Estimated Delivery Date Functionality

Overview

Corso’s Estimated Delivery Date functionality displays delivery timeframes on your shipping rates at checkout. Clear delivery expectations help customers choose a shipping option with confidence.

Delivery estimates are set up as Delivery Estimate rules in Corso Shipping Plus. Each rule can apply estimates to any of your Shipping Plus rates, and you can add conditions to show different estimates for different products, customers, or destinations.

What you can expect

With Estimated Delivery Dates, you can:

Show a delivery range like “Arrives Jan 8 - Jan 12” on each rate.
Give each rate its own timeline, such as different ranges for standard and express shipping.
Account for your shipping cut-off time, US holidays, and warehouse closure dates.
Use carrier-provided estimates on rates that are calculated by a carrier.
Test different delivery promises with Intelligems test groups.

Features and functionality

Checkout display

Choose where the estimate appears with Display Location:

Add To Description — the estimate is added to the start of the rate description, directly under the rate name.
Delivery Estimate Extension — the estimate appears in the Corso Delivery Estimate checkout extension, below each shipping option. Add the extension in your Shopify checkout editor, where you can also choose the date format, show a range or only the last date, and show an urgency message as the shipping cut-off approaches.

With Add To Description, the label reads “Arrives [start] - [end]”. When there is no end, it reads “Earliest Arrival By [start]”.

The Delivery Estimate Extension shows only the last date by default, such as “Estimated to arrive by [end]”. To show both dates, change Estimate Format to a range in the checkout editor. Inside the urgency window, it reads “Order within X hours Y minutes for delivery between [start] - [end]”.

Dates use a format like “Nov 14th”.

Estimate strategy

Each estimate uses one of two strategies:

Predefined Estimate — you set the number of business days to delivery.
- Estimated Delivery Start — business days to the earliest delivery date. Must be 1 or more. If it is 0 or empty, no estimate shows, so same-day delivery can’t be shown.
- Estimated Delivery End — business days to the latest delivery date. Leave it empty to show only the earliest date.
Carrier Provided — Corso uses the delivery date returned by the carrier for the rate. This only works on rates that use a carrier service.
- Fulfillment Days — extra business days to add to the carrier’s date to account for fulfillment time. The estimate shows a two-day window starting from that date.

Ship date settings

These settings apply to Predefined Estimate. They decide which day the order ships, and the delivery range is counted from that day.

Shipping Cut Off Time — orders placed after this time ship the next business day. Choose None to always count from the current day.
Holidays — the US federal holidays your warehouse does not ship on. All holidays are selected by default. If you clear every holiday, Corso uses all US holidays, so you can’t turn holidays off completely.
Blackout Dates — custom dates your warehouse will not ship on.

Weekends are never counted as business days. If an order is placed on a weekend, a holiday, or a blackout date, it ships on the next business day that is not a holiday or blackout date.

The cut-off time uses your store’s time zone (or your browser’s time zone if the store has none), saved when you add the estimate. If you change your store’s time zone later, remove and re-add the estimate.

Rates and conditions

Shipping Rates — the rates to apply the estimate to. Leave it empty to apply the estimate to all rates.
One rule can contain several estimates, so you can give each rate its own range in a single rule.
Don’t let two estimates in the same rule cover the same rate (an estimate with empty Shipping Rates covers every rate). The rate would show twice at checkout.
Conditions use the same options as Rate Modifications, including Order Country, Order State or Province, Product Group, Product SKU, Customer Tag, and Intelligems Test Group ID.
Only one Delivery Estimate rule applies at checkout. If more than one rule matches, Corso uses the first matching rule in your list.

How to set up estimated delivery dates

Go to Settings > Shipping Plus.
In the Automations card, click Create, then select Delivery Estimate.
Add conditions, or leave the rule unconditional to show estimates on every checkout.
Click Add Delivery Estimate.
Choose a Strategy and a Display Location.
Select the Shipping Rates for this estimate.
For a Predefined Estimate, set the start and end days, Shipping Cut Off Time, Holidays, and any Blackout Dates. For Carrier Provided, set Fulfillment Days.
Repeat steps 4 to 7 for each rate that needs a different estimate. Don’t let two estimates cover the same rate, or the rate shows twice at checkout.
Save the rule.

FAQs

Q: Can I show different delivery dates for different shipping zones? Yes. Use Order Country or Order State or Province conditions, or apply different estimates to the rates offered in each zone.

Q: How do holidays affect the estimate? Holidays and blackout dates push back the day the order ships. Once the order ships, the delivery range counts business days, skipping weekends.

Q: Can I test different shipping promises before rolling them out? Yes. Add an Intelligems Test Group ID condition to a Delivery Estimate rule. See A/B Test Shipping Rates With Intelligems.

Q: What time zone are shipping cut-off times based on? Your store’s time zone (or your browser’s time zone if the store has none), saved on the estimate when you add it. If you change your store’s time zone later, remove and re-add the estimate.

Q: Is shipping protection required with delivery dates? No. Estimates can be shown on Plus rates and on rates without the Plus price.