Is your proof of delivery fit for today’s shopper?

A £500 games console, the weekly groceries or a repeat prescription from the chemist. Whatever the item is, today’s consumers are monitoring packages in real time, with eagle-eyed attention and rising expectations that delivery will be smooth and hassle-free.

When parcels are now going from checkout to doorstep in hours, there’s no room for doubt, delay or dispute. Retailers are under growing pressure to deliver a seamless, stress-free experience with pinpoint accuracy. Yet despite the major advances in speed, notifications and live tracking of deliveries, the industry is still relying on outdated standards at the moment that matters most: the doorstep handover.

Proof of delivery is still shaped by legacy processes that often prioritise speed over accountability. A rushed photo on a doorstep or a vague “left in a safe place” message might seem acceptable for a takeaway, but for high-value purchases like power tools or premium electronics, it can create complex challenges for retailers.

The result is customers who feel confident right up until the point of arrival, then lose visibility and trust at that final hurdle. But this breakdown doesn’t just impact the customer experience alone.

The Hidden burden

When a delivery goes wrong, it’s the customer service teams that are often left to handle the backlash from angry customers. Many are trying to resolve claims with little more than a photo or a timestamp. When a delivery is disputed, the burden lands squarely on the retailer. Without a reliable record, resolutions drag on and often end in refunds or replacements that erode margins.

And this goes far beyond the cost of replacing the item alone. A contested £400 delivery does not cost £400 to resolve. It can cost far more once replacement stock, two-way shipping labour hours, goodwill credits and support overheads are accounted for. Now imagine it in the run-up to Christmas or Black Friday – the cost curve gets ugly. Fast.

This goes deeper when delivery is on the same day of purchase too. Faster fulfilment pushes more parcels through tighter windows. When the proof is weak in this case, every dispute becomes far harder to push back on and more expensive to resolve. The quicker the promise, the higher the expectation, and the smaller the margin for error at the doorstep.

What should be a closed-loop process instead becomes a cycle of ambiguity that puts a strain on long-term customer loyalty, antagonises carrier relationships, and piles pressure onto internal teams, diverting them from higher value work.

This isn’t just a retailer inconvenience either; it’s becoming a regulatory and legal flashpoint. In Germany, Deutsche Post is being challenged in court for leaving parcels with neighbours without clear consent or proof, after a surge in complaints about missing deliveries. It shows how quickly weak PoD, which seems like a small gap, can escalate into a serious problem.

The power can shift to retailers

The truth is that most retailers don’t design the PoD standards they have today. They were inherited. Yet they are the ones who pay for the gaps – and a single blurry photo doesn’t offer the retailer any protection when the stakes involve premium orders and increasingly vocal customers.

But retailers have more power than they realise. When retailers define the PoD standards, carriers follow.

Strong PoD starts with making the handover unambiguous. That means setting clear, non-negotiable requirements with carriers, especially on high-value deliveries. If a parcel costs hundreds of pounds, the proof should be good enough to close the door of doubt on the spot. Legible signatures, contextual photos and clear status updates can remove the ambivalence. Establishing these as standard practice gives retailers certainty, provides couriers with a clear framework to follow, and reassures customers that the delivery has been completed correctly without needing to chase support.

The future of PoD

The next step is visibility. Retailers need PoD that captures the context, location, surroundings and the condition of the item at the moment it was handed over. At Gophr, this is being implemented in the form of wide-angle imagery, videos, a clear safe-place reference, and optional recipient acknowledgements (such as pin-code) for higher-value deliveries.

When customers can see exactly what the driver saw, including where the parcel was placed and why, then they are far less likely to question it. Transparent PoD is one of the simplest ways to prevent claims before they start. It flips it from an evidence-gathering exercise (for a complaint) to its intended purpose: actually providing proof.

And it should also match the value and risk of the item. One approach for every parcel no longer makes sense. A £20 accessory and a £2,000 piece of tech should not be treated the same at the doorstep. By scaling the level of proof to the product, retailers create a safeguard that is both practical for carriers and robust enough for their own commercial exposure.

This is the standard we’re building toward at Gophr, and it’s the standard retailers should start demanding across the board. It stops disputes before they surface and builds loyalty that lasts long after the parcel is in the customer’s hands.

Because trust is the battleground, and proof of delivery is the defining factor in whether retailers protect that trust (or lose it) at the doorstep. The retailers who raise the standard now will protect their margins, protect their reputation and remove doubt from the final moment in the journey, the one that matters most.