Last-mile delivery
Last-mile delivery is the final leg of the shipment from the destination warehouse to the buyer\'s doorstep — the most expensive, most failure-prone, and most-customer-facing step in the e-commerce logistics chain.
In LATAM e-commerce, last-mile typically takes 24-48 hours in metropolitan areas, 2-4 days in secondary cities, and 5-10 days in remote zones. Delivery success rates vary dramatically by carrier and zone — strong performers hit 90%+, weak ones drop below 70%.
Multi-carrier execution per zone (rather than single-carrier-per-country contracts) consistently produces the strongest last-mile outcomes because it routes each order to the carrier best-suited to that specific zone, not the country-level winner.
Last-mile is also where the unboxing experience happens — the moment the customer pays cash. Branded packaging and clear delivery handoff materially reduce doorstep-refusal rates.
Multi-carrier execution
Multi-carrier execution is the practice of routing each individual order to the best-performing carrier for its specific destination zone, based on historical delivery success — rather than locking into a single carrier per country.
Return to Origin (RTO)
Return to Origin (RTO) is the percentage of cash-on-delivery orders that never reach the customer or are refused at the doorstep — the package returns to the warehouse instead of being delivered. RTO is the single largest cost driver in COD e-commerce.
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