Provide accurate, real-time delivery ETA to customers
Authors:
Michael Wholohan, Holger Lierse
Changed on:
13 Nov 2025
Problem
Not being able to provide customers with an accurate Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for delivery represents a significant pain point, leading to increased customer support inquiries, frustration, and a degradation of the overall brand experience. This deficiency often stems from a lack of real-time integration between the systems that control commerce, inventory, warehousing and logistics, making it challenging for organisations to generate and consistently promise reliable delivery windows.
Consequently, organisations faces higher operational costs due to managing service level issues, potential revenue loss from abandoned purchases, and a loss of customer trust essential for maintaining long-term loyalty and subscription value within a competitive e-commerce landscape.
Example
A home goods retailer fulfilling orders through their own distribution centres, drop-ship vendors, and third-party logistics partners has an order management system that lacks real-time integration with warehouse operations and carrier tracking, leaving customers with generic estimates like "5-7 business days."
When a customer ordered a dining table with a Thursday delivery estimate, warehouse delays and carrier routing issues pushed delivery to the following Monday. The customer had to call three times to get updates, receiving conflicting information each time because agents were checking different systems with outdated data.
This lack of accurate delivery visibility overwhelmed their customer service team with "where is my order" inquiries and caused customers to abandon high-value purchases at checkout due to vague delivery windows. Most critically, the inability to provide reliable ETAs eroded customer trust, with negative reviews citing delivery uncertainty as a primary reason for switching to competitors.
Solution Overview
Fluent Order Management acts as the central orchestration layer, connecting the initial fulfilment process with last-mile tracking data to provide customers with accurate, real-time Estimated Times of Arrival (ETAs).
Fluent OMS achieves this by implementing Real-Time Carrier Integration via its API-first approach, integrating directly with major carrier networks, 3PLs, and drop-ship vendors to access granular, real-time tracking events.
The system then manages Fulfilment Milestone Tracking, capturing precise status updates (e.g., Picked, Packed, Shipped, Delivered) from all warehouse and carrier systems, centralising them into a single, unified order record.
This data powers the centralised ETA Calculation, allowing the OMS to continuously assess and update the most reliable delivery window based on the latest available data.
Finally, either via Fluent's native notifications capability or through integration with external notification systems, Fluent OMS facilitates Proactive Customer Communication, automatically triggering updates to customers whenever the ETA or status changes via email, SMS, or the customer portal.
By leveraging Fluent OMS to orchestrate real-time delivery data, retailers can significantly improve customer satisfaction and reduce operational overhead:
- Reduced Customer Support Costs: The volume of "where is my order" (WISMO) calls drops dramatically because customers are proactively informed and have access to reliable, real-time status updates.
- Increased Conversion and Loyalty: Accurate, specific delivery dates at checkout reduce cart abandonment, and the consistent reliability of the delivery experience builds long-term customer trust and loyalty.
- Improved Operational Transparency: Customer service agents access a single source of truth (Fluent OMS) for tracking, eliminating conflicting information and enabling them to resolve exceptions faster.
