Learn About AfterShip Pre-Shipment Tracking
Plans: Enterprise Platforms: All platforms, Commerce API
AfterShip Tracking supports customizable pre-shipment status updates to proactively inform customers before their items ship. Providing frequent updates early in the post-purchase journey can reduce customer queries about order status and reduce support calls.
Before shipping, you can offer additional updates to help customers track their order’s progress and manage expectations, especially if some of your items have longer fulfillment times. These pre-shipment updates help retailers minimize "Where Is My Order?" (WISMO) inquiries by delivering more detailed and timely information.
AfterShip integrates with your eCommerce platform to internally label and manage tracking information for orders that are yet to be shipped. This internal labeling paves the way for related tracking page and notification flows.
Customers receive real-time notifications via email and SMS when their order’s shipping fulfillment status updates, such as when the order is processed to when the order is shipped, ensuring clear communication.
A centralized orders dashboard to oversee the shipping fulfillment of orders synced from an eCommerce platform to manage customer expectations effectively.
A fully customizable, on-brand tracking page for customers to track the status of their orders before they have been shipped.
AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to track and update the progress of orders before they are shipped, starting from order creation to shipping. These statuses are communicated to AfterShip via the fulfillment.status field.
Additionally, these statuses are used to send pre-shipment notifications and show the pre-shipment progress of the order on the shipment tracking results page.
AfterShip Tracking will import your shipping orders from your eCommerce platform if you have an active store connection linked to your organization and will follow the order import rules you’ve set up under your app import settings. Once imported, the order will be labelled as Shipping in the backend and will seamlessly flow into the relevant notification workflows and tracking pages.
We only support shipping fulfillment for users on 2024-07 versioned Commerce API and above.
1. Create shipping order
2. Create shipping fulfillment(s) and fill in the ship to location
3. Update status to “Processing”
4. Update status to “Delay” (custom status)
5. Set status to “Packing” (custom status)
6. (If shipped) Ship the fulfillment
7. Update status to “Canceled”(If canceled)
AfterShip Pre-Shipment Tracking on Branded Tracking Page
AfterShip Pre-Shipment Order Notifications
How to Set Up Custom Fulfillment Statuses
For any further questions or help, please contact our chat support team.
Overview
AfterShip Tracking supports customizable pre-shipment status updates to proactively inform customers before their items ship. Providing frequent updates early in the post-purchase journey can reduce customer queries about order status and reduce support calls.
Before shipping, you can offer additional updates to help customers track their order’s progress and manage expectations, especially if some of your items have longer fulfillment times. These pre-shipment updates help retailers minimize "Where Is My Order?" (WISMO) inquiries by delivering more detailed and timely information.
AfterShip integrates with your eCommerce platform to internally label and manage tracking information for orders that are yet to be shipped. This internal labeling paves the way for related tracking page and notification flows.
Customers receive real-time notifications via email and SMS when their order’s shipping fulfillment status updates, such as when the order is processed to when the order is shipped, ensuring clear communication.
A centralized orders dashboard to oversee the shipping fulfillment of orders synced from an eCommerce platform to manage customer expectations effectively.
A fully customizable, on-brand tracking page for customers to track the status of their orders before they have been shipped.
Pre-shipment fulfillment statuses
AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to track and update the progress of orders before they are shipped, starting from order creation to shipping. These statuses are communicated to AfterShip via the fulfillment.status field.
Additionally, these statuses are used to send pre-shipment notifications and show the pre-shipment progress of the order on the shipment tracking results page.
| STATUS | DESCRITPION |
|---|---|
| pending | Awaiting fulfillment information of the order. |
| processing | The processing of the items in the order has started. |
| shipped | The items in the order have been dispatched and are on their way to the destination. |
| canceled | The fulfillment of the order has been cancelled and will no longer be processed for delivery. |
| Custom status | Merchants can define their pre-shipment status(es) in addition to the above standard triggers in AfterShip. |
Pre-shipped orders import to AfterShip Tracking
Ecommerce platform
AfterShip Tracking will import your shipping orders from your eCommerce platform if you have an active store connection linked to your organization and will follow the order import rules you’ve set up under your app import settings. Once imported, the order will be labelled as Shipping in the backend and will seamlessly flow into the relevant notification workflows and tracking pages.
API users
We only support shipping fulfillment for users on 2024-07 versioned Commerce API and above.
Recommended method
1. Create shipping order
{
"source_id":"5187092316403",
"number":"1086",
"currency":"HKD",
"status":"open",
"fulfillment_status":"unfulfilled",
"delivery_method":"shipping",
"order_total":"97",
"items":[
{
"source_id":"101",
"quantity":1,
"title":"good hair"
},
{
"source_id":"102",
"quantity":2,
"title":"apple"
}
],
"shipping_address":{
"company": "Example Company",
"first_name": "John",
"last_name": "Doe",
"email": "john.doe@example.com",
"street_1": "1234 Elm Street",
"street_2": "Apt 5",
"city": "New York",
"state": "NY",
"country_region": "USA",
"postal_code": "10001",
"phone": "+11234567890"
}
}2. Create shipping fulfillment(s) and fill in the ship to location
POST /fulfillments
{
"source_id":"100",
"order_id":"243f72f5d0564f008e9690cc823d2e91",
"type":"shipping",
"status":"pending",
"line_items":[
{
"source_id":"101",
"quantity":1
},
{
"source_id":"102",
"quantity":2
}
],
"source_created_at":"2024-01-02T00:00:00Z",
"source_updated_at":"2024-01-02T00:00:00Z",
"ship_from_location":{
"location_id":"3a63c1fbc2fb459ba2d27e376072df67"
},
"ship_to_location":{
"address": {
"type": "residential",
"country_region": "United States",
"state": "California",
"city": "Los Angeles",
"postal_code": "90001",
"street_1": "123 Main Street",
"street_2": "Apt 101",
"street_3": "",
"coordinate": {
"longitude": -118.2437,
"latitude": 34.0522
},
"company": "ACME Corporation",
"first_name": "John",
"last_name": "Doe",
"email": "johndoe@example.com",
"phone": "+11234567890"
}
}
}3. Update status to “Processing”
POST /fulfillments/{id}/update-status
{
"status": "processing",
"occurred_at": "2024-05-04T01:25:00Z"
}4. Update status to “Delay” (custom status)
POST /fulfillments/{id}/update-status
{
"status": "delay",
"occurred_at": "2024-05-03T00:12:09Z"
}5. Set status to “Packing” (custom status)
POST /fulfillments/{id}/update-status
{
"status": "packing",
"occurred_at": "2024-05-05T00:00:00Z"
}6. (If shipped) Ship the fulfillment
POST /fulfillments/{id}/ship
[
{
"tracking_number":"ITOD-3-WA34562EBBQ1",
"slug":"testing-courier",
"service_type":"FedEx Overnight",
"ship_date":"2024-05-06",
"custom_fields":{
"a":"b"
},
"next_couriers": [
"slug": "testing-courier",7. Update status to “Canceled”(If canceled)
POST /fulfillments/{id}/update-status
{
"status": "canceled",
"occurred_at": "2024-05-06T10:00:00Z"
}What are the solutions available under the AfterShip Pre-Shipment Order Tracking?
AfterShip Pre-Shipment Tracking on Branded Tracking Page
AfterShip Pre-Shipment Order Notifications
Additional resources
How to Set Up Custom Fulfillment Statuses
For any further questions or help, please contact our chat support team.
Updated on: 29/08/2024
Thank you!