Porchday: Delivery Dates

Setting up Porchday

This guide walks you through getting Porchday running on your store, from install to the last block. Most stores are done in about ten minutes. If you get stuck anywhere, email hello@tekraid.com and someone on the TEKRAID team will help.

Jump to: Install · Set your promise · Product page block · Cart and cart drawer · Checkout, Thank you and order status · Plans · Troubleshooting

1. Install Porchday

Install Porchday from the Shopify App Store and approve the permissions. You'll land on the Porchday Home page inside your Shopify admin. Home has a setup guide with each step below, and every step has a button that takes you straight to the right place in Shopify.

Porchday never edits your theme files. Everything on your storefront is added through Shopify's theme editor as an app block or app embed, so you can move it, restyle it or switch it off without touching code. Removing the app removes all of it.

2. Set your delivery promise

Open Delivery settings in Porchday. Tell it three things:

• Order cutoff: the time of day orders need to come in to start processing that day, in your store's time zone.
• Processing time: how many business days it takes to pack an order.
• Shipping time: a range, like 3 to 5 business days.

Dates are country-level. Porchday uses the shopper's country to pick the right promise, and never asks for or reads a ZIP code, postal code or street address. On Starter and up you can give each country its own extra shipping days.

Add your days off under Holidays, so dates skip the days you don't ship. On Starter and up you can turn on automatic holiday calendars instead of typing them in. The preview on the right shows the date a shopper would see right now. When it looks right, click Publish. Nothing shows on your store until you publish, and you can save a draft as many times as you like before then.

3. Add the date to your product page

From the setup guide on Home, click Add to product page. Shopify opens the theme editor on your product template with the Porchday Delivery date block already added to the main product section. Drag it where you want it (just under the Add to cart button works well for most stores), then click Save.

To add it by hand instead:

1. In Shopify, go to Online Store › Themes and click Customize on your live theme.
2. Switch to a product template from the dropdown at the top.
3. In the product information section, click Add block, open the Apps tab and pick Delivery date.
4. Place it, pick a design and colors in the block settings, and save.

The block works with Online Store 2.0 themes, including Dawn, Horizon and most themes from the Theme Store. If your theme has more than one product template, add the block to each one you use.

4. Cart page and cart drawer (Starter and up)

Cart drawer: the date in the slide-out cart is an app embed, which is a switch rather than a block. Click Add to cart drawer on Porchday Home, and Shopify opens the theme editor's App embeds panel with Porchday's Cart drawer delivery date turned on. Click Save. By hand, it's Customize › App embeds (the icon in the left sidebar), then turn on Cart drawer delivery date.

The embed finds the drawer on its own for Dawn, Horizon and Impulse, and on other themes it puts the date just above the checkout button. If your theme's drawer is unusual, you can give the embed a CSS selector for where the date should go.

Cart page: on most themes, the cart drawer embed also covers the full cart page. If you want more control over placement, add the Cart delivery date block to your cart template the same way you added the product block. Porchday's Home page shows the cart page as On whenever either one is active.

5. Checkout, Thank you and order status (Pro and Max)

These pages are edited in Shopify's checkout and accounts editor, not the theme editor. From Porchday Home, click Open order status editor or Open checkout editor. In the editor, click Add block (or open the Apps section), choose the Porchday block, put it where you want it, and click Save.

• Order status page: works on every Shopify plan. Shoppers see the date you promised when they check on their order. This is where most stores should add it.
• Thank you page: shows the promised date right after the order is placed. Shopify only lets apps add blocks here on Shopify Plus stores.
• Checkout: shows the date during checkout itself. This also needs Shopify Plus. If you're not on Plus, Porchday's setup guide marks this step Shopify Plus only and leaves it out of your progress, and the order status page covers the date instead.

If you reinstall Porchday, Shopify removes these blocks. The setup guide notices and shows the step as not done again, with a link back to the editor so you can re-add them.

6. Plans and billing

Porchday is free to start. Paid plans are monthly, billed through your Shopify invoice, and each store gets one 14-day free trial. You can change plans or downgrade to Free any time from the Plans page in the app.

• Free (free): Product page delivery date with countdown, Default promise, cutoff, weekends, and manual holidays, Up to 25 products, 1 design template.
• Starter ($9/month): Everything in Free, Unlimited products, All design templates, Cart and cart drawer, Automatic holiday calendars, Product, collection, tag, and variant rules, Country-level dates, Basic analytics.
• Pro ($19/month): Everything in Starter, In-stock, out-of-stock, and preorder dates, Date at checkout (Shopify Plus stores), Date on thank-you and order status pages, 2 warehouses, Accuracy summary.
• Max ($29/month): Everything in Pro, Unlimited warehouses, Full accuracy report with CSV.

If you downgrade, features your new plan doesn't include are paused, not deleted. Your rules, warehouses and settings stay saved, and they turn back on when you upgrade again. Porchday shows a list of exactly what will pause before you confirm.

Development and partner test stores can use Porchday for free. Subscribing on one of those stores creates a Shopify test charge, which is never billed.

Troubleshooting

I added the block but don't see a date

• Make sure you clicked Publish in Delivery settings. Drafts aren't shown to shoppers.
• Check that you saved the theme editor, and that you edited your live theme. Blocks added to a draft theme only show once that theme is published.
• On Free, the date shows on up to 25 products. Upgrade for unlimited products.
• If the product is out of stock and you haven't set a stock rule, the date may be hidden on purpose.

The date looks wrong

• Check the cutoff time and time zone in Delivery settings. The cutoff uses your store's time zone, not the shopper's.
• Add any days off under Holidays. Dates skip weekends you don't ship and the holidays you list.
• A product, collection or tag rule overrides your default promise. Check Rules for anything that applies to that product.

The cart drawer doesn't show the date

• Confirm Cart drawer delivery date is turned on under Customize › App embeds, and saved.
• The cart drawer needs Starter or higher.
• On a heavily customized theme, set the drawer container selector in the embed settings, or email us and we'll find the right one for you.

The Home page says a block is missing

Porchday checks your live theme and checkout each time you open Home. If a block was removed, moved to a draft theme, or lost during a reinstall, the step shows as not done. Use the button on that step to add it back.

Removing Porchday

Go to Settings › Apps in Shopify and uninstall Porchday. Your paid plan is cancelled by Shopify, and the blocks and embed stop showing. Shopify then asks us to delete your store's data, and we do. See our privacy policy for the details.

Still stuck?

Email hello@tekraid.com with your store's myshopify address and a screenshot if you can. A real person on the TEKRAID team reads every message.