> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Interlink OTD by Sales Channel, Interlink Express

> Per-channel Interlink Express OTD. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

**Metrics type:** [Cross-Platform Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained)  •  **Category:** [Shipping & Courier](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type)

> 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-platform 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`)                 |

The card flags **eBay at 89.6%** as below the 90% alert. Five things to notice:

1. **Aggregate looks healthy at 96.2%; one channel is failing.** A merchant looking at `int_otd_rate` only would not see the eBay-channel issue. The cross-platform split is exactly the diagnostic this card exists for.
2. **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.
3. **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.
4. **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.
5. **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-platform OTD is the diagnostic-by-sales-surface view. Pair with these:

| Card                                                                                                                                 | Why pair it with Cross-Platform OTD                                                                    | What the combination tells you                                                                     |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/on-time-delivery-rate)                                             | Aggregate.                                                                                             | Aggregate dip + one-channel concentration = single-cohort fix.                                     |
| [Pre-10:30 Service Promise](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/otd-by-route)                                                               | Geographic split. Combined with channel = "Amazon-channel orders to North-East routes are the misses". | Two-dimensional triage.                                                                            |
| [Open Claims](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/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`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate)                                                | Direct downstream impact for Shopify-channel slice.                                                    | Shopify-channel OTD dip predicts Shopify refund rate rise.                                         |
| Cross-connector: [`amazon.amazon_otdr`](/nerve-centre/amazon/amazon_otdr)                                                            | Amazon's seller-side OTD.                                                                              | Slight tightening on Amazon's promise-from-purchase.                                               |
| Cross-connector: [`ebay.ebay_defect_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/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`](/nerve-centre/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`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/parcelforce/parcelforce-otd-by-sales-channel) | Sister cross-platform 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.                                                                    |

**Cross-connector reconciliation:**

| Card                                                                           | Expected relationship                      | What causes legitimate divergence           |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- |
| [`shopify.fulfillment_lead_time`](/nerve-centre/shopify/fulfillment_lead_time) | Channel-specific dispatch readiness.       | App-install events.                         |
| [`amazon.amazon_otdr`](/nerve-centre/amazon/amazon_otdr)                       | Amazon-channel slice tracks Amazon's OTDR. | Different promise-clock.                    |
| [`ebay.ebay_defect_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/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 requires `has_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.

***

### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

*Interlink OTD by Sales Channel* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Interlink Express and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

[Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.
