Delivery Estimates

Overview

Delivery Estimates are the focal point of Ingrid Delivery Tracking, providing clear delivery time estimates to the End Customer. Accurate and timely delivery information is a crucial part of the Tracking Journey, as it contributes to increased satisfaction and eases anxiety around the delivery process.

Ingrid Delivery Tracking comes with a built-in mechanism that keeps track of the estimates, allowing for updates not only from the carriers end during the delivery stage but also from the merchants during order's preparation stage.

Estimated Delivery Time

The most important promise to the End Customer, the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), indicating when a parcel will be delivered to selected delivery address.

ETA promise can be provided to the Ingrid System in a few ways:

• Sourced from the Ingrid Checkout Session (Ingrid Delivery Checkout)

If you use Ingrid Delivery Checkout together with Ingrid Delivery Tracking, the delivery promise presented to the Customer upon completion of a checkout session will be automatically collected by the ETA tracking mechanism implemented in Delivery Tracking and shown on the Tracking Widget/Page.

• Sourced from the createTrackingOrder request (Integration Guide)

To provide comprehensive information on the estimated delivery times for orders originating outside of the Ingrid System, you can include them in the createTrackingOrder request (see promises in the example)

• Sourced from Order Events (Tracking API)

In case ETA is not known prior to creating an order, or in case it changed during the preparation stage (e.g. due to a high volume of orders), Tracking API (publishOrderEvent endpoint) allows you to post ETA updates along with an order-level event. Those events are meant to provide more granular updates and enhance the parcel tracking experience even before the parcel is ready to leave the warehouse.

• Sourced from Carrier Tracking Events

After a parcel is in a Carrier's hands, it is their turn to provide the End Customer with tracking updates. This includes information on the Estimated Delivery Time. When the Ingrid System receives a tracking event containing an update on ETA, it is automatically recognised by the ETA tracking mechanism and shown on the Widget/Page to give the End Customer a clear picture of when their delivery will arrive.

Keeping track of the ETA

The importance of ETAs extends beyond timely delivery expectations. Providing real-time updates, including information on when deliveries are running late, is crucial to achieving transparent and meaningful communication with Customers. The ETA tracking mechanism marks ETA as exceeded as soon as the latest ETA date has passed. As a result, Tracking Widget/Page shows an alert to proactively inform the End Customer about the delay.

Estimated Submission Time

Ingrid Delivery Tracking is designed to provide information about the entire Delivery Journey. Since this starts with the End Customer placing an order, we also track another important promise: the Estimated Submission Time Promise.

Estimated Time of Submission (ETS) indicates the day the parcel will be picked up by the Carrier.

Similar to the Estimated Delivery Time promise, ETS can be provided to Ingrid System in a few ways:

• Sourced from the Ingrid Checkout Session (Ingrid Delivery Checkout)

Along with ETA, the completed checkout session contains information about the estimated carrier pickup time. This value will be collected automatically by the ETA tracking mechanism and presented to the End Customer on the Widget/Page as Estimated Submission Time.

• Sourced from the createTrackingOrder request (Integration Guide)

  ETS can be also included in the createTrackingOrder request if you use Ingrid Delivery Tracking to track orders created outside the Ingrid System.

• Sourced from Order Events (Order Level Events)

Multiple events can impact and extend the preparation time of an order, causing the submission date to be postponed. Order Events are a way to pass such information to the Ingrid System and make it visible on the Tracking Widget/Page for the End Customer to stay updated. Apart from an ETA update, order-level events allow for an ETS promise update.