Customers are more likely to buy if they know and trust when they will get what they order. Studies show cart conversion goes up about 5% with a trustworthy promise, and can go as high as 12% if the promised date is competitive.

What do we mean by competitive?

Consumer preferences have changed. Over 80% now expect a free shipping option, while over 50% expect a 2-day or better shipping option. What's scary is almost 40% expect both!

Being upfront on product description pages or cart checkout flows about the fastest date a customer can get an order for free is how you start to be competitive and win consumer dollars that they might spend elsewhere. Increasingly decreasing the cost to meet that date until it's free to the customer is when you really start cooking.

But delivery promises are really hard. Did you know they are mostly just a guess? Even Amazon's down-to-the-minute delivery promise is based on a stochastic model with a threshold confidence variable.

So for you to do a competitive delivery promise for fast and free shipping, you need a strong data science foundation to project what is possible with your business operations.