D2C Fulfillment KPIs

When D2C fulfillment slips, customers notice immediately

D2C fulfillment is unforgiving. Customers see promises in real time, and they measure performance in days and hours, not quarters. When fulfillment slips, the feedback is instant: support tickets rise, refunds follow, and repeat purchase rates quietly drop. That is why D2C fulfillment KPIs matter. They are the early warning system that tells you whether the operation can keep the promises marketing is making.

Many brands only start asking about KPIs after something breaks. Same-day stops being same-day. Inventory oversells during a promotion. Tracking emails go quiet. In each case, the issue was visible in the metrics before the customer felt it. The difference is whether anyone was looking at the right numbers at the right time.

Why SLAs shape the D2C KPI set

D2C KPIs should not exist in isolation. They should map directly to the SLAs you advertise and enforce. Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10 Fulfillment, described the structure that underpins those promises. "An SLA is a Service Level Agreements for Receiving, Outbound, and B2B." For D2C, the receiving and outbound pieces are especially critical, because inventory availability and order speed are tightly linked.

Malmquist also described the cutoff logic customers expect. "For D2C, which is an order through Shopify or on the merchant's website, if it's before noon, we're going to ship that order the same day." D2C fulfillment KPIs should show how often orders qualify for that cutoff, how often they meet it, and where misses occur, because that is where customer trust erodes first.

On-time fulfillment rate is the KPI customers feel first

On-time fulfillment rate is the headline number for D2C. If it drops, customer confidence drops with it. Holly Woods, Director of Operations at G10 Fulfillment, described the performance level many brands aim to sustain. "We currently can boast a 99.9% on time fulfillment rate." That level of performance is not about heroics. It is about stable processes, predictable volume handling, and clear visibility.stable processes

On-time should be segmented by cutoff window, shipping method, and order type. A single blended number can hide problems that customers feel acutely, such as late same-day orders or delayed expedited shipments. Segmentation turns on-time from a vanity metric into a diagnostic tool.

Fulfillment cycle time explains whether same-day is stable

Cycle time measures how long an order takes to move from release to ready-to-ship. In D2C, it is the KPI that tells you whether same-day shipping is a real capability or a daily scramble. When cycle time creeps up, same-day promises become fragile, even if on-time still looks acceptable.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, described the contrast brands see when cycle time is out of control. "I hear nowadays a lot of people want to offer you know same-day fulfillment for customers who place orders before specific times, which is something we do. But then I hear a customer say, 'A previous 3PL took three days from when the order was placed to when they would ship it.'" That gap is cycle time drift, and it is one of the clearest reasons brands move providers.

Order accuracy protects margin and repeat purchases

Speed gets the first order. Accuracy gets the second. Order accuracy KPIs track whether customers receive the correct SKUs and quantities, and whether packaging and inserts are correct. Fast mistakes are expensive mistakes, because they trigger reships, refunds, and negative reviews.

Joel Malmquist described the level of accuracy that stood out to him in a high-volume environment. "We have over 99.9% ship accuracy of these orders, which when you look at it on a unit level, such as unit shift versus unit errors, I almost couldn't believe it when I came here, how well we're doing on B2B shipping." That level of accuracy in D2C usually depends on scan-based picking and pack verification, not memory or manual checks.

Inventory accuracy keeps the storefront honest

D2C customers expect the store to reflect reality. When inventory accuracy is weak, the storefront lies, even if unintentionally. That leads to oversells, backorders, and canceled orders that customers remember long after the refund posts.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, described what brands complain about when inventory accuracy and visibility are poor. "Most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and basically just meeting the committed requirements." Inventory accuracy KPIs should include cycle count variance and inventory availability timing, because those metrics show whether the system can be trusted during promotions.

Receiving performance predicts outbound success

Receiving is the start of the D2C pipeline. If inbound inventory is slow to be counted and stowed, outbound orders wait, even when product is physically in the building. That is why receiving KPIs belong on the D2C dashboard, not hidden in an internal report.

Malmquist described receiving SLAs in clock-based terms that translate directly into KPIs. "For receiving, the SLA is covers the time from the moment that we get a container on the dock with inventory in it, and how much time we have to count that in, and stow it away into the locations that we're going to pick from." When receiving performance is visible, D2C teams can plan launches and replenishments with fewer surprises.

Carrier handoff timing separates warehouse performance from carrier performance

Customers experience shipping as movement. If tracking does not move, they assume nothing is happening. That is why D2C fulfillment KPIs should separate warehouse completion from carrier acceptance.

Malmquist explained why this distinction matters. "The reason I don't say ship is because sometimes it will be marked as completed, but the carrier doesn't actually pick it up right away, but the tracking goes back to Shopify." A D2C KPI dashboard should show both timestamps and the gap between them, because that gap is where missed pickups and dock congestion hide.

Why scan-based data keeps D2C KPIs believable

D2C KPIs only drive improvement if teams trust them. In fulfillment, trust comes from scan-based data, because scans record physical reality. Manual updates and delayed confirmations create KPIs that look good and feel wrong.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, described what strong tracking looks like. "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." He explained why that matters. "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now, and if I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10." When KPIs are built from scan events, D2C teams can trust them enough to make daily decisions.

Visibility turns KPIs into daily controls, not monthly reports

A D2C KPI set should be visible during the day, not after the fact. When teams can see order aging, backlog, and cycle time in real time, they can adjust labor and priorities before customers feel the impact.

Milligan described what real-time portals provide customers. "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." She also described the practical effect of that visibility. "They can actually watch those progressions going on." Connor Perkins described the broader view customers expect. "Our clients get best-in-class visibility and transparency. They can see their daily orders, they can see KPIs, and they can see historical transactions." That level of access reduces anxiety and improves decision making.

Where G10 fits if D2C KPIs need to support growth

D2C fulfillment KPIs should help you grow without turning fulfillment into a daily crisis. G10 focuses on scan-based execution, customer-facing visibility, and SLA-aligned metrics across receiving, outbound, and carrier handoff. The goal is to see issues early, fix them quickly, and keep customer promises intact.

If you want to see how D2C KPIs work in practice, ask for a walkthrough of a live day in the portal, including one exception case. You should be able to trace an order from release through carrier acceptance, see where time and risk sit, and understand how the operation behaves during spikes, so you can scale without losing control.