How to Add a Delivery Date Picker to Shopify (Product + Cart)

To add a delivery date picker to Shopify, install a delivery-scheduling app like OrderRules, add its theme app block to your product and cart pages, then set your delivery rules — lead time, an order cutoff, and available weekdays — and a cap on orders per delivery date. It takes a few minutes, needs no code, and works on any Shopify plan.

If you make products to order — cakes, flowers, meal kits, furniture — "when will it arrive?" is the first question every customer asks. Shopify doesn't let shoppers choose a delivery date out of the box, so orders pile onto days you can't actually fulfill. This guide shows how to add a delivery date and time-slot picker to your Shopify product and cart pages in a few minutes, with no code — and how to cap each day so it stops taking orders once it's full.

Why Shopify needs a delivery date picker

Shopify is built to be "always open." That's great for demand, but not for fulfillment: a bakery that can decorate 50 cakes a day still accepts 120 orders for Saturday, and someone ends up disappointed. A delivery date picker moves the decision to the moment of purchase — the customer tells you when they want it, and you decide which days and how many slots are available.

In markets like Japan, choosing a delivery date and a time window is a standard consumer expectation, normalized by carriers and marketplaces. Meeting it is table stakes; controlling your own capacity while you do is the advantage.

What a good delivery date picker does

More than show a calendar. Look for:

• Date and time-slot selection — a delivery window (e.g. 14:00–16:00) alongside the date.
• Per item or per order — different line items can carry different dates when you need it.
• Delivery rules — lead time, an order cutoff, selectable weekdays, and a booking horizon.
• Capacity limits — caps per date and per slot, so windows can sell out.
• Checkout enforcement — a server-side check that a valid, available date was chosen (so Shop Pay and express checkouts can't bypass it).

OrderRules does all of this on the Advanced plan, using the same Shopify Functions checkout enforcement it already uses for order limits and store hours.

Step 1 — Install OrderRules and open the Advanced plan

Install OrderRules from the Shopify App Store, open the app, and upgrade to Advanced on the Subscription Plan page. Delivery features are Advanced-only, and a 14-day free trial applies. Extra permissions (orders, fulfillment, locations) are requested only when you turn on the feature that needs them — never at install.

Step 2 — Add the theme app block to product & cart

The storefront picker is a theme app block, so it lives inside your theme with no code.

1. Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
2. Under App embeds, turn on OrderRules Delivery. It powers the picker.
3. On a product template, choose Add block in the main area and pick Delivery date picker under App blocks.
4. Repeat on the Cart template. To show the picker in a cart drawer, turn on the drawer option in the app embed; some themes need their drawer selectors entered there.
5. Save.

Full detail: Set up the delivery date picker.

Step 3 — Set your delivery rules

Create an availability rule with lead time (earliest a customer can request), a cutoff (orders after, say, 14:00 roll to the next day), delivery weekdays, and a horizon (how far ahead they can book). Scope it to all products or narrow it to a product, collection, or tag. See Availability rules.

Step 4 — Add time slots and capacity limits

In Time slot templates, add windows like 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–16:00 and give each a Cap/day, then attach the template to your rule. For the whole day, set Maximum orders per delivery date under Delivery date behavior — one number that applies to every date. Full slots grey out live, and checkout blocks a sold-out slot. A cancelled order releases its slot automatically. See capacity limits.

Step 5 — Blackout dates and holidays

Block days you can't deliver, with an optional reason — or use one-click "copy store holidays" to import the closed dates you already maintain in Shopify. See blackout dates & holidays.

Step 6 — Test at checkout

Place a test order through your storefront, and try Shop Pay too. The OrderRules Shopify Function blocks any missing, sold-out, or blacked-out selection at checkout. Turn on order tagging and orders are also tagged delivery:YYYY-MM-DD and slot:HHMM-HHMM, so you can build daily picking lists from Shopify order search.

Beyond the picker: pickup, estimated delivery, and carrier CSV

Once dates are live, the rest of the delivery suite builds on the same rules:

• Scheduled in-store pickup — pickup dates and slots across multiple locations. Full walkthrough: Shopify in-store & local pickup: setup, scheduling & rules.
• Estimated delivery date — an "Arrives Jul 10 – Jul 11" estimate on product pages, from the transit times you set, skipping weekends and holidays. New to the term? What "estimated delivery date" means.
• Japanese carrier CSV export — hand shipments to Yamato, Sagawa, or Japan Post in their official layouts.
• Where to put the picker — product page, cart, or checkout, and what each placement costs you.

The bigger picture

A delivery date picker isn't a bolt-on — it's the other half of controlling capacity. OrderRules already governs when customers can order (store hours, daily/weekly/monthly caps, per-customer limits); delivery dates govern when you deliver. Same app, same checkout enforcement. More on that in Order limits + delivery scheduling: why they belong in one app.

Still comparing options? Best Shopify delivery date picker apps puts the main ones side by side on scheduling, cut-offs and capacity.

Ready to try it? See the Delivery Dates feature or start a free 14-day trial.