Follow up with order tracking and delivery date notifications to seal the deal. Start by sending ship date emails to your customers to let them know their order is on the way. To be a leader in ecommerce, it’s essential that you communicate these dates to them in real-time. Your customers may not understand things like lead times and blackout dates, but they do understand delivery dates and ship dates. In fact, 82% of customers prefer to shop with stores that show actual delivery dates, and 45% say they’d even pay more for this feature. While customers certainly want to choose a delivery option that works for them, the thing they’re most concerned about is an accurate delivery date. ![]() In short, they matter because customers care a lot about when their order will arrive. Read more about the importance of showing accurate delivery dates to customers Why Do These Dates Matter? Over-communicating shipping dates and delivery dates is key to customer satisfaction in 2021 This is different from the return window, which accounts for the amount of time a customer has to return the item. The date a returned product arrives back to the seller. Often, retailers define shipping speed based on “days in-transit,” for example, “Arrives in 3-5 business days.” Return Date This consumer-friendly term is more accurately called the “shipping method” because it describes which of the carrier’s services are being used. Shipping speed refers to the amount of time it takes for an order to be delivered to a customer. This is where accurate order tracking becomes essential. If your orders are backed up and shipping delays are likely to happen, estimates help a customer plan for it. March 4th-6th) instead of a specific date. This is typically shown as a timeframe (i.e. When dates cannot be guaranteed (as is currently the case with most carriers), retailers use estimated delivery dates to communicate expectations. This term means you are making an educated guess on when order will arrive to the customer. These dates are important because they give customers a much clearer idea of when to expect their package, versus the number of days in-transit. Delivery DateĪ delivery date is the actual date an order will be delivered to the customer. When this happens, an estimated shipping time is given to let customers know when they can expect their order to be shipped. What about backorders? On occasion, an order will go through for an item that is out of stock and cannot be fulfilled. For most businesses, orders placed at 11:00AM versus 11:00PM will add a day to the post-order process. These dates are crucial because they are what make up your shipping lead time. This information can be a day or two off due to order fulfillment cutoffs, or the window of time that it takes for an order to be fulfilled and sent out. The estimated date on which the retailer will hand off the shipment to the carrier. This will often be different from a ship date since some businesses do not pick and pack items over the weekend, or have specific shipping cutoff times. ![]() NOTE: On the ShipperHQ platform, the term “dispatch date” is used in place of “ship date.” Order DateĪn order date is the date that a customer has completed the transaction and made a purchase from you. For example, if the ship date is Thursday, January 14th, and you’ve guaranteed overnight shipping, the item would arrive on Friday, January 15th. This is also the date from which you’d calculate time-in-transit. In other words, the specific date that the order is shipped from your warehouse, store or via a drop shipper, to the customer. The actual date a retailer hands off a shipment to the carrier. Common Shipping Date Terms, Explained Ship Date ![]() Below, we’re diving deep on common date related terms – what they mean, when you should use them, and how they might affect your shipping processes. To prevent this from happening, let’s define them. Delivery dates, shipping dates, estimated shipment dates and shipping speeds – if you’re not careful, you might end up confusing these common ecommerce terms with each other. With such a vast dictionary to remember, it can be difficult to sort through what they actually mean. The ecommerce landscape is chock-full of terms and concepts that are vital to a retailer’s success. Without crucial details like shipping dates and delivery dates built into your online experience, you could be losing sales. 45% of customers abandon their carts due to unsatisfactory delivery options.
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