Understanding Estimated Delivery Dates and Their Impact
by Jaidyn Farar
When businesses provide an estimated delivery date, shoppers view it as a promise made—and nothing is more frustrating than when that promise is broken.
To earn your customers’ trust, you need to provide accurate estimated delivery dates and send timely updates if things don’t go according to plan.
What does estimated delivery mean?
An estimated delivery date tells a customer when they can expect their order to arrive based on current shipping conditions. It factors in both the order processing time (how long it takes your business to prepare and ship packages) and carrier transit times.
Estimated delivery dates are usually provided for customers on the checkout page, as well as in an order confirmation or shipping confirmation email.
You shouldn’t need to calculate these dates manually; just make sure your shipping software or carrier integrations are set up to automatically calculate and display the information.
What if a package gets delayed?
Sometimes, factors outside of your control cause estimated delivery dates to become inaccurate. Providing package tracking can help you manage customer expectations, but your ultimate goal should be to use carriers and shipping methods with high on-time delivery rates.
Not sure how to get started? Software like EasyPost SmartRate can help you offer customers the most reliable shipping options without needing to pay for pricey guaranteed services.
Why is an accurate delivery estimate important?
Accurate delivery estimates are important because consumers often become impatient and frustrated when their expectations aren’t met. While most people appreciate speedy delivery, they care even more about having an accurate delivery date.
For example, a budget-conscious buyer might choose a standard delivery option to save money, accepting that shipping will take up to five days. But if the five-day mark comes and goes and their package is nowhere to be found, they’ll start to stress. The same is true when people choose two-day or overnight shipping—if you fail to deliver on time, they won’t be happy.
While accurate estimated delivery dates build trust and confidence, shipping delays have the opposite effect. Research shows that when customers experience delays …
- 30% would discourage family or friends from purchasing from the business
- 20% would never order again
- Over 25% would leave a negative review online
The takeaway is clear: To keep your buyers happy, it’s essential to make sure delivery dates are as accurate as possible, regardless of the shipping method they choose.
How to determine estimated delivery dates
While it’s helpful to understand the factors that influence delivery times, the easiest way to calculate an estimated delivery date is to use shipping software.
Understand the factors that influence delivery timelines
Although you probably won’t need to manually calculate delivery dates, you should understand the factors that determine how long shipping takes. Simply put, an estimated delivery date is determined by adding your order processing time to the carrier’s transit time.
Processing time refers to how long it takes to pick, pack, and hand off shipments to the carrier. By automating your warehouse activities and shipping process, you can decrease processing times to get packages out the door faster, leading to earlier estimated delivery dates.
Transit time covers the journey from a distribution center to the customer’s doorstep. Many variables influence transit times, including the following:
- Shipping distance
- Carrier performance and reliability
- Unexpected disruptions like severe weather
- Federal holidays
- Customs clearance (when shipping internationally)
Shipping service also plays an important role in determining transit times. Standard services have longer delivery windows (often up to five days) and aren’t guaranteed, while expedited or express services generally offer guaranteed next-day or two-day shipping.
Provide accurate delivery updates with shipping software
The easiest way to provide customers with accurate delivery estimates is to use software that automatically calculates timelines. If your business uses a shipping API like EasyPost, you can pull real-time transit data from carriers and factor in processing times to show a reliable delivery estimate, automatically adjusting for weekends, holidays, or cutoff times.
If you don’t use dedicated shipping software, you can still calculate an estimated delivery date by adding your order processing time to the carrier’s transit time, which you can access via the carrier’s API.
Make sure every package arrives on time
Once you’ve sent your shipments out into the world, you can’t always control how things go. Like it or not, your only option is to rely on carriers to deliver packages on time. That’s why it’s essential to select the right delivery partners.
By choosing reliable carriers, monitoring their performance through package tracking data, and bringing issues to their attention, you’ll help ensure that your customers receive their packages by the estimated delivery date. Using a Shipping API and Tracking API can help streamline these processes.
For even higher confidence, consider using a solution like SmartRate that analyzes historical data to reveal which shipping services are most likely to deliver on time.