Checkoutdon’t let shoppers choose a carrier
Black Friday shipping benchmark
On Black Friday, order volumes surge, and every gap in your shipping hits thousands of customers at once. Together with Returnless and Salesupply, we audited the 100 largest online stores in the Netherlands and Belgium last Black Friday to show where shipping broke. Find out whether yours is ready, and what to fix while you still can.
until Black Friday 2026
Shipping scorecard 2025
Most stores got the parcel out the door on time. Far fewer got the rest right, from carrier choice to refunds. Here’s where they delivered, and where it broke.
Checkout
Returnshave no digital return portal
Returnsmake shoppers arrange their own return label
Refundsto refund on average, while shoppers expect 5
Refundssend no updates while a return is processed
Customer servicecan’t answer questions in the evening
Deliveryorders arrived on time
The other 9 are where you lose the reorder.
Deliveryaverage delivery time
Yet 7% of orders took 4 to 6 days.
Pick-up pointsoffer pick-up point delivery
36% still send every parcel to the door.
Returnsshow a return policy
The other 5% don’t, even though it’s legally required.
“
Brands prioritize page speed, uptime and conversion. But in shipping, we still see big gaps. The merchants that win in Q4 find the right balance between what shoppers expect from delivery, what their operations can support and what the business can sustain. With Sendcloud, we help brands optimize for all three.
Rob van den Heuvel
CEO & Co-founder, Sendcloud
Stores vs. shoppers
Click through the order journey, from checkout to refund. For each stage, see how stores performed last Black Friday and what shoppers expect.
15 of 100
stores let shoppers choose a carrier
Carrier choiceOne carrier only
Bax-Music, 123inkt and Kitemana offered 3 or more carriers
42.87% of shoppers feel frustrated when a checkout limits them to one carrier
Shipping costs
Example order
Subtotal€39.95
Shippingaverage€4.38
Total€44.33
Add €5.17 for free shippingFree from €45.12, the average threshold
- 20 of 100 always ship for free
- 27 stores use exactly €50 as free shipping threshold
40.70% of shoppers abandon a cart when delivery costs are higher than expected
33%show their carriers on the homepage
91 of 100
orders arrived on time, with 1.7 days average delivery time
Delivery time
29.06% of shoppers won’t reorder after one bad delivery
Delivery options offered
- Home delivery100 of 100 stores
- Pick-up point64 of 100 stores
- Click and collect42 of 100 stores
45.34% of shoppers picked up a parcel at a service point, locker or shop in the last 3 months
47%
make shoppers arrange their own return label
Who arranges the return label
47%47%
- Store provides a label 47%
- Shopper arranges their own 47%
- Label in the box 6%
70.73% of shoppers are more likely to buy when returns are easy
Return period
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
- 14 days45% of stores, the legal minimum
- 30 days41% of stores, the most common longer period
8 days
average refund time after a return
Shoppers expect 5 days
8 days
36% send no updates while a return is processed
Haarspullen.nl refunded within one working day
How stores settle a return
88%
- Refund only 88%
- Exchange 6%
- Store credit or coupon 4%
Find your weak spots
Check how many of these your store has in place, and fix the gaps before it’s too late.
Turn pressure into opportunity
Optimizing shipping doesn’t have to be difficult, even with peak around the corner. Fix what shoppers notice most, from the first click to the last refund.
CheckoutOffer delivery choice
Only 15% of online stores let shoppers pick a carrier, while 50.51% are more likely to buy when they can. With 170+ carriers through one connection, you add a carrier in a click, and switch just as fast when one runs into disruptions.
More info →
Delivery updatesSend proactive updates
29.06% of shoppers won’t reorder after one bad delivery, even when the carrier was at fault. Proactive updates and delay alerts keep them informed before they need to ask, and cut WISMO questions by 30 to 50%.
More info →- Returns
Offer easy returns
70.73% of shoppers are more likely to buy when returns are easy, yet 45% of stores have no digital return portal. With a self-service portal, you set who pays, offer exchanges and label every return automatically.
More info → - Claims
Resolve issues faster
When a delivery goes wrong, 42.46% of shoppers blame the store, not the carrier. Automating claims cuts handling time by up to 60% and recovers more carrier refunds, so your team can focus on making it right.
More info →
Real results
XXL Nutrition
“Sendcloud allows us to manage everything in one place, from shipping rules to customer communication, without relying on a large IT team to manage carrier integrations.”
Guus van Nunen
COO
Deryan
“Before Sendcloud, we reactively handled each delivery issue. Now customers are notified of any issues before they even notice, without the team having to follow up.”
Job de Haan
Customer Success Manager
Online Plastics Group
“Switching carriers is easy, setting up new ones takes only a few days, and claims run automatically. This helps us stay flexible while keeping our team lean and focused on growth.”
Max Bisseling
CTO
Book a demo and we’ll show you how your shipping compares to last year’s benchmark, and which fixes you can still make before this year’s peak.
99.99% uptime for uninterrupted shipping, even at peak
170+ carriers and 390,000+ service points through one platform
Up and running in under 4 weeks, from onboarding to full setup
Store data comes from the Black Friday report by Sendcloud, Returnless and Salesupply: on Black Friday 2025, we placed an order at the 100 largest online stores in the Netherlands and Belgium and followed it from checkout to refund. Shopper data comes from the E-commerce Delivery Compass 2026, a survey of 8,000 shoppers across 8 European markets.