Delivery times: how to say a slow number and still get the sale
Your supplier is on another continent and the parcel takes weeks. Every instinct says to soften that on the product page. Every instinct is wrong, and the arithmetic is not close: a slightly lower conversion rate is cheaper than a dispute, every time.
What a late parcel actually costs
Compare the two outcomes for the same order, honestly:
| Told 12–30 days, arrives day 24 | Told "fast shipping", arrives day 24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Customer's experience | Expected | Deceived |
| Messages you answer | None | Several, escalating |
| Likely outcome | Keeps it | Refund or dispute |
| What you lose | Nothing | Product, postage, fee, and the customer |
| What the store gains | A buyer who trusts the next page | A review that says the shipping is a lie |
How to write the window
- Quote a range, not a promise. "12 to 30 days" is believable; "14 days" is a hostage you gave to a carrier you do not control.
- Use the carrier's own range, then keep the upper bound. Resist trimming it. The upper bound is what protects you on the one order that takes the long path.
- Split handling from transit. "Ships in 1–3 days, arrives in 10–25" tells a waiting customer which phase they are in, which is exactly what they are writing to ask.
- Put it on the product page, not only in a policy. The decision is made where the price is, so the delivery time must be there too.
- Say it again in the confirmation email. They read the confirmation more carefully than the product page.
- Never start the clock at dispatch without saying so. "10 days from dispatch" and "10 days from order" are different promises and customers hear the second.
What makes a slow number acceptable
People wait for things all the time. What they will not tolerate is not knowing. Three things make a three-week wait ordinary:
- A reason. One sentence is enough: it is made to order, or it ships from where it is made. Customers accept slowness with a cause and resent slowness without one.
- A tracking number, early. The single most effective anti-anxiety measure in e-commerce. Send it the moment the warehouse returns it, even if the first scan is days away.
- A message at the midpoint, unprompted. "Your parcel is in transit, still on track for the 24th" on day twelve prevents the day-fourteen message entirely. It costs nothing and it is the cheapest customer service you will ever do.
When you can genuinely promise fast
Some items ship from a warehouse in your buyer's own country or region. For those, say so clearly and separately — it is a real advantage and it deserves to be visible.
What matters is not averaging them together. A store with some local stock and some overseas stock must quote per item: one average window is simultaneously a lie about the fast items and a lie about the slow ones. Creavela quotes the window per item for exactly this reason, and routes an order to the nearest warehouse that has it when there is a choice.
Questions
- Will an honest window cost me sales?
- Some, yes — and fewer than you fear. It also removes the refunds, the disputes and the reviews that cost you the sales you never see. On any store with real volume the honest window comes out ahead.
- What do I say when a parcel is genuinely lost?
- Refund or resend without argument, quickly. Then check whether that route or that warehouse loses parcels systematically — one lost parcel is bad luck, three from the same route is a sourcing decision.
- Should I offer free shipping?
- Only if the cost is inside your price, which means your price is higher. It usually converts better than the same total split into product plus postage, but it is not free — and it must not be an excuse to also quote an optimistic window.
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