Adding handling time to USPS

[Jesse_Carter]

How do I go about adding handling time to USPS calculated rates in setting?  Currently it shows as 1 business day for priority shipping and 2 business days for first class.  Is there a way to add an extra day for handling to those numbers?

I do not want people buying an item Monday afternoon and thinking they are getting it Tuesday for example.

[Max]

Hi, @Jesse_Carter. 

This is Max from the Shopify Team.

Using calculated rates from a provider means that your customers will see the name and timing based on the provider, rather than manual dates and rates set by yourself. 

If you require some time to pick and pack orders, or even make products, it would be good to make that clear to your customer at some point along the way. This could be in product descriptions, cart pages, email notifications, etc. Have you implemented any of these?

I'd also suggest adding a shipping page (this could be an FAQ) so, customers could reference the shipping times and processes before and after making a purchase. I'd suggest reading this post - The Benefits of an FAQ Page (And How to Do It Right) for some more ideas on that.

Cheers,
Max

[Daniel_Ong]

Hi Shopify,

Despite putting all the written material everywhere as you'd suggested for the customers to read about the handling time, a lot of them simply miss it and relies on the courier's calculated timeframe.  Also, if you're able to allow us to add additional handling charges to the courier's calculated rate, then i don't see why you wouldn't be able to do this to the shipping date. 

This had happen to us again just recently where USPS quoted 2 days to ship but since customers didn't receive it within 2 days, they're 1.) waste their time so they're upset, 2.) request shipping refund $35.   3.) wants to cancel $270 worth of sales 4.)  Waste our time.

Thanks in advance for hearing us, your customers, out.  I hope to think that we're on the same team here since when our customers are happy, your customers are happy too right?

[Max]

Hi, Daniel. 

I definitely agree that some more flexibility would help with this kind of fulfillment flow in your shop. I'll share your example and feedback with our Development team. The suggestion of creating a comparable field to the rate adjustment option would be an interesting and useful addition. 

For anyone reading up on this, you can make some adjustments to calculated rates like this. Settings > Shipping > click Edit beside the relevant zone > and click Edit beside the relevant calculated rate. A window should pop up with information similar to this: 

Other adjustments (that do not appear in this pop up) are not currently available with calculated rates, but please feel free to share any similar examples or requests with us so we can advocate for some changes to better serve your business needs. 

Thanks for taking the time to share some more details with us!

Best, 
Max

[Daniel_Ong]

Hi max, I appreciate your help to forward this information on so improvements can be made. 🤗. Which way would u recommend that we take to monitor this progress so we know it's actually being worked on versus being a clever response to get us off your back? 😊

I apologise if that was offensive as I do not intend to do so. I just care to do my best to see this thru.

[George_C]

Another request for this seemingly basic feature that I am surprised to find not already implemented years ago. 

Not only would I like to be able to edit the handling time for listings, but I'd like to be able to offer multiple handling times for different listings. Some of my items ship from my studio, others are print-on-demand and require additional processing time. 

[Max]

Hi, @Daniel_Ong 

Max, again.

We don't have an external place to monitor the requests of other merchants - it's an internal/confidential place where we mark interest and progress in certain features, changes, and product launches. So, for this specific issue, you'll have to trust that I've shared the pertinent information with our team, which is an important part of my job (no offense taken). 

If you are interested in knowing some more about changes that are being released, then there are a few places where you can keep an eye out.

• Shopify Blog announcements - this is usually for impactful announcements, often linking to help docs, etc.
• Shopify Changelog - this is where updates are recorded with a small description of the change.

Cheers,
Max

[Max]

Hi, @George_C.
 
Would you be able to elaborate a bit more on the setup that you have and the impact on your business? It sounds like your frustration might be more geared toward the shipping setup in general, rather than the automated rates?

If you're using any workarounds currently, could you also let us know some more about that?

Thanks,
Max

[George_C]

I have some items that ship from my studio. I tend to ship those within 1-2 days.

I also offer print-on-demand items which have a variable handling time by the provider of 2-7 business days. 

I would like a central place to assign "handling time profiles" at the product, product type, or perhaps collection level. 

I would like to have the option to see this information displayed both on the product page itself, as well as during the checkout process. At checkout, it should at least appear at the Shipping Options stage, if not just displayed somewhere fixed throughout the checkout process. It should probably be added to individual items in the cart, since as in my situation, different items can have different handling and shipping times. 

It should be displayed separately from the shipping times. It should be obvious that handling is the seller's responsibility, and the shipping time is the shipping provider's responsibility. 

As the original post explains, the way it's currently set up can give the impressions that items will ship immediately and be there in 1-2 days, when that 1-2 days is only for the actual shipping process. It may take a day or two to actually get it dropped off and scanned at the shipping service. 

Perhaps you could even add "rush processing" options for an additional fee. 

In addition to just general customer awareness of handling time for orders, at times I am working out of town for extended periods and would like to be able to edit my handling time for studio-shipped items in one place and have it apply to all items assigned that handling time setting. Think of it like a "vacation mode" setting that doesn't require you to shut down your entire shop (as the Help docs currently suggest).

Shutting down your shop for vacations is not only a very poor idea for customer experience, but a terrible idea for your hard-earned Google search result placements and listings. Can't believe that's the official suggestion from Shopify. 

The automatic calculated shipping settings are great. I just want to see an additional handling time feature implemented as well. 

[QueenCustomClaw]

Absolutely! Sell handmade items & I came over from Etsy. We could check a field which indicates the number of days an item took to make/fulfill before shipping. It then added those days along with the estimates USPS to give the buyer a beautifully stream lined date they could expect to RECIEVE the item. I have filled out ALL fields, tabs, cart thank you and email info reiterating this. It’s sad how people literally DON’T read the dis riot ion, policies, important info, FAQ etc. this lets them know at the time of adding toncartbghe time line.
Love the suggestion it could be added at the mailing level- like we did for the “handeling fife” we can add on tonyhe calculated field.

Finally- to go along with that- it would also be nice the if we could arrange orders by due date. Help us plan the week. If we have A list of items which need to be fulfilled based on processing date (Etsy does this) we can keep in track. Another step I. Keeping us on a guided time frame. Happy clients are cli Mrs we keep!

[QueenCustomClaw]

Capitalize on the mass exodus from Etsy. Shopify isn’t JUST for drop shippers. It’s nice to have more standard flexible options for people who actually MAKE what we sell.

[Anindo]

Editing the handling time for different services(listings)is something which seems to me as a custom requirement. Fetching real time delivery estimates from USPS can be easily done with Shopify and also the Multi Carrier Shipping label app. However, most of the times, some minor editing is required. We are quite interested in this feature and would like to know more about this specific requirement so that an appropriate solution can be devised. Do contact us if you are interested.

[QueenCustomClaw]

So, in thinking if it as compared to Etsy... when a client adds something to the cart- it calculates the estimated receives day. The day is calculated by adding the PROCESSING TIME+ with USPS (other other selected courier) estimated delivery days... together it will spit out an “estimated date of arrival.”
Furthermore, how it is helpful to the SHOP OWNER, it also will enable us to organize our order que by the date things should ship. Just as we would enter the weight for each item, we would enter the estimated processing time for each item. And in this way orders would be prioritized by production date. so for example some of the non-handmade items in my shop can ship the next day when someone put that in their cart, it would say two days processing plus say three days USPS delivery is five days on top of today’s date and it’s intuitive enough to know not to count Saturday’s or Sundays.
The client knows what the expected amount of time is to receive the item. I listed in my shop in the FAQ in the policies in the shipping even a per each item but it still doesn’t prevent clients from not being aware. I even add it to the checkout page they can’t check out without seeing the expected processing time. But because it doesn’t pre-calculate it for them they don’t take the time to count the calendar days plus the amount of days for USPS to ship.
As a shop owner how the current system is problematic to me, I process orders in the order received. However some of those orders really would only take one to two days to process. That means every day before I sit down to create my product for a custom order I have to do a search for each item that only takes two days. If the system was intuitive and would remember the products that I have together with the number of days it takes to process and frontload those at the top of the list in this way I could process orders in the order received but also in the priority they should be.

[Anindo]

We do have a concept called 'Automation rules' in the Multi Carrier Shipping label app. With this, you can setup rules for shipping based on different criteria like weight, order price, total quantity. In this, there is a possibility to add estimation days based on product type. This should enable you to setup the processing time which can be added to the USPS delivery times returned by the API. If this sounds good, you can contact our team privately. 

Regarding your second query, we have encountered many customers facing similar problems. Hence we came up with a solution in the Multi Carrier Shipping label app that would allow the store owner to snooze the order till a certain date. The order gets hidden from his view and pops up in the exact date. Rather than directly answering your query, i was just trying to suggest an approach change. Do you think this works for you?

Note : If you have a normal USPS account and want to fulfil orders, we recommend you to have go with Shopify's USPS integration as you would need an eVS account to work with the Multi Carrier Shipping label app.

[Joy_Merryman]

I’m having this exact problem. 
Setting customer expectations is essential. FAQ pages and text on a product page goes unnoticed. 
On the back end, sorting by processing time would be a huge timesaver and would improve my ability to ship faster and meet some of those expectations. 

[QueenCustomClaw]

Fully agreed! I even changed the script at the checkout so that they know before purchasing again to anticipate processing time since my items are handmade.
So, for now I have made key search terms so I can search for groups of items that have a two day processing time versus a two week processing time. Hope that helps

[QueenCustomClaw]

Multi Carrier Shipping label app, is an additional $9 month and still really doesn’t solve the issue. further to pay for an app that then I have to write code for is also problematic. I don’t necessarily need clients to know once it’s shipped how many days it’ll get there. Because that can all be seen with their tracking number. I need them to know the downtime in between the order and the actual shipment, and then aggregate those two times...The processing time plus the shipping time. It doesn’t necessarily seem like something that should be custom or some sort of elevated request. Every shop needs to provide some level of expectation or understanding of when that item will be delivered to them not just how many days it takes to ship but the processing and the shipping together. These are basic and fundamental needs of every store owner and they should be provided for is an additional way to make each shop on Shopify successful. The processing time plus the shipping time. It doesn’t necessarily seem like something that should be Custom or some sort of elevated request. Every shop needs to provide some level of expectation or understanding of when that item will be delivered to them not just how many days it takes to ship but the processing and the shipping to gather. These are basic and fundamental needs of every store owner and they should be provided for as an additional way to make each shop on (Shopify) successful. additionally, for filling orders should have that built in to the system. Again I encourage you to check out Etsy. Look at what they offer sellers for free. And while the front the storefront may not be as elegant as a custom-made store front website, the backend is much more sophisticated than Shopify. But however that is just my experience. Comparing apples to apples there’s a lot that we can be done on Etsy without having to hire a programmer and spend additional money is for an app to do something that’s fundamental and necessary for the success of the business fulfillment. Shop a phi‘s shipping integration itself is awesome. Because it’s so wonderful there’s really no need to upgrade and pay additional money for a shipping program when Shopify already imports the client data and send them updated shipping and tracking information.

[miga]

Has this issue been addressed yet?  This is a very basic, common need and I am shocked that this is not available on Shopify.  The ability to add a handling time is available on literally every other platform out there.  In fact, I have had experience with Shopify partners/apps that are able to do this as well.  I am transitioning my business and just assumed this function was available.  FAQs, statements, descriptions, etc, will not satisfy a customer that is given a delivery date through Shopify.  Any updates or is this just not the right platform for demand driven businesses?

[Diane_Scaman]

Hi, has this been fixed yet? As others say, it's a very basic and necessary feature to keep customers informed about their estimated delivery date, especially when the processing times are long (for handmade items, etc). As much as I hate always having to add expensive and unreliable external apps, I'd even take one of those right now. Any suggestions for how to fix this issue?

[QueenCustomClaw]

Still have not received a satisfactory resolution to this basic issue. So I have to go in to every form and write code to change the X factor times. And when those expected times fluctuate I have to go in again and re-write the code in all the places I previously put it