Delivery Guard help

Delivery Guard makes sure every delivery or pickup order arrives with a date you can actually fulfil. Customers choose a date (and time slot) on the product page or in the cart; checkout refuses dates you can't do; orders that still arrive without one (express checkouts) are held until the customer picks a date.

Getting started (5 minutes)

1. Open Delivery Guard from your Shopify admin (Apps). The home page shows a setup checklist.
2. Delivery settings: choose your open days, notice, daily cutoff, how far ahead customers can book and any time slots, then Save. The first save switches the checkout guard on. If it's later switched off in Settings → Checkout, the home page says so and offers Turn on the date guard.
3. Add the date picker to product pages: the checklist's "Add the date picker to your product page" link opens the theme editor on your product template with the block added. Place it above the Buy buttons and save.
4. Turn on the cart picker: the "Turn on the cart date picker" link opens App embeds with "Cart delivery date" selected. Switch it on and save. It appears above the checkout button on the cart page and in the cart drawer.
5. Add the recovery block to checkout (Essential and Pro): Settings → Checkout → Customize → Thank you page and Order status page → Add app block → "Delivery date recovery".
6. Place a test order to see it end to end.

Delivery settings

Describe your delivery days (AI). At the top of a location's page, describe your schedule in your own words, for example "Tuesday to Saturday, order by 2pm the day before, deliveries 9-12 and 1-5, max 10 each, closed 25 December", and click Fill in for me. The form below is filled in for you to check; nothing is saved until you press Save. Only the text you type is sent to the AI (Anthropic's Claude), never orders or customer details. Anything it couldn't turn into a setting is listed in the note under the box. You can use it 20 times a day.

• Open days: days you deliver (and open for pickup). Closed days show as "closed" in the picker.
• Notice needed (days): 0 allows same-day orders, 1 means the earliest date is tomorrow, and so on.
• Daily order cutoff: orders placed at or after this time (your store's timezone) count as placed the next day.
• Book up to (days ahead): how far ahead customers can choose.
• Time slots: optional. With slots, customers must choose one. Max orders limits orders per slot per day (blank = unlimited). Full slots show as "full" and checkout refuses them.
• Closed dates: days you're closed. Pick a region under "UK bank holidays" and click Add all to add the next 12 months for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland; remove any you work, then save.
• Delivery area: postcodes or districts you deliver to (e.g. SW1A, E1, or BR* for anything starting BR). Leave empty to deliver anywhere. Checkout refuses addresses outside the area and hides Local delivery there.
• Orders that need a delivery date: any product that ships (default), or only products in one collection. Gift cards and digital products never need a date.

Delivery and pickup, several locations

Each location can offer delivery, pickup or both, with its own days, cutoff, slots and capacity. Delivery and pickup have separate slots. Add pickup instructions (address, opening hours); customers see them when they choose pickup. When you offer both, the picker asks "Delivery or pickup"; with more than one location it asks which one. Up to 3 locations on Pro; other plans include one location with delivery and pickup.

Shopify's checkout also asks "Ship" or "Pickup", and the two must match: a customer who chose pickup in the picker has to choose Pickup at checkout (and the other way round), or checkout tells them what to change. So for every location that offers pickup, turn on Pickup in store for that address in Shopify (Settings → Shipping and delivery). Without it, customers who chose pickup can't complete checkout.

Product rules (Pro)

For a collection that takes longer to make, such as made-to-order cakes: more days of notice, an earlier cutoff and extra closed dates. If a cart has products from several rules, the strictest applies.

Orders

Each order is tagged so you can filter it in Orders: delivery:2026-10-13, slot:09:00-12:00, and pickup and location:<name> where they apply. The date is also on the order as a metafield.

• Orders without a date (express or wallet checkouts can skip the picker) are tagged needs-date and their fulfillment is put on hold (Essential and Pro). The customer can choose a date on the thank-you or order status page, or with their personal link: "Copy link" on the Needs attention page and send it to them. Once they choose, the order is tagged and released automatically.
• Overbooked slots: two customers checking out at the same moment can both take the last place. The later order is tagged oversold, listed on the Needs attention page, and you get an email. Move one delivery or raise the cap.

Prep list

Apps → Delivery Guard → Prep list: every order for a day, grouped by location, delivery or pickup, and time slot, with items, quantities and notes (such as gift messages), plus a "to prepare" total per item. Print it or download a CSV. The month calendar shows how many orders each day has.

Plans

	Free	Essential $14.99	Pro $29.99
Dated orders	30 a month	Unlimited	Unlimited
Date guard (days, cutoffs, closed dates, slots)	✓	✓	✓
Delivery and pickup	✓	✓	✓
Slot capacity and overbooking alerts		✓	✓
Postcode delivery area		✓	✓
Recovery of orders without a date		✓	✓
Locations	1	1	3
Product rules			✓

Over the Free allowance your checkout keeps working; you'll be asked to upgrade. Change plans any time under Plan.

FAQ

Does it work with Buy it now? Yes. The product page picker saves the date on the item, so Buy it now carries it.

What about Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay? Express checkouts can skip the picker. Instead of blocking them (which gives the customer no clear message), the order is held and the customer is asked for a date.

My theme doesn't show the product picker. Older (vintage) themes don't support app blocks on product pages. The cart picker still works there; customers who use Buy it now are asked for a date after checkout.

Can customers pick a date that's just been taken? Slot capacity updates within seconds of each order, so it's rare; when it happens the overbooking alert tells you.

What happens if I uninstall? Your checkout goes back to normal immediately. Your settings and bookings are deleted 48 hours later.

I reinstalled the app. What do I need to redo? Open the app and click Turn on the date guard on Home, choose your plan again (Shopify cancels app plans on uninstall), and add the "Delivery date recovery" block to your Thank you page in the checkout editor again (Shopify removes it on uninstall). The setup checklist on Home shows each step.