Nespresso’s decision to broaden its delivery network reflects a wider shift in parcel logistics, as shippers increasingly balance cost against resilience, service quality and brand experience.
Regional, local and other alternative last-mile carriers delivered nearly 1.32 billion packages in the US in 2025, according to market intelligence firm The Colography Group, up sharply from 424 million four years earlier. That growth has taken share from the dominant national networks,...
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including FedEx, UPS and the US Postal Service, as more brands look for delivery models that better fit their own priorities.
For Nespresso, the change has been less about abandoning efficiency than redefining what efficiency means. Matthew Greenspan, the company’s director of logistics and transportation, said at Home Delivery World 2026 last month that the business had once leaned on a single-carrier model built around cost and punctuality. Those remain important, he said, but over the past five years the company has begun weighing whether carrier selection can also improve the customer experience.
“Today we don’t look at our carrier strategy as purely a transportation decision, we’re looking at it more so as part of the end-to-end customer experience,” Greenspan said. “So, when we’re evaluating our partners, we’re asking: Can they enhance the experience? Can they give us more flexibility? Do they support our long-term brand ambitions?”
That approach reflects the risks that can come with relying too heavily on one provider. Greenspan said a single-carrier setup may appear attractive because of volume-based discounts, but the headline savings can be undermined by lost or damaged parcels, or by a labour dispute or capacity squeeze that leaves a shipper without a fallback.
“Suddenly you’re breaking a promise that you made to your customers when they placed their order, and that’s where I think a lot of shippers may underestimate the value of diversification and a well-designed multi-carrier strategy,” he said.
Nespresso has therefore turned more to alternative carriers, but with an emphasis on partnerships that can grow without becoming purely transactional. Greenspan said the company wants carriers to scale “in the right way”, so that expansion strengthens the relationship rather than turning it into a blunt volume-driven arrangement.
One example is Jitsu, the parcel carrier formerly known as AxleHire. Supply Chain Dive reported earlier that Jitsu expanded its services to the Detroit area and now operates in 23 US metro markets, with clients including American Eagle, HelloFresh and Nespresso. Nespresso has used that relationship to support a recycling initiative that ties deliveries more closely to customer convenience and sustainability.
Under the programme, customers can request a capsule recycling pickup at the same time an order is dropped off. In practice, that means a customer leaves a bag of used capsules outside, and the driver collects it on the same trip. The service is offered free in selected ZIP codes on orders of $50 or more, according to Nespresso’s website.
“It’s the same trip,” Greenspan said. “There’s no extra effort for the customer; there’s no additional miles traveled for the carrier.”
He said the arrangement has delivered more than environmental benefits, pointing to stronger engagement and loyalty from customers who use the service.
Not every retailer is moving in the same direction. Wayfair, for instance, still favours deep integrations with a smaller set of national carriers rather than relying heavily on regional networks, according to comments from Nitin Kapoor, the company’s vice-president of technology, during the same conference. He said the company does not treat carriers as commodities, but as tightly integrated partners with whom it shares significant operational visibility.
The contrast suggests there is no single model for parcel delivery, only a growing recognition that shippers are no longer choosing carriers on price alone. For some, the answer is diversification; for others, it is closer collaboration with a narrower set of national players. In Nespresso’s case, the aim is to make the delivery network itself part of the brand promise.
Source: Noah Wire Services
