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

Manage your delivery 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. (Bear in mind that Google can also calculate your delivery times based on your delivery courier or partner data). Learn more about calculating your delivery speeds based on your courier.


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 cut-off 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-working 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
  • Labour 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
  • Eid al-Fitr
  • Ram Navami
  • Buddha Purnima
  • Muharram
  • Independence Day
  • Janmashtami
  • 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 the Aged Day
  • Autumn Equinox Day
  • Sports Day
  • Culture Day
  • Labour 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
  • Labour Day
  • Orininal (Children's Day)
  • Children's Day Holiday
  • Sukka Tansin Il (Buddha Day)
  • Hyun Choong Il (Memorial Day)
  • Kwang Bok Jul (Independence Day)
  • Chuseok (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
  • Labour 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 3.00 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 days
Day of order Day of week Status Day of order Day of week Status
Day 1 Wednesday Order placed after cut-off Day 1 Wednesday Order placed after cut-off
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 working 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 8.00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, at checkout, they'll see 'arrives by the following Thursday'. As the customer missed the daily order cut-off, the delivery estimate doesn't begin calculating until the following day. Bear 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 delivery.

Estimated delivery time setup

Note: To let Google automatically estimate delivery times based on your delivery courier or partner data, learn more about letting Google calculate your delivery 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 working 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 cut-off won't begin processing until the next working day, customers that miss the cut-off will see an extra working day added to their delivery estimate.

Step 2 of 3: Set up handling time

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

If all of your items require the same amount of time to process, handling time should be configured in Merchant Center within each delivery 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 delivery 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 On 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 on the same day that they are ordered, your minimum handling time is considered as '0'.

Step 3 of 3: Set up transit time

This is the number of working days that it takes for a courier to deliver a parcel once it is collected 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 delivery service:

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

Step 2 On the 'Shipping policies' tab, click on Add shipping policy.

Step 3 On 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 the delivery label [shipping_label] attribute.

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