Delivery date on the product page: how to set it up
A delivery date on the product page is a specific day, such as “Order by 14:00, delivered Thursday”, shown to the customer before they add the item to the cart. It works when the shop calculates it from four inputs: the order cut-off time, dispatch days, the carrier’s transit time and public holidays. It does not work when it is a nice sentence nobody actually calculates.
Why do customers want to see a specific day?
When shopping online, the customer asks one question a physical store never had to answer: when will I get it? They usually find out in the cart, sometimes only at the last step of checkout. If they cannot find the answer in time, they often postpone the purchase or go to a site where they can see it straight away.
The difference between “delivery in 2 to 4 working days” and “delivery on Thursday” is that the customer has to work out the first against a calendar and not the second. A specific day can be compared with what they need: a weekend gift, a spare part before Saturday, a parcel for Monday at the office. They decide faster and with more confidence.
There is a second effect that is less visible. A specific promise can be checked. If the shop says Thursday and the parcel arrives on Thursday, the customer remembers that this shop’s word holds. If it arrives on Friday, they remember that too. That is why accuracy matters more than anything else about the date.
What goes into the delivery date calculation?
The calculation is simple, it just has to be done honestly. It is a chain of steps that follow one another:
- Order cut-off. The time up to which an order still goes into today’s packing. Orders after it move to the next working day of dispatch.
- Dispatch days. The days when the warehouse really packs and hands parcels to the carrier. If nobody packs at weekends, a Friday evening order starts on Monday.
- Preparation time. If the item is in stock, this is usually the same day. If it has to be ordered from a supplier or made to order, add the extra days.
- Transit time. How many working days the chosen carrier needs. It differs by service (courier, pickup point, parcel locker) and by country.
- Holidays. Public holidays in the country of dispatch and in the destination country, because the carrier may not deliver that day.
Example: the cut-off is 14:00, the warehouse packs Monday to Friday, the item is in stock and the courier delivers within one working day. An order on Tuesday at 11:00 is packed on Tuesday and arrives on Wednesday. An order on Tuesday at 15:00 is packed on Wednesday and arrives on Thursday. An order on Friday at 10:00 is packed on Friday and arrives on Monday if the carrier does not deliver on Saturdays.
In practice, show a day, not an hour. Carriers generally do not guarantee a delivery hour, so there is no point promising one.
Which mistakes do shops make most often?
Most inaccuracies do not come from the formula but from what is left out of it.
The most common mistake is a promise the carrier cannot keep. If the transit time in your table assumes the best case, some parcels will be late. For a reliable date, use the value the carrier holds on busier days too, not the one from its brochure.
The second mistake is ignoring stock status. “Delivered tomorrow” on a product that sits at the supplier and arrives in a week is worse than no date. Every stock status needs its own rule: in stock, on the way, made to order, sold out. For sold-out items, show no date at all.
The third is forgetting holidays and peak periods. Easter Monday, Christmas, sales and Black Friday change the capacity of both the warehouse and the carriers. We cover Christmas separately in Christmas delivery deadlines.
The fourth is a countdown that does not match reality. If “order by 14:00” runs on the clock in the customer’s browser rather than the shop’s time, a customer in another time zone gets a different promise. Always calculate the cut-off in the shop’s time.
The fifth is one date for every delivery method. A courier and a pickup point have different transit times, and so do two countries. If the shop shows a single date, one of the options will be wrong.
How do you show the delivery date on the product page?
The date belongs where the customer decides: under the price or next to the add-to-cart button. A short sentence without decoration works best, for example “Order by 14:00, delivered Thursday 12 November.” If the shop offers several delivery methods, a second line can show the fastest alternative.
A few rules that have proven useful:
- Write both the weekday and the date. “Thursday” is enough for the next few days, the date helps when the delivery is more than a week away.
- Separate stock statuses. For items in stock, show a specific day, for items on the way a range, for sold-out items nothing.
- Use the countdown sparingly. “2 hours 14 minutes left” is useful only if it is true. A fake countdown that resets when the page reloads destroys trust.
- Keep the same date in the cart and at checkout. The customer must not see Thursday on the product and Friday in the last step.
- Think about mobile. The sentence has to fit under the button on a narrow phone screen.
If the shop has never shown a date, it is enough to start with one carrier and in-stock products. You can widen the scope once you have seen that the promises match the real deliveries. A month later you can compare: how many parcels arrived on the promised day and how many did not.
What about holidays and shop closures?
When the warehouse closes for a few days, the date on the product page has to know about it. Otherwise the shop promises delivery on days when nobody packs. We describe the steps for time off in E-shop vacation checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Can a delivery date hurt if I miss it?
Yes. The customer stores the date as a promise and feels a delay more sharply than if there had been no promise. Build in a margin and show only what you can keep on busier days too.
Do I need to state an exact delivery time?
No. Carriers usually guarantee the day, not the hour, so a day and, if needed, a date is enough. State a time only for the order cut-off, where it helps the customer and is under your control.
How do I show a date for items that are not in stock?
Show a range or say when the item goes into dispatch, for example “Ships within 5 working days”. Add an exact day only when the item is in stock. For sold-out items, leave the date out.
Can a small shop do this without custom development?
Yes, if the rules can be set in the admin or with an add-on. Even without a tool you can start with a simple text based on your cut-off and carrier, and refine it against real parcels.
