Introduction

Merchants occasionally want to provide the customer the option of Saturday delivery for overnight and 2-day shipments ordered on Thursday or Friday.  UltraCart can support this additional level of functionality if the configuration is setup properly.

Defining Cut-off Times

The first step is to define when a distribution center discontinues shipping each day.  This will allow UltraCart to know exactly when the shipment can occur next.  To configure this go to:

Scroll down to the "Shipment Cut-off Times" section. Specify a cut-off time for each day that shipping occurs. The cut-off time should be formatted in military time and in EST zone. The image below shows an example for a shipping location in New York, shipping Monday through Friday, with a shipment cut off time of 3PM EST. Notice that the cut-off time is 15:00 in Monday through Friday.

Shipping Checkout Options

The next step is to allow the customer to select the date of their delivery. To enable this option go to:

Once you are at the Checkout Options screen, make certain the Advanced button is checked.  Then check the box labeled "Allow customer to select delivery date" as shown below.

This is how the customer will indicate they want the next day air package that is shipping on Friday to be delivered on Saturday instead of Monday.

Methods

Finally we need to turn on the estimated delivery on each method to real-time.  To do this go to:

Real-time estimation is only available on FedEx shipping at this time.

Checkout Demonstration

During the checkout, the customer can click on the calendar icon next to the delivery date field and select Saturday.



After continuing to the next page, the shipping preferences will only show options that provide a delivery on the selected day.



Notice the shipping option also displays the delivery date. In this example we were ordering far enough in advance that 2-day air could ship on Thursday and arrive on Saturday at a substantially lower cost than a next day air shipment.