"Order by 2 p.m. for same-day delivery" is one of the most persuasive lines on a product page and one of the easiest to get wrong. Set the cutoff too late and orders arrive after the window, or not at all. Set it too early and the promise covers so few orders that nobody notices it. A good cutoff is the output of a short calculation, not a round number someone liked the look of.
The calculation runs backward from the customer's window. Once you have the pieces, a cutoff is simple to set, and simple to defend when something changes.
Start at the end of the window
A same-day promise has four time costs sitting between the moment the customer clicks "buy" and the moment the order arrives:
- Pack time. How long between an order arriving and it being ready to hand over, on a normal day and on a busy one. Use the busy number.
- A buffer. Orders do not arrive in neat intervals. A few minutes of slack covers the order that needs a second look, the missing label, the box that needs to be repacked.
- The pickup. The time the courier collects. It is fixed by the route, not by you.
- The route. How long the driver needs to cover the stops in the run. This is what determines the last pickup that can still make the window.
The last pickup that can still meet a window is the end of the window minus the route time. The order cutoff is that last pickup minus pack time and the buffer. Everything else on the page follows from those two subtractions.
One example, four windows
Suppose a shop builds same-day runs of about six stops, which take around 90 minutes, and it needs 45 minutes to pack an order and leave a margin. The same arithmetic gives a different cutoff for each window it offers:
| Window offered | Last pickup that still works | Order cutoff |
|---|---|---|
| 12 to 2 p.m. | 12:30 p.m. | 11:45 a.m. |
| 2 to 4 p.m. | 2:30 p.m. | 1:45 p.m. |
| 4 to 6 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. | 3:45 p.m. |
| 6 to 8 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 5:45 p.m. |
Cutoffs that vary by zone
A single cutoff for the whole delivery area is easy to display and wrong for someone. A delivery to a neighbourhood ten minutes from the pickup point can honour a later cutoff than one that crosses a bridge. If your area is large, the honest answer is zone-based cutoffs: later for close zones, earlier for distant ones. How Montréal's streets, bridges and parking affect route time explains why the same distance does not always take the same time.
On a same-day service the cutoff is not a number you guess. You tell the courier when orders are ready and where they are going, and the cutoff that works for your pickup location is confirmed from there.
Where cutoffs go wrong
- Measuring from "order placed" instead of "ready to hand over". An order placed at 1:58 is not ready at 1:58. If the cutoff is meant to guarantee a hand-over time, count the pack time.
- Treating every day the same. Saturday staffing, a holiday weekend or a promotional event can double the pack time. Tie the cutoff to the day, not a permanent setting.
- Ignoring capacity. A route that is full is full. If same-day slots are limited, close the option when they are gone, rather than accepting orders you will deliver tomorrow.
- Moving the cutoff and not telling anyone. If peak days shift it earlier, say so where customers decide. See peak season planning and, for floral, a four-week Valentine's countdown.
Show the cutoff where the decision is made
A cutoff is only useful if the customer sees it at the moment they decide. Put it on the product page, in the cart, and at checkout. A live countdown ("Order within 1 hour 20 minutes for delivery today") is clearer than a static time, because it is specific. After the cutoff, the offer should change gracefully to the next available delivery, not disappear.
Whatever you display, make sure the thing it promises is a window and not a vague "today". Customers who are told a window can plan around it; customers told "today" cannot. That is the same logic as preventing failed delivery attempts: the more precisely the promise is stated, the less often it is missed.
Review it quarterly
A cutoff is a hypothesis about how long things take, and it deserves the same scrutiny as any other. Once a quarter, compare the orders that arrived within the window with those that did not, grouped by how close to the cutoff they were placed. If late orders cluster just before the cutoff, move it earlier. If nothing ever misses, you may be leaving same-day sales on the table. For help choosing between same-day and a standing route, same-day versus scheduled delivery covers the trade-offs.
Not sure what cutoff your pickup location can support? Share your pickup address and order volume when you request a quote and we will confirm the cutoff that works.