The estimated delivery dates feature allows you to offer your customers an estimated timeframe for when their order will arrive. You can use the Shippit APIs to to calculate accurate delivery estimates, which you can then include on your product pages, or at checkout. By providing this information earlier in the buying process, your customers have the certainty of knowing when their order will arrive, improving the customer experience and reducing enquiries about shipping times.
This article discusses the estimated delivery dates feature, which is available using the Shippit APIs. For more information about the estimated delivery dates API endpoint, see the developer guide.
How do estimated delivery dates work?
Powered by Shippit Intelligence, Shippit’s estimated delivery dates are AI-trained on exact delivery patterns giving it up to 95% accuracy. Origin postcode and the destination postcode are mandatory inputs and get you started quickly. For even more accurate estimates you can provide additional data such as carrier service levels, store operating hours, and order preparation time.
If you provide only the origin and destination postcodes, Shippit determines an estimated delivery date based on default values, and the various carrier and services available.
Alternatively, for more control and greater accuracy, you can provide additional information, such as the exact carrier and service level, the amount of time you require to prepare the order, your operating hours, and carrier collection times.
Regardless of how much or how little information you provide, Shippit uses a range of internal platform data to calculate how different carriers perform on that particular lane, at different service levels, and taking into account the time of year, and your individual settings, to calculate a highly accurate estimate for the delivery. You can then use this accurate EDD on your website product detail pages (PDPs) or at checkout.
Using EDD with other Shippit solutions
The estimated delivery dates API endpoint is useful when you want to show delivery estimates on product pages or category listings. You can also use the estimated delivery dates endpoint to display accurate delivery estimates during checkout.
Quote API endpoint
You can combine the estimated delivery date endpoint with the quote endpoint to display both accurate delivery estimates with the cost for different carriers and service levels.
The Quote API endpoint returns carrier service levels, along with a quoted cost for the service, and a rough estimate of the delivery time. This delivery time estimate is provided by the carrier directly, and is usually less accurate. By combining the Quote API with the EDD API, you can access pricing and service level information from the Quote API, with the highly accurate delivery estimate from the EDD API.
Tracking and notifications
Shippit's AI-precise EDD enhances our tracking and notification updates as well. If you have EDD enabled on your account, you automatically have your tracking URL and tracking notifications updated to reflect the same predictive delivery dates throughout all stages of delivery.
Troubleshooting
This section contains information about some common issues you might encounter with estimated delivery dates. If you can't find an answer to your question here, check the Shippit developer centre, get in touch with us using the chat in your Shippit account, or reach out to Shippit support.
Estimated delivery dates aren't being shown, or they seem inaccurate
If you or your customers are experiencing issues with estimated delivery dates, here are a few things to check:
Check the postcodes. Ensure that both the origin and destination postcodes are valid and correct. An incorrect postcode is the most common reason for an error.
Confirm your authentication. You need to use a valid authentication token to access the estimated delivery dates API. If the token is incorrect or has expired, no estimates are returned.
Verify the request format. The information sent to our API must be in the correct format. If you have recently made changes to your website or shipping settings, ask your developer to confirm that the format of the API request is still correct.
No estimates returned. If no estimates are being returned for a specific postcode, it could be that none of our carrier partners service that particular route. You can check this by trying to book a shipment to the same postcode directly in the Shippit application.