Show estimated delivery dates (EDD)

“When will my order arrive?” is the single most common question in ecommerce support inboxes. An estimated delivery date (EDD) on your tracking page answers it before it’s asked — customers see a concrete date instead of a vague status, and your WISMO (“where is my order?”) ticket volume drops accordingly.

Parcel Track can show an EDD from two sources: the carrier’s own estimate, or custom rules you define. You can use either or combine both.

Carrier-provided EDD

Many of the 1,000+ supported carriers include a delivery estimate in their tracking data. When available, this is the most accurate source — it reflects the carrier’s live network conditions and updates as the shipment moves.

To enable it:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps → Parcel Track → Tracking Page.
2. Open the Estimated delivery date section.
3. Toggle on Show carrier estimated delivery date.
4. Click Save.

When the carrier provides an estimate, the tracking page shows it prominently near the top, e.g. “Estimated delivery: Thursday, July 16”. If the carrier updates the estimate mid-transit, the page updates automatically.

Note: Not every carrier sends an EDD, and some only send it after the first scan. That’s where custom rules come in.

Custom EDD rules

Custom rules let you compute an estimate yourself, so customers see a date even before the carrier provides one — or when it never does. A custom EDD is built from two parts:

• Processing time — days between the order being placed and handed to the carrier (your fulfillment speed).
• Transit time per destination — days in transit, configurable by destination country or region.

Set up custom rules

1. Go to Apps → Parcel Track → Tracking Page → Estimated delivery date.
2. Toggle on Custom delivery estimates.
3. Set your processing time (e.g. 2 days). If you use custom pre-shipment statuses, align this with the durations you set there.
4. Click Add destination rule and define transit times, for example:
   • United States: 3–5 days
   • Canada: 5–8 days
   • Europe: 7–12 days
   • Rest of world: 10–20 days
5. Choose the display format — a single date or a range (“July 14 – July 17”). Ranges are safer and still satisfying for customers.
6. Click Save.

Parcel Track calculates: order date + processing time + transit time for the destination, and shows the result on the tracking page from the moment the order syncs.

Which estimate wins?

If both are enabled, the carrier EDD takes over as soon as the carrier provides one, since it’s based on live data. Until then, customers see your custom estimate. This gives full coverage across the whole order lifecycle.

Tip: Don’t guess your transit times — measure them. The Transit time report and Order-to-delivery time report show your real historical averages per destination and carrier. Set your rules slightly above the average: an order arriving a day early delights; a day late disappoints.

Where the EDD appears

• Tracking page — headline placement above the status timeline, on both the proxy page and HTML embeds.
• Shipping notifications — add the EDD variable to your email templates so estimates appear in “shipped” and “in transit” emails. See Customize notifications.
• Customer accounts — the tracking block inside Shopify customer accounts can display the EDD.

The date is localized automatically on multilingual tracking pages — formats and month names follow the customer’s language.

Why it’s worth setting up

• Fewer support tickets. A visible date is the answer to the most-asked question.
• Less anxiety, better reviews. Uncertainty, not slowness, is what frustrates customers most.
• A better sales surface. Relaxed customers browsing your tracking page are more receptive to product recommendations.

Need help choosing sensible transit times? Email support@parcel-track.com — we’re happy to review your setup.