Delivery times from China: what to promise your customers
3 min readPublished Team Zentorix
Every beginner asks how to make shipping faster. The better question is how to make it predictable, because customers cancel over uncertainty far more often than over waiting.
Why the promise matters more than the speed
A customer who is told two to three weeks and waits eighteen days is satisfied. A customer who is told five days and waits twelve writes a review that costs you the next ten orders. The waiting time is the same in both cases.
Where the delivery time belongs
- On the product page, next to the price and not hidden in the footer
- In the cart, before the customer enters their address
- In the order confirmation, together with the tracking link
Build your window from real data
Take the transit time your supplier actually delivers, not the one in the listing, and add a buffer for processing and customs. If your last ten orders took nine to sixteen days, your promise is not ten days. It is two to three weeks.
Under-promise, then deliver early. An order that arrives before the announced window is the cheapest positive review you will ever get.
When a European warehouse is worth it
Suppliers with EU stock cut the wait to a few days and cost more per unit. The higher purchase price is often cheaper than it looks once you count the cancellations, the support time and the refunds you avoid — especially for products people could also buy locally.
The emails that save your support
Three automatic messages cover almost everything: order received, shipped with tracking, and a short note when the parcel takes longer than announced. The third one is the one almost nobody sends, and it is the one that prevents payment disputes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to state a delivery time?
For consumers in the EU you have to inform customers about the delivery date or period before the order is placed. A vague “ships soon” is not enough, and it is also the sentence that produces the most support emails.
Does a European warehouse always pay off?
Not always. You pay a higher purchase price and get shorter delivery times and fewer cancellations in return. It pays off where customers compare with local shops, and it rarely pays off for cheap impulse products with a thin margin.
What do I do when a parcel is stuck?
Write to the customer before they write to you. A short message with the tracking status and a clear option — wait or refund — keeps most people calm, and it keeps the case out of a payment dispute.