For made-to-order stores
Show handling times on every product page
Tell buyers when their order will actually ship. Write a dispatch time per product, or let DispatchFlex compute real dates from your lead times, working days, holidays and production backlog. Either way it shows as a badge next to your Add to cart button, with no theme code involved.
Free for 5 products. No card needed to start.
The badge, on a product page. Nothing else changes.
One shipping policy can’t describe your whole catalogue
If you sell handmade, made-to-order or print-on-demand items alongside stock you already hold, a single dispatch time is either too pessimistic on the fast products or too optimistic on the slow ones. Vague timing makes people hesitate before buying, then email you afterwards asking where their order is. DispatchFlex answers that on the product page, before anyone has to ask.
How it works
Three steps, about five minutes.
Set a time per product
Search your catalogue in the app and type what shoppers should see. You write the wording, so it says what you mean.
Drop the badge in your theme
DispatchFlex is a theme app block. Drag it where you want it, then pick a style, colours and alignment.
It shows only where it applies
Products with no handling time render nothing at all, so you can leave the block in place permanently.
What you get
No theme edits
Installs as an app block, so your theme files are never modified and nothing is left behind if you uninstall.
No calls to our servers, ever
The badge renders in Liquid on Shopify's CDN. Your storefront never waits on us, and keeps working even if we're down.
Your words, any language
Handling times are free text you control. No fixed formats and no machine translation.
Three styles
Clean pill, minimal text or bordered box, with your own colours and an optional shipping icon.
The calendar behind the badge
Most dispatch apps calculate from time. DispatchFlex also calculates from workload. Describe how your production actually works, once, and the promise on every page keeps itself accurate as days pass, holidays arrive and your backlog grows.
Real dates, not vague ranges
Set a lead time in business days and the badge shows an actual window, like "Dispatches 7-11 August". It rolls forward at midnight by itself.
Holidays and closures
Mark days off and shutdowns once. Promises skip them automatically, and everything returns to normal when you're back — nothing to remember to undo.
Order-by cutoffs
Orders before your daily cutoff start processing the same day, and the badge knows which side of the cutoff each shopper is on.
A whole-cart promise
The cart page quotes one dispatch date for the entire order, governed by the slowest item, with a line saying which item that is.
Production capacity
Making 20 a week? Group products into a production run, mark a week full, and every product in the group quotes the next open week — in one click.
"Why this date?"
Every computed promise comes with a plain-English trace of the rules behind it, so you're never guessing what your own storefront is saying.
Pricing
Start free. Upgrade when you outgrow it.
Free
$0
forever
- Written handling times on 5 products
- All three badge styles
- Full theme editor controls
Basic
$4.99
per month, free trial
- Unlimited products
- All three badge styles
- Full theme editor controls
Pro
$9.99
per month, free trial
- Everything in Basic
- Computed dispatch dates on the badge
- Business days, holidays and closures
- Order-by cutoffs
- Whole-cart dispatch promise
- Production capacity groups
Guides
There are free ways to do most of this, and the guides cover them honestly, app included only where it earns its place:
- How to show handling time on Shopify product pages — all four methods, including the free metafield and Liquid route.
- Shopify vacation mode: four ways to go away without closing — pausing, password pages, notices, and selling through it.
- Christmas cutoffs and holiday closures — per-product order-by dates and coming back without stale promises.
- Shopify processing time: what it is, and where it belongs — measuring your real number, and why the policy page is the wrong home for it.
- Made to order: lead times customers actually trust — quoting a range you always hit, and what to do when the queue grows.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a handling time?
- How long you take to get an order ready before it ships. Some people call it dispatch time, processing time or lead time. It's separate from how long the courier takes, and Shopify has no per-product field for it.
- How is this different from a delivery date estimator?
- Delivery estimators predict when a parcel lands, usually by talking to carriers. DispatchFlex shows the part you control, which is how long before the order leaves you. You write the wording yourself, so it stays accurate and doesn't depend on anyone's API.
- Do I need to edit my theme code?
- No. DispatchFlex installs as a theme app block, so you place the badge from the theme editor and drag it where you want it. Your theme files stay untouched, and nothing is left behind if you uninstall.
- Will it slow down my storefront?
- No. The badge is rendered in Liquid on Shopify's CDN and never calls our servers, so your product pages don't gain a single request. Computed dates use one tiny script embedded in the page itself to pick the right side of your cutoff; written handling times use no JavaScript at all.
- Can it calculate dispatch dates for me?
- Yes, on the Pro plan. Set a lead time in business days, your working days, holidays, closures and a daily cutoff, and the badge shows a real window like "Dispatches 7-11 August" that updates itself. If you make things in batches, production groups move every affected product to the next open week in one click.
- What happens when I go on holiday?
- Add a closure with a start and end date. Every promise moves out to account for it while you're away, and everything returns to normal automatically when the closure ends. There is nothing to remember to switch back.
- What happens to products without a handling time?
- Nothing shows. The badge hides itself when a product has no value set, so you can leave the block in your theme and only fill in the products that need it.
- Who is DispatchFlex for?
- Stores where preparation time varies between products. That usually means made-to-order, handmade, custom or print-on-demand shops, especially ones selling those alongside in-stock inventory. If every order leaves you the same day, a single line in your shipping policy does the job and you don't need this.
- How much does DispatchFlex cost?
- Free for 5 products with written handling times. Basic is $4.99 a month and removes the product limit. Pro is $9.99 a month and adds the calendar engine: computed dispatch dates, business days, holidays, closures, cutoffs, the cart-wide promise and production capacity. Both paid plans start with a free trial.