Availability and delivery time are pieces of information the customer checks right after the price, and they determine whether an order is completed. Their inaccuracy is one of the most costly mistakes in e-commerce: the customer places an order, learns of a delay, cancels the order and leaves a negative review. Accuracy is not just a matter of stock, but of the entire chain, including suppliers and reservations for orders in progress. State the information specifically, not vaguely – rather than a vague label, give the date by which you ship the goods, and distinguish shipping from delivery. These fields also feed into the product feed, so they affect how listings appear in comparison shopping engines and in assistants' answers, which filter by them. If an item is unavailable, offer an alternative or a back-in-stock notification instead of an empty page.
See also: Product feed, Soft 404, Price comparison website.
