An order is considered late if it was not shipped within your lead time. This is based on your lead time when the order is placed; any changes made to lead time do not affect existing orders.
To view your Late shipment metrics, visit How do I view my shop’s performance analytics?
How is the late shipment metric calculated?
The Late shipment value you see on your Top Shop page shows the percentage of orders within the current qualification quarter that are shipped after the expected ship date (or the scheduled ship date, if applicable).
In most cases, the expected ship date is calculated based on your shop’s lead time on the day the order was placed by the retailer. This is different from the estimated ship date, which is the date that you enter when accepting the order. You may also see this referred to as the committed to shipping by date in your portal.
The estimated ship date that you provide when accepting the order is not considered in the late shipment calculation. The order must be scanned into transit by the shipping carrier on or before the expected ship date (or the scheduled ship date for scheduled orders).
For more information about Top Shop, visit: Top Shop program for North America based brands
What orders are excluded from the late shipments metric?
The following order types are excluded from the late-shipments metric:
- Preorders (as of July 1, 2024) As of July 1, 2024, preorders are excluded from this metric.
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Orders with customization requests (as of October 1, 2024)
- If a customized item is added to an order after it was placed, the order will count towards your late shipments, and will not be excluded.
How does lead time differ based on order type?
Orders that are available to ship when they’re placed are considered late if the order closes as shipped after the expected ship date (calculated using your shop’s lead time in business days). If the order has multiple packages, this is based on the date the last package is marked delivered.
The following order types use the scheduled ship date:
- Scheduled orders—Set by the retailer. If the scheduled ship date includes a date window, the latest date in the window is considered the scheduled ship date. If you prefer turning off scheduled orders, visit Fulfilling scheduled orders.
- Split orders—Set when originally splitting the order.
- Backorders—Set when marking the item out of stock. For backorders, the scheduled ship date is also referred to as the restock date.
Scheduled orders must ship by the original date the retailer requested during order placement. If this date is adjusted afterwards, even at the request of the retailer, it will count towards your late shipment metrics.
What if I update my lead time?
If you update your lead time in the middle of the quarter, it will apply to new orders only. All other orders placed before the change will use the lead time you had listed when they were placed.
Will an order be marked late if I update an order's ship date?
Updating an order’s estimated ship date does not automatically prevent it from being marked late. The order being counted as late will depend on when it was actually shipped.
If you change the estimated ship date on an order it must ship prior to the expected ship date to avoid it counting as a late shipment.
The order will be marked late if the order ships after the expected ship date, despite what the estimated ship date was updated to.
What can I do if there is an inaccurate order showing in my late shipments metric?
If you find that there is an order included in your metrics that was shipped within your lead time, you can reach out to our team and a support specialist can help review with you.