Having fast delivery times when dropshipping is definitely a great way to increase your sales in 2026. I will give you a short answer below, then give you some reasons why having fast delivery times matters and why it doesn’t matter. I will then give you my tips to get faster delivery times for your dropshipping store! Are you ready?
Having fast delivery times means fewer customers are going to ask where their package is. This then means less chance that your customers are going to ask for a refund while their order is still on its way! The use of local dropshipping suppliers will definitely help you with this, but how do you find these local suppliers?
Do you need to have a fast delivery time when dropshipping?
If you know already a bit about dropshipping, then you know that the delivery time when dropshipping from China is around 2-4 weeks before the package reaches your customer.
This is a long time for sure.
Imagine yourself ordering something online. Can you wait a few weeks? Or do you want to have it the next day, or at least within a week?
For most of you that are reading this, it’s the second one for sure.
Although, I’m not saying that having delivery times like the first one on your dropshipping store are bad to have.
You get these kinds of delivery times when you’re dropshipping from China.
One of the biggest reasons people will still buy from you is if the product is worth the wait.
What expectations do people have regarding delivery times when ordering online?
Did you know that 45% of US consumers expect that orders placed by 1 PM to 4 PM are eligible for next-day delivery?
So, how do you meet these kinds of expectations consumers have when shopping at your dropshipping store?
And I’m not even talking about all the expectations that are set on ecommerce stores after Amazon took off.
A report of late 2017 shows that the maximum delivery time that shoppers will accept in order to receive free shipping is on average 4.5 days. That’s down a full day from 5.5 days in a similar survey in 2012.
To make it even worse, prime members expect their free deliveries to arrive on average within a maximum of 3.8 days.
Well, even the fastest shipping (and most expensive one) doesn’t bring your products from China to your customer in, for example, the US in one day.
Even FedEx will take around three business days before they have delivered your product(s).