Customers may use estimated delivery times to help them decide what to buy. These times can show as an annotation in your free listings and Shopping ads. To calculate overall delivery time, you need to specify cut-off time, handling time, and transit time. (You can also let Google calculate your delivery times based on your shipping carrier or partner data.)
Learn more about calculating your shipping speeds based on your carrier.
Understanding estimated delivery date
The estimated delivery date is the “arrives by” date that customers are shown when checking out. We calculate this value as “maximum handling days + maximum transit days”. This calculation is based on business days and takes your order cut-off time into account.
Holiday effects on estimated delivery date
If an order's handling or transit time overlaps with a holiday, Google adds an extra day to the estimated delivery date. Google considers the following holidays as non-business days when calculating estimated delivery dates:
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Australia
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Brazil
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Canada
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France
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Germany
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India
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Japan
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New Zealand
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South Korea
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United Kingdom
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United States
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Here is an example of what estimated delivery date might look like with the settings below in Merchant Center:
- Order placed after the cut-off of 3:00 p.m. EST
- 0 - 1 handling days (fulfilled Monday - Friday)
- 3 - 5 transit days (fulfilled Monday - Saturday)
| Minimum estimated delivery date: 6 calendar days | Maximum estimated delivery date: 9 calendar day | ||||
| Day of order | Day of week | Status | Day of order | Day of week | Status |
| Day 1 | Wednesday | Order placed after cutoff | Day 1 | Wednesday | Order placed after cutoff |
| Day 2 | Thursday | Handling time | Day 2 | Thursday | Handling time begins (Day 0*) |
| Day 3 | Friday | Transit time | Day 3 | Friday | Handling time ends (Day 1) |
| Day 4 | Saturday | Transit time | Day 4 | Saturday | Transit time |
| Day 5 | Sunday | No action | Day 5 | Sunday | No action |
| Day 6 | Monday | Transit time (including Delivery day) | Day 6 | Monday | Transit time |
| Day 7 | Tuesday | Transit time | |||
| Day 8 | Wednesday | Transit time | |||
| Day 9 | Thursday | Transit time (including delivery day) | |||
*Note: “Day 0” means “same day” for orders placed before the cut-off time. For orders placed after cut-off, “Day 0” is then the next business day. All handling time counts start with “Day 0,” regardless of when the order is placed in relation to the cut-off time.
If a customer places an order at 8:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, they’ll be shown “arrives by the following Thursday.” Because the customer missed the daily order cutoff, the delivery estimate doesn’t begin calculating until the following day. Keep in mind that while Merchant Center will show you a range of delivery days, the customer will see the 9-day estimate to account for any potential issues that arise during processing and shipping.
Estimated delivery time set up
Step 1 of 3: Set up cut-off time
The cut-off time is the time by which your customer needs to place an order for it to begin processing on the same day. Orders placed after this time don't begin processing until the following business day. Cut-off time is an optional value. If you leave it blank, then the default time will be 8:00 a.m. PST.
Step 2 of 3: Set up handling time
Handling time is the number of business days you need to process an order before it ships. This time normally starts when an order is placed by a customer and ends when a carrier picks up the package for shipment.
If all your items require the same amount of time to process, configure your handling time in Merchant Center for each shipping service. If processing time varies by product, you can add handling times to your data source for each product using the maximum handling time [max_handling_time] and minimum handling time [min_handling_time] attributes. When handling time values exist in both Merchant Center and in the product data source, the product-level value will override the Merchant Center value for that specific product only. Learn more about the handling time attributes.
To add handling time to a shipping policy:
- In your Merchant Center account, go to Shipping and returns in the left navigation menu.
- Under the “Shipping policies” tab, select Add shipping policy.
- On the “Add your shipping information” page, complete the steps for the “Countries” and “Product” tabs.
- On the “Delivery times” page, select Enter specific delivery times manually.
- In the "Handling time (days)" section, enter the minimum number of days required for processing an order, followed by the maximum number of days possible.
Step 3 of 3: Set up transit time
Transit time is the number of business days it takes for a carrier to deliver a package once it is picked up from your facility. You must configure transit time in Merchant Center, either with a single range (for example, “3-5 days”).
To add transit time to a shipping service:
- In your Merchant Center account, go to Shipping and returns in the left navigation menu.
- Under the “Shipping policies” tab, select Add shipping policy.
- On the “Add your shipping information” page, complete the steps for the “Countries” and “Product” tabs.
- On the “Delivery times” page, select Enter specific delivery times manually.
- In the “Transit time (days)” section, select Destination by zone from the “Transit time” drop down and add zones with different transit times associated with each destination. You can add more destinations as needed.
Learn more about setting up Regional shipping settings.
If you want your transit time to apply to specific areas of the country or if you want to group them by specific products, use shipping label [shipping_label] attribute.
Related link
- Learn more about the maximum handling time
[max_handling_time], minimum handling time[min_handling_time]