experience. Our survey found that 61% of customers have returned a product, signaling how returns are a common occurrence in the online buying journey. Yet many brands fall short.

Closing the Gaps in Consumer Experience

Stord’s Mystery Shopping findings highlight a stark reality: consumers expect everything. They want speed and flexibility in delivery, transparency in returns, branded experiences that feel personal, and risk-free trial mechanisms, without having to pay for premium. However, the path to meeting these expectations varies widely. Each industry faces distinct structural challenges that shape how these demands can be met.

The brands that move fastest to align customer expectations with what their operations can reliably deliver will set the new standard for e-commerce.