Per-channel Interlink Express OTD.
At a glance
Interlink Express on-time-delivery rate split by the originating sales channel (Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, B2B reseller portal, Amazon marketplace, etc.). The card joins Interlink shipment records to the commerce-sibling order via the order_ref field and groups by channel attribute. Cross-channel view tells you which sales surface is the carrier failing for, not whether the carrier is broken.
| What it counts | interlink.shipment.actual_delivery_datetime <= interlink.shipment.promised_delivery_datetime joined to commerce_sibling.order on order_ref, grouped by commerce_sibling.order.channel. OTD% computed per channel. |
| Required commerce sibling | has_commerce_sibling. Card only renders when at least one commerce connector is active. |
| Channel attribution accuracy | Depends on commerce connector’s channel field discipline. Shopify’s source_name is reliable; Adobe Commerce’s channel mapping requires merchant-side configuration. |
| Delivery success criterion | Driver POD scan or signature-on-glass, identical to int_otd_rate. |
| Service scope | All services pooled (Pre-10:30 dominates B2B reseller channels, Next-Day dominates DTC consumer). |
| B2B vs B2C interpretation | B2B reseller channel typically delivers higher OTD than DTC consumer channels (predictable corporate addresses). A drop in B2B-channel OTD is contract-penalty risk; a drop in B2C-channel OTD is customer-experience-and-NPS risk. |
| Time window | 30D |
| Alert trigger | any channel <90%. The aggregate may still look fine while a specific channel is suffering. |
| Roles | owner, operations, marketing |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Interlink Express data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A UK industrial-supplies merchant: corporate B2B reseller portal (largest channel), Shopify DTC, Amazon UK marketplace, eBay storefront. Interlink Pre-10:30 dominates B2B reseller; Next-Day dominates DTC. Reading taken at 09:00 GMT on 22 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days (20 Feb 26 to 21 Mar 26).| Channel | Consignments | Delivered on time | OTD% | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2B reseller portal | 1,520 | 1,490 | 98.0% | Mostly Pre-10:30; on contract. |
| Shopify DTC | 2,180 | 2,100 | 96.3% | Next-Day cohort. |
| Amazon UK marketplace | 720 | 680 | 94.4% | Tighter customer expectations on Amazon. |
| eBay storefront | 240 | 215 | 89.6% | Below alert threshold. |
| Aggregate | 4,660 | 4,485 | 96.2% | (matches int_otd_rate) |
- Aggregate looks healthy at 96.2%; one channel is failing. A merchant looking at
int_otd_rateonly would not see the eBay-channel issue. The cross-channel split is exactly the diagnostic this card exists for. - eBay at 89.6% is borderline for seller-rating tier. eBay’s Seller Performance metrics include late-delivery as a defect; defect rate above 2% can trigger seller-tier downgrade. A sustained 10+ percentage-point eBay-channel OTD drop on volumes above ~30 weekly orders typically registers as a defect-rate spike within three weeks. This is a leading indicator of eBay-account health, not just delivery.
- B2B reseller at 98.0% is in spec. No contract-penalty risk this period. The B2B channel’s discipline (corporate addresses, predictable hours, Pre-10:30 contracted) makes it Interlink’s easiest cohort.
- Amazon UK at 94.4% is below customer-expectation but not below alert. Amazon-marketplace customers often book Next-Day with a tighter “1-day from purchase” mental model; 94.4% on Next-Day to Amazon customers translates to higher-than-average return-and-refund pressure.
- Investigate eBay-channel orders specifically. Are eBay-channel orders coming in at different times of day, going to different geographies, getting different service tiers from the merchant’s checkout-to-dispatch routing? Often eBay-channel orders trigger a dispatcher-side default that is suboptimal; 30 minutes of investigation usually reveals the root cause.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Cross-channel OTD is the diagnostic-by-sales-surface view. Pair with these:| Card | Why pair it with Cross-Channel OTD | What the combination tells you |
|---|---|---|
| On-Time Delivery Rate | Aggregate. | Aggregate dip + one-channel concentration = single-cohort fix. |
| Pre-10:30 Service Promise | Pre-10:30 dominates B2B reseller channel. | If B2B channel dips, Pre-10:30 dipped first; check that card. |
| OTD by Route | Geographic split. Combined with channel = “Amazon-channel orders to North-East routes are the misses”. | Two-dimensional triage. |
| Open Claims | Channels with high miss rate should drive higher claim filing. | Per-channel filing rate is workflow-discipline metric. |
Cross-connector: shopify.refund_rate | Direct downstream impact for Shopify-channel slice. | Shopify-channel OTD dip predicts Shopify refund rate rise. |
Cross-connector: amazon.amazon_otdr | Amazon’s seller-side OTD. | Slight tightening on Amazon’s promise-from-purchase. |
Cross-connector: ebay.ebay_defect_rate | eBay seller-rating metric. | An eBay-channel OTD dip predicts defect-rate rise within 14 to 21 days. |
Cross-connector: shopify.fulfillment_lead_time | Channel-specific dispatch-cutoff alignment. | If one channel’s OTD lags but channel-specific lead time is healthy, carrier-network is the issue. |
Cross-connector: parcelforce.parcelforce_xc_otd_by_channel | Sister cross-channel card on Parcelforce. | Multi-carrier merchants benchmark per-channel performance across carriers. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Interlink Express’s own dashboard: MyDPD Business does not natively split by sales channel; the channel attribute lives in the commerce platform, not the carrier. Closest like-for-like in MyDPD: Reports → Service Performance filtered by service code (Pre-10:30 dominates B2B; Next-Day dominates DTC). For channel split, look in your commerce platform’s order-management view and cross-reference Interlink consignment numbers from there. Why our number may legitimately differ from manual cross-reference:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Channel attribution at order-creation | Either | Card joins Interlink shipments to commerce-sibling order on order_ref. Non-unique order_refs across channels (rare) cause join misalignment. |
| Multi-channel orders | Either | An order placed on Shopify and shipped via separate Amazon FBA-direct workflow is not in this card; requires Interlink to be the carrier. |
| Attribution lag | Ours <2 hours | Commerce-platform webhook lag. Same-day reads can show order without channel attribution if commerce-side webhook has not arrived. |
| B2B portal channels | Either | Custom-built B2B portals require explicit channel-tagging in order metadata. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
shopify.fulfillment_lead_time | Channel-specific dispatch readiness. | App-install events. |
amazon.amazon_otdr | Amazon-channel slice tracks Amazon’s OTDR. | Different promise-clock. |
ebay.ebay_defect_rate | eBay-channel slice predicts defect-rate. | Defect rate covers more than late delivery. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
The card is empty; why? The card requireshas_commerce_sibling. If no commerce connector is connected, there is no channel attribute to group by. Connect the relevant commerce platform; card populates within 1 to 2 days.
Why is the eBay channel often the worst on Interlink?
Two structural reasons. (1) eBay buyer expectations: customers receive automated “delivered tomorrow” copy whether or not the merchant set that promise; reality is a 1 to 2 day Interlink Next-Day window. (2) eBay-channel orders sometimes fall to a default service tier in the merchant’s checkout-to-dispatch routing that does not match the customer-facing promise. Audit the dispatch routing rules.
Amazon-channel OTD looks lower than Shopify-channel; is Amazon making us deliver faster?
Sort of. Amazon’s customer-promise clock starts at order-purchase, not at carrier-collection. So a Shopify order placed at 18:00 with Next-Day promise of “delivery by Wednesday” is the same physical promise that Amazon would communicate as “1-day shipping arriving Tuesday”. Customer mental model is tighter on Amazon, leading to higher complaint volume even at identical Interlink performance.
B2B reseller channel always runs higher OTD; is that selection bias?
Mostly yes. B2B addresses are predictable (corporate reception, named-recipient sign-off), B2B hours align with Interlink’s working-day calendar (no Saturday issues), B2B addresses cluster in well-served urban routes. Use the gap to negotiate a favourable B2B-cohort rate.
An eBay-channel OTD dip preceded an eBay seller-rating downgrade; causation or coincidence?
Causation, with 14 to 21 day lag. eBay’s Seller Performance metrics include late-delivery as a defect; defect rate above 2% triggers seller-tier downgrade. A sustained 10+ percentage-point eBay-channel OTD drop on volumes above ~30 weekly typically registers as defect-rate spike within three weeks. The card is leading indicator for eBay seller account health.
Multi-channel order: same SKU sold on multiple channels; how is it counted?
The card joins on Interlink consignment, not SKU. Each consignment has one channel attribute (the originating commerce-platform order). Multi-channel SKUs do not double-count; the consignment counts once against the channel of its parent order.
Why does B2B portal show “Unknown” channel sometimes?
Custom-built B2B portals require explicit channel-tagging in order metadata. If portal does not tag, order reaches Interlink without channel attribute and joins as Unknown. Fix: tag the order at creation with a stable channel name; card uses it on next refresh.
A new sales channel was launched mid-period; how is it weighted?
Channel appears with whatever consignments shipped through it. Volume comparison week-by-week accounts for the ramp; the OTD% is honest read on consignments that did ship. Track separately as it scales.
During Q4 peak, every channel’s OTD dips; which one matters most?
Track which channel’s customers are highest-LTV and highest-NPS-sensitive. For most merchants that is the DTC consumer channel; B2B reseller misses are recoverable through credit-notes; consumer DTC misses are recoverable through extraordinary CS work or not at all. Prioritise consumer-channel recovery during peak.
Can we filter to a single channel pair?
Today, no built-in filter; card shows all channels with at least one Interlink consignment in the period. Most merchants screenshot the card and discuss top-3 channels in weekly ops review.