Notification

This help center shows articles applicable to Merchant Center Next. Learn more about the upgrade and get answers to frequently asked questions.

Manage your shipping settings

Set up estimated delivery time

Estimated delivery time is important information for customers evaluating a possible purchase. The estimated delivery time may be displayed 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. (Keep in mind that Google can also 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

Estimated delivery date is the “arrives by” date that customers are shown when checking out. This value is calculated as “maximum handling days + maximum transit days”. Estimated delivery date is calculated using days, and also takes order cutoff time into account.

Holiday effects on estimated delivery date

Orders with handling or transit time that overlap with a holiday will have the estimated delivery date extended by a day. The following holidays are considered non-business days when calculating estimated delivery date:

Australia

  • Australia Day
  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Anzac Day
  • King's Birthday
  • Labour Day
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

Brazil

  • New Year's Day
  • Carnival
  • Good Friday
  • Tiradentes Day
  • Labor Day
  • Corpus Christi
  • Independence Day
  • Lady of Aparecida Day
  • All Souls' Day
  • Republic Day
  • Christmas Day

Canada

  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Victoria Day
  • Canada Day
  • Civic Holiday
  • Labour Day
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Remembrance Day
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

France

  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Labour Day
  • Victory Day
  • Ascension Day
  • Whit Monday
  • Bastille Day
  • Assumption Day
  • All Saints’ Day
  • Armistice Day
  • Christmas Day

Germany

  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Labour Day
  • Ascension Day
  • Whit Monday
  • Day of German Unity
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

India

  • Republic Day
  • Holi
  • Good Friday
  • Id-ul-Fitr
  • Ram Navmi
  • Buddha Purnima
  • Muharram
  • Independence Day
  • Janamashtami
  • Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday
  • Dussehra
  • Diwali
  • Christmas Day

Japan

  • National Foundation Day Holiday
  • The Emperor's Birthday
  • Vernal Equinox Day
  • Constitution Memorial Day
  • Children's Day
  • Marine Day
  • Respect for Aged Day
  • Autumn Equinox Day
  • Health Sports Day
  • Culture Day
  • Labor Thanksgiving Day

New Zealand

  • Wellington Anniversary Day
  • Auckland Anniversary Day
  • Waitangi Day
  • Taranaki Anniversary Day
  • Otago Anniversary Day
  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Southland Anniversary Day
  • Anzac Day
  • King's Birthday
  • South Canterbury Anniversary Day
  • Hawkes' Bay Anniversary Day
  • Labour Day
  • Marlborough Anniversary Day
  • Canterbury Anniversary Day
  • Westland Anniversary Day
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

South Korea

  • New Year's Day
  • Seol-nal Holiday (Lunar New Year)
  • Sam Il Jul (Samil Day)
  • March Global Reset Day
  • National Assembly Election
  • Labor Day
  • Orininal (Children's Day)
  • Children's Day Holiday
  • Sukka Tansin Il (Buddha Day)
  • Hyun Choong Il (Memorial Day)
  • Kwang Bok Jul (Independence Day)
  • Chusok (Harvest Moon Festival)
  • Kae Chun Jul (Foundation Day)
  • Hangeul Day
  • Christmas Day

United Kingdom

  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Early May Bank Holiday
  • Spring Bank Holiday
  • Summer Bank Holiday
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

United States

  • New Year's Day
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • Presidents Day
  • Memorial Day
  • Juneteenth
  • Independence Day
  • Labor Day
  • Thanksgiving
  • Christmas Day

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 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)

* “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. In other words, all handling time is counted starting 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 p.m. EST on Wednesday, at checkout, they’ll see “arrives by the following Thursday.” Since 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 nine-day estimate to account for any potential issues that arise during processing and shipping.

Estimated delivery time set up

Note: To let Google automatically estimate delivery times based on your shipping carrier or partner data, learn more about letting Google calculate your shipping speeds.

Step 1 of 3: Set up cut-off time

Cut-off time is the time by which your customer needs to place their order for it to begin processing on the same day. Orders that miss the cut-off time don't begin processing until the following business day. Cut-off time is an optional value that you can set. If you leave it blank, then the default time will be 8:00 a.m. PST.

Note: Since orders placed after the cutoff won't begin processing until the next business day, customers who miss the cutoff will see an extra business day added to their delivery estimate.

Step 2 of 3: Set up handling time

Handling time refers to the number of business days needed to process an order before it ships. Handling time normally starts when an order is placed by a customer and ends when a carrier picks up the package for shipment.

If all of your items require the same amount of time to process, handling time should be configured in Merchant Center within each shipping service. If the processing time varies by product, then handling time can be added to the product feed to each item 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 feed, the item-level value will override the Merchant Center value for that specific item only. Learn more about the handling time attributes.

To add handling time to a shipping policy:

Step 1 In your Merchant Center account, click Shipping and returns from the left navigation menu.

Step 2 Under the “Shipping policies” tab, click Add shipping policy.

Step 3 In your “Add your shipping information” page, complete the steps for the “Countries” and “Product” tabs.

Step 4 On the “Delivery times” page, select Enter specific delivery times manually.

Step 5 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.

Note: If you process items the same day they are ordered, your minimum handling time is considered “0”.

Step 3 of 3: Set up transit time

This is the number of business days it takes for a carrier to deliver a package once it is picked up from your facility. Transit time has to be configured in Merchant Center, either with a single range (for example, “3-5 days”).

To add transit time to a shipping service:

Step 1 In your Merchant Center account, click Shipping and returns from the left navigation menu.

Step 2 Under the “Shipping policies” tab, click on Add shipping policy.

Step 3 In your “Add your shipping information” page, complete the steps for the “Countries” and “Product” tabs.

Step 4 On the “Delivery times” page, select Enter specific delivery times manually.

Step 5 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 distinguish by certain product groups use shipping label [shipping_label] attribute.

Related link

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?
Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu
6233634892130388471
true
Search Help Center
true
true
true
true
true
71525
false
false