You can add extra preparation time on top of your marketplace's base SLA dispatch threshold for products that take longer to prepare, such as made-to-order, custom, or bulky goods.
Note: This field is off by default. It only appears in your Seller Portal once your marketplace operator has enabled dispatch lead days. If you don't see it, ask your operator to turn it on — this is an all-or-nothing setting per marketplace, so it can't be enabled for some sellers and not others.
How dispatch lead days affect your effective SLA
Your effective SLA for a line item is calculated as:
Effective SLA = base threshold + dispatch lead days
The base threshold is set by the operator, either at the marketplace level or specifically for your seller account. Dispatch lead days come from your variant or product (advert) settings; if you haven't set either, the operator's category-level default applies instead. If none of these are set, your effective SLA is just the base threshold.
Note: Changing your dispatch lead days only affects new orders. Orders already placed keep the effective SLA date that was set when the order was created.
Set dispatch lead days on a product
- Sign in to the Seller Portal.
- Go to Products > Manage Products.
- Select the product you want to configure.
- On the Information tab, scroll to Shipping Dimensions.
- Enter the number of days in the Dispatch lead days field. Leave it blank to use the marketplace's category default.
- Click Save changes.
Note: This sets the lead time for the whole product (advert). To set a different value for a specific variant, use the steps below instead.
Set dispatch lead days on a variant
- Sign in to the Seller Portal.
- Go to Products > Manage Products.
- Select the product, then go to the Variants tab.
- Click the edit icon next to the variant you want to configure.
- In the Edit variant window, scroll to Shipping Dimensions.
- Enter the number of days in the Dispatch lead days field. Leave it blank to use the marketplace's category default.
- Click Save variant.
A variant-level lead time overrides the product-level (advert) lead time for that variant only.
View your effective SLA dispatch date
- In the Seller Portal, go to Orders > All Orders.
- Click the invoice number for the order you want to see.
- In the Order Details tab of the invoice, each line item shows its dispatch status inline, underneath its SKU and barcode details: either Dispatched on time - due [date] or Dispatch deadline missed - due [date], so you can check compliance without recalculating it yourself.
How lead time to dispatch affects your breach rate and rating
Each line item has its own effective SLA, but breach reporting stays at the invoice level: an invoice counts as breached if any one line item inside it misses its effective SLA, even if other line items on the same invoice are on time. See Seller performance insights for how this affects your Dispatch Breach Rate and Current Rating.