Getting Delivery Times Right on CDON

A guide for merchants on how delivery time settings affect your performance and your customers' experience

Delivery experience is one of the most important factors in customer satisfaction on our marketplace. When a customer places an order, they trust that the delivery time shown on the product page is accurate - and they expect their package to arrive within that window.

What is "Delivery Time" on CDON?

The delivery time displayed to customers on the product page is the total number of days from when the order is placed to when the package is in the customer's hands. This is not just the carrier's transit time. It includes everything:

  1. Your handling time - the time it takes you to pick, pack, and hand the order over to your carrier
  2. The carrier's transit time - the time it takes the carrier to deliver the package to the customer

Together, these make up the full delivery promise shown to the customer.

How Delivery Time Is Set via the Article API

When you configure your articles through the CDON Article API (using the update_article action), you set delivery time per market using the shipping_time field:

 
json
"shipping_time": [
  {
    "market": "se",
    "min": 5,
    "max": 7
  }
]

The two values are:

  • min — the shortest number of days a delivery can take (best-case scenario)
  • max — the longest number of days a delivery can take (worst-case scenario)

This is critical to understand: the max value represents the total number of days from the order being created until the customer has received the package. It is not the carrier's transit time alone, and it is not just the time from when you ship the parcel. It is the full end-to-end delivery time.

The shipping_time field is required when updating articles, so you should always set it deliberately - never guess.

Example: If it takes you 2 days to process and ship the order, and your carrier typically delivers in 3–5 days, then your settings should be:

  • min: 5 (2 days handling + 3 days fastest transit)
  • max: 7 (2 days handling + 5 days slowest transit)

If you only enter the carrier's transit time (3–5) and ignore your own handling time, the delivery promise shown to the customer will be too optimistic - and the customer will feel let down when the package arrives later than expected.

Common mistake: Many merchants set max to their carrier's transit time only (e.g., 3–5 days), forgetting to add their own processing time. This results in packages consistently arriving after the promised date.

The 7-Day Auto-Cancellation Rule (Fulfillment Time)

CDON has an automatic cancellation policy: if an order is not marked as shipped within 7 days of being placed, it will be automatically cancelled.

This 7-day window is your fulfillment time - the maximum time you have to accept the order, pick and pack the items, and hand the parcel to your carrier. It is part of the overall delivery time, not in addition to it.

Here's how it fits together:

 
|--- Fulfillment (max 7 days) ---|--- Carrier Transit ---|
|                                                         |
Order placed                                    Customer receives package
|___________________ Total Delivery Time _________________|

So if your Maximum Shipping Time is set to 7 days, you are telling the customer the package will arrive within a week - but you have also used your entire fulfillment window just to ship it, leaving zero days for transit. That clearly won't work.

Make sure your Maximum Shipping Time accounts for both your handling time AND the carrier's transit time.

Why This Matters: Missing Rate and OTDR

CDON measures merchant delivery performance through two key metrics:

OTDR (On-Time Delivery Rate) - the percentage of orders delivered within the promised delivery window. This is measured against the Maximum Shipping Time you have set.

Missing Rate - "Where is my parcel?" tickets / total order rows - customers can only report after max delivery date has passed.

If you see your missing rate increasing, it's a clear signal that one of two things is happening:

  1. Packages are not arriving on time - your delivery time settings may be too optimistic, or your handling time is longer than you've accounted for.
  2. Delivery confirmation is not reaching the customer - your carrier is not sending tracking updates or SMS notifications, so the customer doesn't know their package has arrived or is on its way.

Both of these issues damage the customer experience and will negatively affect your performance score on CDON.

You can follow your Missing Rate and OTDR at any time in the Merchant Center Analytics to stay on top of your delivery performance.

Delivery Confirmation Is Your Responsibility

It is the merchant's responsibility to ensure that delivery confirmation reaches the customer. This means:

  • Choose a carrier that provides reliable tracking and delivery notifications (SMS, or app-based alerts)
  • Ensure correct contact details are passed to the carrier so the customer receives updates
  • Verify that your carrier actually sends delivery confirmation when the package is delivered

Quick Checklist: Are Your Delivery Times Set Correctly?

  • Does your Maximum Shipping Time include both your handling time and the carrier's transit time?
  • Is your Minimum Shipping Time realistic for your fastest possible scenario?
  • Is your Maximum Shipping Time realistic if there are delays and therefor the slowest possible scenario?
  • Does your carrier send SMS notifications to the customer?
  • Are you consistently shipping orders well within the 7-day fulfillment window?
  • Have you checked your Missing Rate and OTDR recently in the CDON Merchant Center Portal?

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