Delivery Dates by PIN Code
Tell Shoppers When It Will Arrive, Before They Buy
"When will it come?" and "Do you deliver to my PIN code?" are the two questions shoppers ask most. Mercayo answers both on the product page, from your own dispatch days and delivery rules, before the shopper adds anything to the bag.
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In short
What It Does
On a product page, near the ADD TO BAG button, the shopper sees Deliver To, a PIN code field and CHECK. After a 6-digit PIN code, the box answers in a few short lines:
- where it is going: "Delivering to 560001 · Bengaluru", with CHANGE to try another PIN code;
- when it should arrive: "Usually arrives Thu, 22 Oct – Mon, 26 Oct", or "Get it by Thu, 22 Oct" when the earliest and latest dates are the same day;
- cash on delivery: "Cash on delivery available", or "Cash on delivery not available here";
- delivery for this item: "Free delivery", or its price, such as "Delivery ₹49 · free over ₹999";
- your returns promise ("7-day returns") when your store details give one.
A PIN code you do not serve says "We do not deliver to this PIN code yet", and one that is not in India Post's list says "We could not find this PIN code. Please check it." When you have not given your delivery method its days, the box says "The delivery date is confirmed at checkout" instead of guessing.
How the Dates Are Worked Out
The dates on the product page add up three things you control:
- your store's Days to Dispatch (how long you take to pack and hand over, from Settings → Store Details);
- the delivery method's fastest and slowest days, or its shorter metro days when the PIN code is in a metro;
- any extra days a PIN code rule adds for that area.
Days count Monday to Saturday, from today in India, and a date never falls on a Sunday.
The product page answers for your shoppers' first-choice delivery method (or, when that method has no rate for the item's weight, the next method in your list that has one). It uses the item the shopper has chosen, its price and its weight; before a choice, the cheapest item of the product.
Where the Answer Comes From
The PIN code is looked up in Mercayo's PIN directory, the India Post list of more than 19,000 PIN codes, which gives the city, the state and whether it is a metro. Then the same rules as your delivery charges decide: your PIN code rules (stop deliveries, stop cash on delivery, add days), your zones and your rates by weight. Cash on delivery is checked against your COD settings as well: COD switched off, a PIN code or a method without COD, or an item above your highest COD order amount all show "not available here".
The browser remembers the last PIN code the shopper checked, so the next product page they open answers at once for the same place.
For your store
Why It Matters
A clear date answers the biggest doubt before a purchase, especially for gifts, festivals and anything needed by a certain day. A shopper planning a Diwali gift or a wedding outfit buys with more confidence when the page says "Get it by Thu, 22 Oct" than when it says nothing at all.
Serviceability matters just as much. Many shoppers in smaller towns have learnt that "free delivery" banners do not always reach them. Showing whether you deliver, and whether cash on delivery is available there, on the product page rather than at the last step of checkout, saves them a disappointment and saves you an abandoned bag.
Because the dates are worked out from your own dispatch days and your own delivery days, they are a promise you control, not a courier's guess. Make your days honest, add a few extra days for the districts that really take longer, and the page keeps the promise for you on every product, for every PIN code, without anyone on your team answering "when will it come?" in chat.
Step by step
How It Works
Set Your Dispatch Days
In Settings → Store Details, set Days to Dispatch: the working days from an order to handing it to the courier, from 1 to 30. These days are added to every date on the product page, and they also show as "Ships in 2 days" in the product page's store promises and as "Usually dispatched within 2 working days" in its Shipping, COD and Returns details. Leave it empty and the product page counts from the courier's days alone.
Give Your Delivery Methods Their Days
In Settings → Shipping and Delivery, open each delivery method and set its Fastest (Days) and Slowest (Days), from 0 to 60. If metro PIN codes are quicker, add Metro Fastest and Metro Slowest as well. A method with no days shows no date anywhere: the product page says the date is confirmed at checkout, and checkout shows the option without a date.
Add Extra Days for Slower Areas
Under PIN Code Rules, press ADD RULE, type the first digits of the area (for example 79 for much of the North East, or a longer start for one district) and set Extra Days, from 0 to 30. The longest matching rule wins, so a rule for a whole region can be relaxed for one city inside it. The same rule can also stop deliveries or cash on delivery there.
Test a PIN Code in the Admin
Still in Settings → Shipping and Delivery, Test a PIN Code shows what a shopper there would be offered: the zone, whether it is a metro, each method with its price and days, the rule that matched, and COD or no COD. Try the PIN codes of your best cities and your far-off ones before you rely on the dates.
Keep the Product Page Check On
Delivery date by PIN code in Settings → Product Page is on to start with. Switch it off and the box disappears from every product page. In the page editor, the box is the Delivery by PIN Code section of your product template: move it higher or lower, or remove it from one template while keeping it on the others.
Shoppers Check Their PIN Code
The shopper types their PIN code and presses CHECK. The answer follows the item they choose: pick a heavier variant or a pricier one and the delivery charge, free delivery and cash on delivery are checked again for it. CHANGE lets them try another address, such as a parent's home for a gift.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
A small Deliver To box near ADD TO BAG, with a PIN code field and CHECK. After a PIN code: the place, the dates, whether cash on delivery is available, and what delivery costs for this item, each on its own short line. A wrong PIN code gets a plain answer ("Enter a 6-digit PIN code"), and one you do not serve says so before the shopper spends any more time.
The PIN code is remembered in their browser, so every product page they open next answers for the same place straight away, and CHANGE lets them check a different address at any time.
Settings
Settings You Control
Each one is in your admin. A new store starts with the value shown.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
Mercayo's team can switch the product page's PIN check off or on for a store, with a reason your admin shows; like every override, it is kept in Mercayo's audit log. Mercayo keeps the PIN directory up to date for every store, so a new PIN code is known everywhere at once. The days, rules and rates are always yours: Mercayo never edits them. Each check is worked out fresh on Mercayo's server and never served from the page cache, and the number of checks one visitor can make in a few minutes is limited for every store, so nobody can scrape your delivery rules.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- There is no cut-off hour ("order by 2 pm to ship today").
- There is no holiday calendar: only Sundays are skipped.
- Dates come from your own days, not from a courier's live estimate.
- The product page answers for the first-choice method only; checkout lists every method with its own dates.
- Checkout's dates count the method's days and any PIN code rule's extra days, but not your dispatch days, so with dispatch days set they can read earlier than the product page's.
- Free delivery on the product page is judged on that one item's price; the bag judges the whole bag after offers.
Questions
About Delivery Dates by PIN Code
Why does a date never fall on a Sunday?
Dates count Monday to Saturday only, because most couriers do not deliver on Sundays. When the count would end on a Sunday, the date moves to the Monday. There is no holiday calendar, so if you close for a festival, add a few days to your dispatch days for that week.
Are the product page's dates the same as checkout's?
They use the same method days, metro days and PIN code rules, but they are not identical. The product page also adds your dispatch days and answers for your first-choice method only. Checkout lists every method on offer with its own dates, counted from the method's days and any extra days for the PIN code, without the dispatch days.
What is a metro PIN code?
One that Mercayo's PIN directory marks as a metro. When a delivery method has metro days set, those days are used for metro PIN codes instead of its normal days, so a shopper in a big city can be promised a quicker date than one in a small town.
Can I hide the check on some products?
Yes. The box is the Delivery by PIN Code section of your product template, so remove it from the template those products use and keep it on the others. To hide it everywhere, switch off Delivery date by PIN code in Settings → Product Page.
What does the shopper see if I have not set any days?
The PIN check still says whether you deliver there, the delivery charge and whether cash on delivery is available. In place of dates it says "The delivery date is confirmed at checkout", so nothing is promised that you did not set.
Why does the answer change when the shopper picks another variant?
Because delivery depends on the item. A heavier variant can fall into another weight band of your rates, a pricier one can reach your free-delivery amount, and a very expensive one can go above your highest cash on delivery amount. The box checks again whenever the choice changes.
Does the check slow my product pages down?
No. The page itself comes from the page cache as usual; the PIN check is a small separate request made only when the shopper checks a PIN code, or when their browser already remembers one.
Related
Related Features
- Delivery ChargesSet delivery methods, group states into zones, price by weight, give free delivery above an amount, and add rules for PIN codes, then test any PIN code.
- Delivery Options at CheckoutWhen a PIN code has more than one delivery option, shoppers choose one at checkout, each with its price and the dates it should arrive.
- Product PagesPhotos that zoom, options that never guess, delivery dates by PIN code, a buy bar that follows and rows of related products, on every product.
- Cash on DeliveryOffer cash on delivery with your own fee, a limit on the cash a courier collects, and the PIN codes and delivery options where it is not offered.
- Product TemplatesMake alternative templates for product, collection and category pages, then choose which products or lists use them; the rest keep the default.
More in Shipping: Delivery Charges · Shipping Labels · Failed Deliveries · Order Tracking · Exchanges · Returns and Refunds · Packing Slips
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