AI-native logistics technology company Locus has launched Delivery Promise Management, a new capability designed to connect front-end digital checkout environments with a retailer’s real-time operational data ahead of the 2026 peak shopping season.
Part of Ingka Group, the agentic Transportation Management System (TMS) provider developed the feature to evaluate the entire fulfillment journey behind each delivery slot. By assessing warehouse cutoffs, linehauls, and final-mile route capacity in under a second, the platform ensures that the delivery windows presented to online shoppers reflect the actual constraints of a retailer’s fleet or carrier network.
According to Locus, the rollout comes at a time when delivery reliability plays a critical role in consumer purchase decisions. Findings from the company’s recent research indicate that 93 percent of U.S. shoppers say delivery performance influences their perception of a brand, yet fewer than one in 10 believe retailers consistently meet fast or guaranteed shipping commitments. Furthermore, 20 percent of shoppers cited reliable, predictable delivery as their primary consideration when selecting an online retailer.
The company shared several quick facts regarding the launch and its underlying data:
Locus’ Delivery Promise Management is now available to support planning ahead of peak season.
Delivery Promise Management helps retailers show delivery promises at checkout that reflect real operational capacity and drive order conversion.
Delivery Promise Management supports delivery slot selection, appointment scheduling, tiered pricing based on service levels, eco-friendly delivery options and capacity-based delivery choices.
Delivery Promise Management is designed for enterprise retailers managing high-volume e-commerce, big and bulky delivery, white-glove service, returns, pickups and hybrid carrier networks.
In testing using one retailer’s historical order data, Delivery Promise Management provided feasible delivery windows for 98.5% of orders and reduced orders without an available slot by 58%.
Locus consumer research found that 51% of U.S. shoppers expect holiday shipping to be as fast or faster than normal, leaving retailers with little room for peak-season delivery misses.
Nishith Rastogi, founder and CETO of Locus, said:
Nishith Rastogi, founder and CETO of Locus
“Peak season is no longer just about moving products quickly. Retailers are being judged on whether they can actually deliver on the experience they promise. That promise is made at checkout, but it is kept by the network behind it, and most retailers cannot see what that network can carry until the order is already sold. Brands must align customer expectations with realistic operational capacity to truly stand out from their competitors.”
Addressing the limitations of static delivery windows—such as generic “3-5 business days” estimates—the new solution dynamically checks operational feasibility before an order is placed. The capability can support:
Exact appointment scheduling for white-glove, high-value, big and bulky deliveries
Broader date-only delivery windows for standard e-commerce orders
Tiered pricing for retailers to price premium windows off the service levels the engine returns
Eco-friendly delivery options, including consolidated or lower-impact choices
Delivery options across owned fleets, third-party carriers and hybrid logistics networks
In simulated benchmarking using a week of historical enterprise order data under deliberately constrained fleet conditions, the system delivered feasible windows for 98.5 percent of orders. Dynamic re-optimization reduced unallocated orders from 3.6 percent to 1.5 percent. For the remaining 1.5 percent, the platform withheld the window and logged the operational bottleneck, such as a missed cutoff or unrostered fleet.
From an integration perspective, the capability connects to existing tech stacks via APIs, pulling data from inventory, fulfillment, carrier, and capacity planning platforms.
Pradyumna Chowdhary, chief product officer at Locus, said:
Pradyumna Chowdhary, chief product officer at Locus
“Retailers already have much of the data needed to make better delivery promises, but that data often sits across separate systems. Our Delivery Promise Management is designed to work with those existing systems rather than replace them, using APIs to connect checkout with the data retailers already have across inventory, fulfillment, carrier and capacity planning. The goal is to make delivery promise accuracy easier to operationalize without requiring retailers to rebuild their technology stack.”
What This Means for the CX Industry
For years, the post-purchase experience has served as a primary friction point for retailers, where inaccurate delivery estimates consistently generate high volumes of costly “Where Is My Order?” (WISMO) inquiries and erode customer trust. By embedding real-time logistical feasibility directly into the checkout interface, retailers can manage customer expectations proactively rather than reactively resolving service failures at the contact center level.
As consumer expectations for speed and transparency intensify—especially during peak retail periods—tools that unite operational logistics with the brand promise will become essential for protecting customer lifetime value and reducing post-purchase churn.
