One-line definition: A delivery attempt is a visit by a carrier driver to a recipient's address to deliver a parcel - whether or not the delivery is successful.
What it means
A delivery attempt is recorded every time a carrier driver visits a delivery address with the intention of handing over a parcel. If the recipient is present and accepts the parcel, the attempt is successful and the delivery is complete. If no one is home, the parcel cannot be delivered, and the carrier records a failed delivery attempt.
What happens after a failed attempt varies by carrier — the driver may leave a card, the parcel may be redirected to a nearby service point, or redelivery may be scheduled. Most carriers allow between one and three delivery attempts before the parcel is returned to the sender.
Why it matters for e-commerce merchants
Failed delivery attempts are one of the most direct sources of avoidable cost in e-commerce shipping. They generate redelivery expenses that the carrier often passes on, customer service contacts from recipients who missed their parcel, and in some cases returns — when the parcel is sent back to you after the maximum number of attempts is exhausted.
The hidden cost is the customer experience impact. A customer who missed a delivery, had to chase a card left at their door, and then queued at a service point to collect their order is not having a good experience with your store — even though none of those events were your fault in any direct sense. Customers attribute delivery friction to the merchant, not the carrier. Reducing failed delivery attempts is therefore both an operational cost saving and a customer satisfaction investment.
At scale, the numbers become significant. If 5% of your home delivery shipments result in a failed first attempt, and each failed attempt generates a redelivery cost plus a customer service contact plus an elevated return rate, the total cost per failed attempt is considerably higher than the redelivery fee alone. For merchants shipping hundreds or thousands of parcels a month, eliminating even half of those failed attempts has a measurable bottom-line impact.
What happens after a failed delivery attempt
The process varies by carrier and market, but the typical sequence looks like this:
1. First attempt fails. The driver visits the address, no one is available to receive the parcel. The driver records a failed attempt scan and leaves a notification — a physical card through the letterbox, an SMS, an email, or an app notification depending on the carrier.
2. Customer notified. The recipient is informed of the failed attempt and given options: schedule a redelivery, redirect to a nearby service point or locker, or collect from a carrier depot.
3. Second attempt (if applicable). Some carriers automatically schedule a second home delivery attempt, sometimes for the following day, sometimes based on a customer-selected window. Some carriers go straight to service point redirection after the first failed attempt.
4. Parcel held at service point or depot. The parcel waits at a service point or carrier depot for the recipient to collect. Holding periods vary — typically 5 to 14 days depending on the carrier.
5. Return to sender. If the parcel is not collected within the holding period, it is returned to the merchant. The return shipping cost is typically charged to the sender. The order then requires a refund or a re-shipment, both of which carry additional cost.
How many attempts do carriers make?
| Carrier | Home delivery attempts | After failed attempt |
|---|---|---|
| PostNord | 1–2 | Redirected to service point |
| Bring | 1–2 | Held at pickup point |
| DHL Express | 3 | Held at service point or depot |
| Posti | 1 | Redirected to pickup point or locker |
| FedEx | 3 | Held at service point |
| UPS | 3 | Held at UPS Access Point |
| Budbee | 1 (with time window) | Rescheduled via app |
Note: Carrier policies vary by market and service level. Check your specific carrier's terms for the markets you ship to.
How to reduce failed delivery attempts
This is where merchant decisions directly affect the outcome. Failed delivery attempts are not entirely outside your control — several factors you can influence reduce their frequency.
Offer PUDO delivery at checkout. The most effective single change you can make. If a customer chooses locker or service point delivery, there is no failed attempt — the carrier deposits the parcel and it waits until the customer collects. PUDO eliminates the failed attempt problem entirely for the orders that use it. In markets like Finland, Estonia, and Sweden where locker adoption is high, making PUDO the visible default rather than a secondary option shifts a meaningful share of orders away from home delivery.
Enable delivery notifications. Most major carriers offer SMS or email notifications informing the recipient that their parcel will arrive today, or giving a delivery window. Customers who know a parcel is coming are more likely to arrange to be present or redirect to a safe location before the driver arrives. Packrooster's tracking and notification features surface these events through your Shopify store's communication flow.
Collect accurate address data at checkout. A significant share of failed delivery attempts are caused not by an absent recipient but by an incorrect address — a missing apartment number, a transposed postcode, an outdated address. Shopify's address validation at checkout and Packrooster's carrier-level address validation reduce the frequency of misrouted shipments that never reach the right door.
Offer delivery instructions. Some carriers and service levels allow the sender to include a safe place instruction — leave with neighbor, leave in porch, leave in designated location. For recipients who know they will not be home, this eliminates the failed attempt without requiring locker or service point redirection.
Give customers flexible rescheduling. Carriers like Budbee and Helthjem offer consumer-facing apps where recipients can reschedule or redirect a delivery before the driver arrives. This is a carrier feature rather than a merchant one, but choosing carriers with strong consumer rescheduling tools reduces your failed attempt rate for home delivery orders.
Common misconceptions and mistakes
"Failed delivery attempts are entirely the carrier's problem." They are the carrier's operational problem but the merchant's customer experience and cost problem. The return cost, the refund or re-shipment cost, and the customer satisfaction impact all land with the merchant.
"One failed attempt isn't a big deal." Individually it is minor. Aggregated across thousands of shipments it is a material cost and a meaningful driver of negative reviews and reduced repeat purchase rates.
"Adding more delivery attempts solves the problem." More attempts add cost and extend the time the parcel is in transit without resolving the underlying issue — the recipient is not available at home. PUDO delivery removes the problem rather than attempting it more times.
"Customers always know when to expect a delivery." Without proactive notification, many customers have no idea their parcel is arriving on a specific day. A customer who left for work before the driver arrived was not being negligent — they simply did not know. Delivery notifications are the merchant's tool for closing this information gap.
How this connects to your Shopify store
Packrooster addresses the failed delivery attempt problem at two points in the fulfillment flow.
At checkout, Packrooster's dynamic pickup point feature shows customers the available locker and service point options for their location — making PUDO a visible and easy choice rather than a buried alternative. For markets where locker adoption is high, this alone shifts a meaningful share of orders from home delivery (with its failed attempt risk) to PUDO delivery (where the first attempt always succeeds).
For home delivery orders, Packrooster's tracking and notification features keep recipients informed through the transit journey and alert them when their parcel is out for delivery — reducing the share of recipients who are simply unaware their parcel is arriving that day. Packrooster also supports carrier-level address validation, catching address errors before the label is created rather than after the driver has made an unsuccessful visit.
Learn more about Packrooster →
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a failed delivery attempt and a missed delivery? They mean the same thing from the carrier's perspective — the driver visited, the recipient was not available, the delivery did not happen. "Missed delivery" is the consumer-facing term; "failed delivery attempt" is the operational term used in carrier tracking systems and documentation.
Who pays for redelivery after a failed attempt? This depends on the carrier and the service level. For standard parcel services, most carriers include at least one redelivery in the original shipping cost. Additional attempts or customer-requested redelivery windows may carry a charge. For express courier services, multiple attempts are typically included in the premium price. Always check your specific carrier's redelivery policy — the variation is significant.
Can I instruct the carrier to leave a parcel without a signature? Many carriers allow "safe place" or "no signature required" instructions for standard parcel deliveries. This means the driver can leave the parcel in a designated safe location without the recipient being present — eliminating the failed attempt. The trade-off is that liability for the parcel transfers to the recipient once it is left, and if the parcel goes missing from the safe place, the carrier's liability is typically limited or eliminated. Use this option for lower-value shipments where the risk of leaving unattended is acceptable.
What happens to a parcel that is returned after failed delivery attempts? The parcel is sent back to the return address on the label — typically your warehouse or dispatch address. You are usually charged for the return shipping. Once received, you need to decide whether to re-ship to the customer (at the cost of a new shipment) or refund the order. Communicating with the customer before the parcel is returned — to offer a new delivery attempt or alternative collection — is often more cost-effective than managing the return and re-shipment after the fact.
Does offering locker delivery actually reduce failed delivery attempt rates? Consistently yes. A parcel routed to a locker or service point has a 100% first-attempt success rate for the carrier, because the carrier is delivering to a fixed, always-available collection point rather than a residential address where someone may or may not be present. In markets where PUDO adoption is high — Finland, Estonia, Sweden — merchants who offer locker delivery as a visible checkout option see meaningfully lower rates of delivery exceptions and customer contacts related to missed deliveries.
How do I know if a customer's parcel has had a failed delivery attempt? Failed delivery attempt events appear in the tracking history — typically labelled "delivery attempted" or "recipient not available" in the carrier's scan record. If notifications are active the recipient is informed promptly and can arrange collection or rescheduling without needing to contact your support team.
