Informing customers about an estimated delivery or pickup date

In Ecwid, you can show an estimated delivery date at checkout and on a product page. An estimated delivery date is a time range when an order is expected to arrive to your customer. For self-pickup, you can show an estimated available time for pickup instead. You will also see the estimated delivery date in order details on the Orders page.

The delivery date is calculated based on multiple factors: order preparation time, your blackout dates if any, transit time, the preferred shipping method, and whether a product is in stock or out of stock. Once you set up your shipping settings, an approximate delivery time automatically appears at checkout. Customers will see estimated delivery dates for different shipping options, including local delivery and pickup, and be able to choose the one that works best for them.

Adding an estimated delivery time to checkout

To show delivery time at checkout, you need to set up order preparation and transit time for your shipping methods. If you ship with real-time rates, Ecwid automatically calculates transit time. If you use flat rates or custom rates, you will need to specify transit time for orders manually. For self-pickup, you need to specify the order fulfillment time.

To add an approximate delivery date to checkout:

Now your customers will see an estimated delivery time at checkout or will be able to choose a pickup date for self-pickup:

Adding an estimated delivery time to product pages

You can show an estimated delivery time for a product on a product page. It comes in handy if you offer express shipping methods and want to emphasize the advantage of fast delivery right away. Or if you offer local delivery along with shipping and want to show estimated delivery time both options.

To enable an estimated delivery time for products:

Now your customers will see an estimated delivery time on product pages:

You can change where to display the estimated delivery time on a product page.

To change the place of the estimated delivery time section on a product page:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Design.
2. Scroll down to the Sidebar section.
3. Drag and drop the Estimated delivery time field to change its position on a product page.

Setting an estimated delivery time for a specific product

If one of your products requires more time to prepare, you can change the order preparation time specifically for the product. It will affect delivery or pickup dates shown at checkout and on the product page.

Let’s say you sell cakes, and it normally takes you 2 days to bake one. But for wedding cakes, it takes 3 days. You can specify 2 days as order preparation time that will apply for all products in your shipping settings. As for wedding cakes, you can change the product preparation time to 3 days. That way, you will have different delivery dates for wedding cakes and other products in your store.

To set up an individual estimated delivery time for a product:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
2. Click Edit product next to an item for which you want to specify a delivery time.
3. Select Shipping & Pickup tab.
4. Scroll down to the Product preparation time section and click Edit:
   

   

5. Specify the time it takes to prepare this product for shipping, delivery or pickup.
6. Click Save.

Now customers will see a specific estimated delivery date for a product both at checkout and on a product page.

If an order contains products with different estimated delivery dates, your customers will see the latest delivery date. Let’s say someone ordered a regular cake and a wedding cake. A regular cake takes one day to prepare while the wedding cake takes three. Ecwid will take three days as order preparation time to calculate an estimated delivery date for the order.

Showing an estimated delivery time for pre-orders

If you track your inventory and accept pre-orders, you can show your customers how long it will take to deliver a pre-order. When a site visitor opens a product page of a stockout, they will see the “Pre-order” label and an estimated delivery date for the pre-order:

To show an estimated delivery date for pre-orders:

1. Set up shipping/delivery/pickup methods for your store and add order preparation time for them.
2. From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products.
3. Open the product or create a new one.
4. Find the Stock Control block and click Manage stock control.
5. Set the actual quantity in stock and select Show and allow pre-order from the When out of stock dropdown.
6. Go to the Shipping & Pickup tab.
7. In the Product preparation time section, click Edit next to the When out of stock and available for pre-order.
   If you don’t see the When out of stock and available for pre-order block, try changing product quantity to “0”.
8. Specify how many days it might take to prepare a product when it’s out of stock.
9. Click Save.
10. Turn on the Show estimated delivery date on the product page toggle and save the changes once again.

That’s it. Now customers will see the approximate delivery date for the stockout.