Why Estimated Delivery Dates Are Critical in BFCM 2024

When it comes to eCommerce, conversion is key.

If you’re an online seller, you want to do everything you can to eliminate friction and increase conversion rates on your product description (PDPs) and checkout pages. One way to do that is to provide accurate estimated delivery dates (EDD) to your consumers before they make the purchase.

This is especially important during peak shopping seasons, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when buyers are primed to purchase but also overwhelmed with options. EDD can help encourage them to buy from you instead of a competitor.

But, without a crystal ball, how do you accurately predict when a shipment will arrive?

With AfterShip EDD, you can place anywhere from the product detail page to the cart and even checkout. As part of AfterShip’s Logistics AI, we’ve developed the most accurate EDD prediction engine on the market, which takes into account data from over 4 billion historical shipments to provide dynamic, real-time predictions before your customers ever click ‘buy’. These predictions are up to 95% accurate.

Interested? Read on to learn more about how EDD predictions work, how they benefit businesses, and how you can use them to increase conversion rates and create a better customer experience during BFCM and throughout the rest of the year.

Why is AfterShip EDD available before the purchase?

Crucially, AfterShip estimated delivery date widget displays the estimated delivery date to the customer before they make the purchase.

This allows your customers to know when they can expect their purchase to arrive, so they can plan accordingly. For instance, if someone is buying a birthday present, they will want to know that it will arrive on time. If they are buying an item for a special event, they need to know that it will arrive in time for the event.

Pre-purchase EDD is different from post-purchase EDD in a few key ways:

1. Pre-purchase EDD takes into account the customer’s location.

This is because different carriers have different cut-off times for shipments, and transit times can vary based on the customer’s location. For instance, if a customer in New York City buys an item from a seller in Los Angeles, the transit time will be different than if the customer were in Los Angeles and the seller was in New York City.

2. Pre-purchase EDD also takes into account the carrier's current delivery performance.

This is important because carriers’ on-time delivery rates can vary based on factors such as weather, traffic, and accidents. By taking into account the current delivery performance of the carrier, we can provide a more accurate EDD prediction.

3. Pre-purchase EDD takes into account holidays and weekends.

This is important because many carriers do not deliver on weekends or holidays. During peak seasons like Black Friday or Christmas, carriers are often overwhelmed with shipments, which can cause delays. By taking into account holidays, we can provide a more accurate EDD prediction.

Keep in mind that during these periods, people are often buying gifts or seasonal items – so delivery dates are increasingly important to customer peace of mind. For instance, they can rest easy knowing their last-minute gift for Little Timmy will be sitting wrapped under the tree by the time Christmas arrives.

How does AfterShip’s pre-purchase EDD work?

AfterShip’s pre-purchase EDD is powered by our proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine, which takes into account data from over 4 billion historical shipments to provide dynamic, real-time predictions. AfterShip technology processes 3 million shipments daily, so AfterShip AI continuously captures the trend on specific routes and carriers' delivery performance.

Our AI engine powers the following features:

EDD prediction in single date or date range: With AfterShip EDD, you can display either a single date or a date range for the estimated delivery date. The single date is the most likely delivery date, while the date range is the start and end of the delivery window.
Dynamic prediction based on the actual origin location and the destination location: The delivery prediction is more accurate as our AI engine captures the data of the specific route. You can also display different predictions for different products in the cart, as the delivery depends on each product's original location.
Prediction based on the specific carrier and service selected: The EDD is more accurate as our AI engine knows the carrier's historical performance on that service.
Predictions that automatically adjust for holidays: Our AI engine takes into account holidays or high-volume sales periods, so you don’t have to worry about them, and how they may impact the delivery of your shipments.

This is a huge advantage over other pre-purchase EDD solutions on the market, which often rely on carrier SLA alone. This can lead to inaccurate predictions and frustrated customers.

How does EDD benefit businesses?

Offering a pre-purchase EDD can benefit your business in a few ways.

First, it builds trust with your customers by giving them accurate information about when they can expect their purchase to arrive. For instance, if a customer knows they need their purchase by a certain date, they can make sure to place their order well in advance if the pre-purchase EDD is longer than they would like.

Second, it can help you avoid shipping delays and disappointed customers. Customers who have realistic expectations about when their purchase will arrive are less likely to be surprised or disappointed if there is a delay. When used alongside of pro-active tracking updates, EDD can help to reduce the quantity of WISMO tickets that your customer service team needs to address.

Finally, offering a pre-purchase EDD can help you stand out from your competition. Even though EDD is fast becoming table stakes, many businesses today fail to offer this service, which gives eCommerce merchants incorporating EDD a significant competitive advantage.

If you're looking for a way to improve your customer satisfaction scores and build trust with your customers, AfterShip's pre-purchase EDD is an effective, out-of-the-box solution that can be implemented quickly and easily. Let’s walk you through how it’s done.

Getting started with pre-purchase EDD

In just a few steps, you can give your customers access to AfterShip EDD's pre-purchase EDD predictions. Here are some simple steps.

For Shopify Users

You can use the AI Predictive EDD widget to get analytics and insights into your Shopify store in less than a minute! Simply add the AfterShip app from the Shopify App Store, and you're ready to go.

Once you have that, you'll gain access to additional features powering the widget, including:

EDD widget display on your Product Page
Powerful rule engine: this allows you to define different rules like carrier service, additional processing time, special pick-up date, and more
Inventory quantity validation: AI predicts the EDD based on your warehouse with available inventory
Order processing time: You can set order cut-off time and distribution center working days.

Once set up, your customers will see an estimated delivery date on your product pages, so they can make informed decisions about when to place their orders.

For Non-Shopify Users

If your store is not built on Shopify, you can use the AfterShip AI Predictive EDD API to get the prediction result and display it wherever you want.

This API was built as a scalable solution that can handle millions of requests during peak seasons. And the best part — it's super easy to integrate!

Whether you are a Shopify user or not, AfterShip's pre-purchase EDD solution can help you improve customer satisfaction and build trust with your customers. By utilizing the power of artificial intelligence, you can offer accurate predictions about transit times and estimated delivery dates.

Now, your customers can make informed decisions about when to place their orders, which can lead to happier customers and more sales for your business.

Happy predicting!