How to let customers schedule delivery slots in WooCommerce

Write down which days you deliver, how far ahead customers can book, your daily cutoff time, delivery holidays and the time windows you can actually support. Decide whether every slot has its own order limit and whether customers must choose a slot before paying.

Keep the rule simple at first. Mixed carts, different product categories, local delivery areas and same-day orders are where scheduling systems usually need extra logic.

For a small shop that only needs a preference such as “deliver on Tuesday”, you can add a checkout field with custom code. On the classic checkout, WooCommerce documents the woocommerce_checkout_fields filter for changing checkout fields. The Checkout Block uses its additional checkout field API instead, including date-field limits such as minimum and maximum dates.

This manual route is fine when the value is only stored with the order and someone checks availability by hand. It does not, by itself, reserve a slot, count bookings, hide a full day, apply a cutoff, calculate delivery fees or stop two customers taking the final slot.

Use a delivery-date and time-slot extension when customers need to choose from live availability. Proper scheduling tools commonly provide delivery days, holidays, buffer or lead time, time frames, order limits and checkout display settings. WooCommerce’s own extension documentation describes date ranges, non-delivery days, time frames and order limits as separate configuration areas.

Check that the extension supports your checkout type. A date picker that works on the classic shortcode checkout may need separate support for the WooCommerce Checkout Block. Test the actual checkout rather than relying on the settings screen.

Install and activate your chosen extension, then create the delivery calendar. Add working days, lead or buffer time, blocked holidays and the maximum date range customers may select. Create slots such as 9:00–11:00 and 11:00–13:00, then set a maximum number of orders for each slot if your operation has limited capacity.

Make the date and time fields required if every order must be scheduled. Some WooCommerce delivery extensions also support fees by date or slot, product or category rules and shipping-method-specific schedules; use those only when your fulfilment process can honour them.

Set the cutoff using the site’s WordPress timezone and decide what happens after it. A same-day option should disappear after the cutoff, or the next available delivery day should be shown. Also decide how the calendar behaves when one cart contains products with different lead times or delivery rules.

Do not assume the selected slot is reserved just because it appears on the checkout screen. Confirm that the extension reduces capacity when the order is placed and handles abandoned or unpaid orders appropriately. A Friday-after-cutoff order is a common place for an otherwise good setup to show the wrong Monday or same-day option.

Place test orders for the earliest valid date, a blocked holiday, a full slot, an order just before the cutoff and an order just after it. Test logged-in and guest checkout, different delivery postcodes and a mixed cart containing products from different categories.

Check the selected date and slot on the order screen, customer emails, admin order notifications and any fulfilment view your staff use. Also test a failed payment, a cancelled order and a rescheduled order if your chosen extension supports those workflows.

For a ready-made setup, use WPC Delivery Date and Time Slots for WooCommerce. Configure its checkout date picker, time slots, working days, blocked holidays, lead times, daily cutoffs and capacity limits instead of building those rules yourself.

It is a good fit when you also need slot surcharges, category-specific rules, mixed-cart lead-time calculation, customer rescheduling, delivery reminders or admin change logs. Add the picker automatically at checkout or place it manually with the supplied [wpcdt_picker] shortcode, then repeat the checkout tests above.