Report: Order fulfillment time up almost 40% in past three weeks

New data shows how COVID-19 is impacting shipping and fulfillment.

According to data from delivery experience management company Convey, shipping volume for cleaning and household supplies is, not surprisingly, up 52%. At the same time, there are significant delays in order fulfillment and delivery. 

Here are the findings from Convey: 
 
• Online shipping volume for staples such as cleaning and household supplies has risen from being up 6.8% in early February to being up 52% for the second week of March 2020 (compared to the same time last year).
 
• Order fulfillment time has risen considerably since the outbreak of COVID-19. Fulfillment time has increased almost 40% during the past three weeks, going from 15.1 hours to 21.2 hours.
 
• The ‘increase in order fulfillment’ trend has been even more noticeable in large-format deliveries, indicating supply chain slowdowns as these are ‘made to order’ items and not typically held in inventory. The average fulfillment time has more than doubled from 20.1 hours on Feb. 23 to 44.4 hours as of March 16. 

The data is based on tens of millions of packages shipped from more than 500,000 U.S. locations across Convey’s client base.