How to Offer Next-Day and Named-Day Delivery on Shopify

Who it is for

Stores adding delivery dates or express options

Time needed

1 to 3 hours, more for a date picker

What you need

Your packing times and carrier cutoffs

A delivery promise at checkout is really three settings working together: the time of day you stop shipping same-day, how long you take to pack an order, and how long the carrier takes. Get any one wrong and checkout promises Tuesday for a parcel that lands on Thursday. That can cost more in support tickets and refunds than leaving the date off.

This guide sets up all three in Shopify, then adds a next-day option and, if you need it, named-day delivery. Settings, eligibility and limits come from Shopify's help center and developer docs, as checked on 7 November 2026. Delivery dates are newer than most Shopify features and change often, so check your admin for the current labels.

How Shopify calculates a delivery date

Shopify adds your fulfillment time (order placed to handed to the carrier) to the carrier's transit time (collected to delivered). A few rules apply on top:

• Cutoff: 12 pm in the local time zone of the shipping origin. Orders after that count from the next business day.
• Business days: Monday to Friday. Holidays don't count as fulfillment time.
• Weekends: they don't count towards fulfillment time, but they're included in the delivery estimate.
• Stock: dates only show when the product's inventory is above 0.

Step 1: Set an honest fulfillment time

Everything starts here. Shopify's options are Same business day, Next business day, 2 business days or Custom (3 to 40 business days, or 1 to 8 weeks). The setting also sets the "Fulfill by" date in your orders list, so your team sees which orders are due.

Pick the time you actually hit on a busy Monday, not on a quiet Wednesday. If you pack once a day at 3 pm, "Same business day" with a 12 pm cutoff is honest. If you pack every other day, choose "Next business day" or slower. A promise you keep beats a fast one you miss.

Step 2a: Turn on automated delivery dates

Automated dates use your own fulfillment history to predict arrival. They're the better choice once a store has shipping data, because they reflect what really happens rather than what the carrier advertises.

1. Check eligibility. Your store needs the Basic plan or higher, an active fulfillment location in an eligible country and at least one fulfilled domestic order. Eligible countries include the US, Canada, New Zealand and select European countries such as Austria, Germany and the UK.
2. Open the setting. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Estimated delivery dates.
3. Select Automated, choose your fulfillment time and click Save.
4. Turn on other surfaces if you want them. Dates show at checkout and in order confirmation emails. Showing them on your online store and in the Shop app are separate settings.

Shopify falls back to manual dates when the prediction is longer than 5 days for US, Canadian or New Zealand orders, or 4 days for European orders. Orders between different regions don't show dates at all.

Step 2b: Or set up manual delivery dates

1. Use shipping profiles. If your store still has legacy shipping settings, update to shipping profiles first.
2. Use a supported rate type: flat rates with transit time, shipping label calculated rates, or negotiated carrier-calculated rates.
3. Add transit times to flat rates. In Settings > Shipping and delivery, open your profile, edit each rate and choose a Transit time, or enter a custom one.
4. Turn on manual dates. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Estimated delivery dates, select Manual, choose a fulfillment time and save.

Manual dates have limits worth knowing before you rely on them. They don't work with rates from third-party shipping apps or negotiated FedEx rates. If checkout shows a mix of eligible and ineligible rates, no dates show at all, even on the eligible ones. Shipping label calculated rates support dates only in the US, Canada and Australia.

Step 3: Add a next-day shipping option

A next-day option is just a shipping rate with a short transit time, backed by a fulfillment time and a carrier service that can deliver it. Set it up like this:

1. Confirm your carrier service. In the US, Shopify lists USPS Priority Mail Express at 1 to 2 business days. For true overnight delivery, check your UPS or FedEx account's services and cutoff times. In the UK, Royal Mail Tracked 24 is next business day and DPD Next Day covers mainland UK addresses.
2. Create the rate. Open your profile, click Add shipping option in the domestic zone, and name it with the condition, for example "Next-day delivery, order by 12 pm".
3. Price it. Use a flat price that covers your most expensive express label, or a carrier-calculated rate for the express service.
4. Set the transit time to 1 day on a flat rate.
5. Set fulfillment time to Same business day, and make sure the parcels really leave on the day.
6. Test it before and after 12 pm, and on a Friday, to see the dates customers get.

Step 4: Offer named-day delivery

Named-day delivery lets the customer choose the day, for a birthday or a time they'll be home. Shopify's shipping rates, estimated delivery dates and local delivery settings don't include a field for the customer to pick a date, so you add one. There are three ways:

A cart-page picker is a form field named like attributes[Delivery date], which Shopify saves with the cart as a cart attribute. Shopify's developer docs show the pattern for adding these fields to the cart template. Pickers on the information, shipping or payment steps of checkout need a checkout UI extension, and those steps are open to extensions only on Shopify Plus.

Whichever method you use, set these rules before you build:

1. Earliest date: today plus fulfillment time plus transit time, respecting the 12 pm cutoff.
2. Blocked dates: weekends your carrier doesn't deliver, holidays and days you're closed.
3. Latest date: how far ahead you'll hold an order, often two to four weeks.
4. Dispatch date: named-day means shipping on a set day, so the picked date must reach your packing list.
5. Visibility: check that the chosen date shows on the order in your admin and on your packing slip before you go live.

Next-day local delivery

If you deliver yourself, Shopify's local delivery is set up under Settings > Shipping and delivery, then Local delivery in the Additional delivery methods section. You can deliver within a set distance or to listed postal codes, set a delivery price per zone and add a minimum order amount. Customers must leave a phone number and can add delivery instructions. The delivery information you write appears in the order confirmation email rather than at checkout, so put your delivery days there too.

Common mistakes

• A fulfillment time you can't keep. Every late parcel turns a delivery date into a broken promise.
• Calling a 1 to 2 day service "next day". Name the rate after what the service really does.
• Mixing app rates with Shopify rates when using manual dates, which hides dates for everyone.
• Forgetting Fridays and holidays in rate names and date pickers.
• Out-of-stock and preorder products that never show dates, then confusing customers who saw dates on other items.
• Picked dates that never reach the packer. If the date isn't on the packing slip, it's easy to miss.

Delivery date checklist

1. Fulfillment time set to what you hit on your busiest day.
2. Automated or manual dates turned on in Estimated delivery dates.
3. Transit times on every flat rate.
4. Next-day rate named with its cutoff, backed by a real overnight service.
5. No app rates mixed in if you use manual dates.
6. Named-day picker with earliest, latest and blocked dates.
7. Picked date visible on the order and packing slip.
8. Tests run before and after 12 pm, on a Friday and before a holiday.

Next steps

Set the fulfillment time and turn on delivery dates first. That alone gives customers a date at checkout. Add the next-day option once you know your carrier's cutoff, and named-day only if your customers really ask for it. For US carriers and rates, see USPS and UPS shipping on Shopify. For UK carriers, Royal Mail vs Evri vs DPD compares next-day options.

A clear delivery date is also a conversion point, which is why it's on my Shopify CRO audit checklist. If you need a cart-page date picker or a Plus checkout extension built, that's Shopify development work, starting from $300 with a fixed quote.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Automated delivery dates, Shopify Help Center
2. Manual delivery dates, Shopify Help Center
3. Managing fulfillment time, Shopify Help Center
4. Local delivery, Shopify Help Center
5. Checkout UI extensions, Shopify.dev
6. Cart template, Shopify.dev

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews