Estimated delivery dates

IBM® Sterling Intelligent Promising offers accurate estimation of delivery dates at an early stage of the shopper's journey. Accurate estimation of the delivery date is important for the shoppers because it tells them when they receive their orders. Both on-hand and future availability of items is used to provide these estimated delivery dates.

Sterling Intelligent Promising offers accurate estimation of delivery or pickup dates with the help of the Calculate item delivery or pickup date using finite capacity windows API. Sterling Intelligent Promising can estimate the earliest delivery date or pickup dates even before the orders are placed, which means that the shoppers get a projected delivery date estimation just when the shoppers look for the product. They also get to know that how soon their orders can be delivered or picked up from a nearby node. This information helps your shoppers make the purchase decisions right when the shoppers look for the product.

On-hand availability

For on-hand availability, Sterling Intelligent Promising estimates the earliest delivery date based on the SHP or PICK delivery methods. Shoppers can select either of these delivery methods. Then, based on the preference of delivery method, the Calculate item delivery or pickup date using finite capacity windows API considers different parameters for promising calculations.

Estimating the delivery date for the SHP delivery method
If a shopper selects the SHP delivery method, then Sterling Intelligent Promising estimates the earliest delivery date for a single quantity item. In this case, the promising calculations depend on various parameters, including the following parameters:
  • Inventory distribution across nodes
  • Inventory availability at specific nodes
  • Available inventory capacity
  • Shipping groups
  • Carrier services
  • Transit details

After multiple factors are considered, the Calculate item delivery or pickup date using finite capacity windows API completes multiple permutations of promising calculations. Because of the promising calculations, the shopper gets the earliest estimated delivery date of their orders.

The shoppers can see the estimated delivery date for each product on the Order Hub. For example, on the Product listings page, Sterling Intelligent Promising provides estimated delivery dates for each product. Shoppers see the following delivery details:

Order by 10.30PM for delivery as soon as:
  • Friday, September 27 by 2:30 AM (Express)
  • Saturday, September 28 by 2:30 AM (Standard)
In this case, Express and Standard are the delivery speed options. By using the estimated delivery date, Sterling Intelligent Promising helps the shoppers to understand how soon you can get your order delivered based on your preferred delivery speed.
Estimating the pickup date for the PICK delivery method
If the item is available at a node that is located within a certain radius of the shopper's location, then Sterling Intelligent Promising offers a PICK delivery method. If a shopper decides to pick up a product from the nearby node, they can select PICK as the preferred delivery method. In this case, the Calculate item delivery or pickup date using finite capacity windows API considers the inventory distribution across nodes and available inventory capacity in the promising calculations and provides the earliest date that the shopper can pick up the product from the node.

The shoppers can choose to pick up the product from the nearby stores. In that case, you can see by when the product is available for pick up from the nearby store.

For example, on the Product listing page, Sterling Intelligent Promising provides pick up details. Shoppers can see the following details:

Ready for pickup:
  • 8:30 PM at 815 STONEWOOD CENTER (8 miles)
  • 8:30 PM at 848 CENTURY CITY (11 miles)

Future availability

When on-hand inventory is not available, you can use future availability to source inventory for the pre-launch of a product or for items that are pre-ordered in advance. By looking at future availability, you might source this inventory from purchase orders or inventory that is in transit. This is relevant for pre-launch product scenarios or pre-order scenarios where you need to assess the future availability of inventory.

Estimating a pickup date for a product pre-launch or a pre-order
For example, as a fulfillment manager you want to launch a new product in three weeks time and you want to order inventory in advance. In this scenario, the EDD is evaluated according to the estimated arrival date and any delivery constraints that can occur.
Similarly, a customer might want to pre-order flowers before Valentines day. They are interested in knowing when the stock arrives to plan for this event.
In both scenarios, future availability allows the planning of inventory availability for a later date.

For future availability, Sterling Intelligent Promising offers accurate estimation of delivery or pickup dates by using the Calculate item delivery or pickup date using finite capacity windows and the Calculate pre-purchase shipment assignments using finite capacity windows optimizing for costs APIs.