A parcel that arrives crushed is never only a broken product. It is a refund, a return to process, support time and, often enough, a public review that costs more than the item itself.
The volumes involved make even small failure rates expensive. French figures give a sense of scale: Arcep, the French postal and telecoms regulator, recorded 1.7 billion parcels delivered in France and for export in 2024, up 3.7% year on year (observatory published 14 October 2025, covering postal and express operators reporting in France).
Perceived quality is decent rather than excellent. In a study carried out by CREDOC for Arcep (published 10 February 2026, self-reported data from people living in France, first half of 2025), recipients rated delivery 8.2 out of 10 on average, yet 62% reported at least one problem over six months — a delay, vague tracking, a missed attempt. Those numbers describe the French market, but the lesson travels: at any real volume, ecommerce delivery problems are routine rather than exceptional.
Securing a shipment is therefore less about the right box than about organising proof, recourse and compensation before anything goes wrong.
Until the buyer has the parcel, the risk is yours
The starting point is legal, and many merchants discover it during their first dispute. In a sale to a consumer, the trader answers for delivery even though a carrier does the physical work. The carrier's fault does not release you towards the buyer: you put the customer right first, then pursue the carrier yourself.
Where the risk actually sits
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29, goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into the physical possession of the consumer, or of a person the consumer has identified to take possession of them. The exception runs the other way: if the consumer arranges carriage with a carrier you did not offer, risk passes when the goods are handed over. Article 20 of the EU Consumer Rights Directive sets the same rule, so a shop selling across Europe can work from one principle.
The consequence is blunt. As long as you offer the carrier — which is the case for almost every online shop — a parcel lost in transit stays your problem. Business-to-business sales differ: the contract decides where risk passes.
Deadlines, cancellation and refunds
Timing is regulated too. Unless you have agreed a date, section 28 of the same Act requires delivery without undue delay and within thirty days of the contract being made. Miss that, and the consumer can set a new reasonable deadline; where timely delivery was essential, or you refuse to deliver, they can end the contract and get their money back.
Cancellation is a separate matter. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give distance buyers fourteen days to change their mind on most goods, with refunds due within fourteen days once the goods come back or the customer evidences their return. If you also sell into France, one local rule is worth knowing: French consumer law adds an automatic uplift to late refunds — 10% up to thirty days late, 20% up to sixty days, 50% beyond.
Proof of delivery is your first line of defence
If risk sits with you until physical possession, you are the one who has to show possession happened. A tracking page reading "delivered" with nothing behind it is weak evidence when a customer says the parcel never arrived.
For every shipment, keep the following for at least as long as the statutory guarantee runs:
- the tracking number and full scan history, exported and archived on your side, not merely viewable on the carrier's website;
- the proof of handover: signature, confirmed one-time code, doorstep photo, or the identity of the collection point;
- the real weight and dimensions measured at dispatch, which let you show a parcel was emptied or swapped;
- a timestamped photo of the sealed, labelled parcel for high-value shipments;
- the messages exchanged with the customer, stored in the same record as the order.
Export the scan history automatically when a parcel is marked delivered — carriers purge tracking data long before your liability ends — and store it against the order rather than in a shared inbox.
One caution: reservations noted by the recipient help your claim against the carrier, but their absence does not cancel the buyer's rights against you. A clean signature does not end the conversation.
Pack for the product, not out of habit
Packaging is the cheapest lever on breakage, and therefore on disputes. Cardboard suits most shipments: strong, recyclable, light, easy to brand. The mistake is ordering one format and forcing every product into it.
| Item shipped | Suitable packaging | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Small flat item, not fragile | Extra-flat postal box or board-backed envelope | Avoid leftover space; an item that slides arrives scuffed |
| Phones, small electronics, jewellery, framed prints | Padded mailer or box with integrated inserts | Padding protects against rubbing, not against a drop |
| Posters, plans, large-format prints | Round cardboard tube; square-section tube if it must stay stable | Secure the end caps: tubes pop open in sorting hubs |
| Heavy goods, or anything stacked on a pallet | Double-wall case | Check vertical compression resistance, not just weight rating |
| Glass, ceramics, other fragile items | Triple-wall case with a box-in-box build | Allow several centimetres of cushioning on every face |
Two details decide the outcome. Void fill first: bubble wrap, air cushions, crumpled kraft or tissue — the material matters less than the result, which is nothing touching a wall and nothing moving inside the box. Then closure: gummed paper tape or a wide adhesive applied in an H pattern holds far better than a single strip along the centre seam.
Declared value: when the extra premium earns its place
Carriers compensate loss and damage within limits set by their own terms and, for road freight, by the applicable standard conditions. Compensation is typically calculated by weight, with a ceiling per parcel; the CMR convention covering international road carriage works the same way. For something light and expensive — a ring, an electronic component, a collectible — that ceiling sits far below what you actually lose.
Declaring the value and paying a supplement raises the ceiling. Whether that is worth doing depends on three things:
- The value-to-weight ratio. The higher it is, the wider the gap between flat-rate compensation and your real loss. This is the main case for declaring value.
- Your own claim rate. If you ship hundreds of parcels a month and lose very few, replacing losses yourself often costs less than declaring value on every consignment.
- The exclusions. Read them first: packaging judged inadequate, no reservations noted on delivery, whole categories carved out. A premium paid on a badly packed parcel can buy you nothing.
Compare it with goods-in-transit cover bought directly from an insurer. Past a certain volume, one policy covering every shipment across every carrier is simpler than ticking an option parcel by parcel.
Handling a claim without losing the day
A short, written process is enough. When a customer reports a problem, open the file without debating fault: the buyer is not there to arbitrate between you and your carrier. Send a replacement or issue the refund, then file the claim inside the window the carrier's terms allow. Those windows are short, sometimes a few days from delivery, and missing one destroys your recourse while your obligation to the customer stands.
Log transport incidents and cancellations separately. Over a quarter, that shows whether losses concentrate on one product, one packaging format or one destination — a far cheaper problem to solve than "delivery quality" in the abstract.
What your delivery page has to make obvious
Many disputes start before dispatch, on a page nobody has rewritten since launch. Buyers need dispatch times and delivery windows stated separately, the carriers you use, what happens when nobody is home, and how to report a problem. Vague wording becomes support volume later.
That is partly a writing job and partly an interface one. If the terms sit three clicks from the basket, a UX audit will surface it faster than guesswork, and the rewrite belongs with the rest of your content work. If the shop has outgrown its build, the fix is structural, and a WordPress redesign is the honest answer.
Common questions
Who is liable when a carrier loses a parcel?
In a sale to a consumer, the trader stays liable until the goods are in the physical possession of the buyer or of someone the buyer named. You refund or reship first, then pursue the carrier. The exception is narrow: it applies where the consumer arranged carriage with a carrier you did not offer.
How long can delivery legally take?
Where no date has been agreed, delivery must happen without undue delay and within thirty days of the contract being made. After that the buyer can set a new reasonable deadline, and can end the contract if you refuse to deliver or timely delivery was essential and known to be so.
Is carrier tracking enough as proof of delivery?
On its own it is thin. A status line saying "delivered" is easy to contest, so archive the full scan history, the proof of handover — signature, confirmed code, doorstep photo — and the weight recorded at dispatch. Without evidence you can still produce months later, you carry the loss.
When does declaring the value of a parcel make sense?
When the value of the contents clearly exceeds the flat-rate compensation in the carrier's terms, which mostly happens with light, expensive goods. Above a certain volume, goods-in-transit cover bought directly from an insurer can work out cheaper. Either way, read the packaging-related exclusions before counting on it.
Does signing for a parcel without noting damage end the customer's rights?
No. Reservations noted on delivery mainly protect your recourse against the carrier. Their absence does not remove the buyer's statutory rights against you if the goods are faulty or not what was ordered, and someone signing for a sealed box has had no chance to inspect the contents.
Should I refund before the carrier accepts my claim?
Generally yes: your obligation to the buyer does not wait on the carrier's decision. Holding a customer while a claim runs for weeks tends to produce a chargeback and a poor review on top of the loss. Provision for the gap between what you refund and what carriers pay.