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I'm buying a product from a company that is established in another country. I need to know how much time it takes to send the product to me.
What's the correct way to ask this?
I was wondering that something like "How much time it takes to deliver the product?" would make sense, but I don't know if it's correct and sounds right.
Duration is a single word to connote length of time.
Whereas, the question "What is the delivery time?" is ambiguous as to whether the question is
Using the word shipment is more appropriate as it connotes the start of delivery to the delivery at door step.
Therefore,
What is the shipment duration?
How long would it take to ship the item?
There is a difference between item, shipment and product
When you ask "how long, or duration, of shipment of item", you are asking about one particular item.
When you ask "duration of shipment of product", you are asking about the general time that it takes to ship any item of that product, presuming you are interested in having an item of a product shipped to you more than once.
You could also ask for "duration of a shipment of product with a quantity of 5000". which would be asking for a particular shipment of 5000 in quantity.
However, if you are purchasing a large quantity, like say 20k items, it might take them two weeks to manufacture and prepare the product, as they may not have on hand that quantity. In which case it would be delivery duration, of an order. Using the word order when asking for duration, clearly distinguishes itself as the time between placing an order until time of arrival at doorstep.
In summary, the keywords you need to consider and differentiate are
Another way of asking, is asking for the LEAD TIME.
The most direct wording would be, "How long does it take to deliver this product?", or "What is the delivery time for this product?"
The sentence you give is close. You could say, "How much time does it take to deliver the product?"
You can't say "how much time it takes". To make it a question, you need a helping verb like "does" (as here) or "is" (if it's a question about existence or status). For example, "It takes 3 weeks" becomes "How long does it take?" Or, "Fred eats cheese" becomes "What does Fred eat?" For state, "The box is empty" becomes "Is the box empty?" Or, "There are lions in Africa" becomes "Are there lions in Africa?" or "Where are there lions?"
You could ask "What is the 'lead time' for delivery?"
Lead time : noun
1 - the period of time between the initial phase of a process and the emergence of results, as between the planning and completed manufacture of a product.
www.dictionary.com
This term has the benefit of including all intermediate steps between ordering and delivery, rather than just referencing the time it takes to actually make the delivery. So what you are really asking is "Once I have ordered, how long will it be before I have it with me?".
Had I been at your place I would use the following sentence:
"How long would it take for the product to be delivered?"
I hope it helps.
When can I expect my [product/order/shipment/item] to arrive?
