How to Offer Shipment Tracking in WooCommerce (Step by Step)

How to Offer Shipment Tracking in WooCommerce (and Integrate with Printful)

As an ecommerce store owner, providing a positive customer experience should be a top priority if you want to generate repeat business and positive word-of-mouth. And one of the most important aspects of the customer experience is keeping buyers informed about the status of their order after they click the "Buy" button.

Shipment tracking is a must-have feature for any online store in 2024. Customers have come to expect real-time updates on their order status and package location. Enabling shipment tracking on your WooCommerce store instills confidence, reduces support inquiries, and makes the post-purchase experience more seamless and satisfying for your customers.

In this in-depth guide, we‘ll walk you through everything you need to know about setting up shipment tracking for your WooCommerce store. We‘ll cover the best plugins to use, integrating with popular fulfillment services like Printful, and tips for streamlining the whole process. Let‘s dive in!

Why You Need Shipment Tracking for Your WooCommerce Store

There are several compelling reasons to offer shipment tracking to your customers:

1. Meet customer expectations – With the widespread popularity of ecommerce, online shoppers now expect to be able to easily check the status of their order and delivery. Providing this increases trust in your brand.

2. Reduce support requests – When customers can self-serve and check their order status directly from your site, it cuts down on "Where is my order?" support tickets for your team to handle. This frees up your support staff for more complex inquiries.

3. Identify shipping issues quickly – Having tracking info logged in your dashboard allows you to be proactive if you notice any delivery delays or issues. You can contact the carrier promptly to investigate and resolve the problem.

4. Provide a better post-purchase experience – The customer experience doesn‘t end after the purchase. Offering tracking and keeping customers informed shows that you value them and care about getting their order to them safely. This makes them more likely to buy again.

As you can see, shipment tracking is beneficial to both you and your customers. Fortunately, WooCommerce makes it relatively straightforward to implement on your store.

How to Set Up WooCommerce Shipment Tracking (Step by Step)

There are a few different ways you can enable WooCommerce order tracking, but we recommend using a dedicated plugin to automate the process and make it as smooth as possible. Here are a couple of the best options:

1. Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce

Shipment Tracking is a free WordPress plugin built by WooCommerce to provide real-time order tracking from your store.

It allows you to add tracking information to orders, which is then displayed to customers in their accounts. The plugin also inserts the tracking details and a link into the order complete email notification.

One of the benefits of this official plugin is that it integrates with many popular shipping providers out of the box, like UPS, FedEx, USPS, Australia Post, Royal Mail, and more.

To set it up:

1. Install and activate the free Shipment Tracking plugin
2. In your WordPress dashboard, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipment Tracking
3. Select which shipping providers to enable and configure the settings to your needs
4. To add tracking info to an order, go to WooCommerce → Orders and open the order
5. In the "Shipment Tracking" meta box, enter the tracking number and select the shipping provider from the dropdown, then save the changes

The customer will now see the tracking link in their WooCommerce account and order email. It‘s as simple as that!

2. AfterShip for WooCommerce

AfterShip is a dedicated order tracking platform that integrates with WooCommerce via an official plugin. It supports tracking across 900+ carriers worldwide, which covers pretty much every shipping service you could need.

The core AfterShip features are available for free, with premium plans starting at $9/month for added functionality like SMS notifications, tracking in emails, and a branded tracking page.

To use AfterShip with WooCommerce, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for a free AfterShip account and get your API key
2. Install and activate the AfterShip plugin on your WordPress site
3. Go to AfterShip → Settings and enter your API key to connect it to your store
4. To track an order, open it from the WooCommerce orders list and enter the tracking number and courier name in the "AfterShip" meta box
5. Save the changes and a tracking link will appear on the order details and in the shipment confirmation email sent to the customer

In addition to the tracking functionality, AfterShip also provides a returns center to manage and automate your WooCommerce store‘s product returns and refunds.

Integrating WooCommerce Tracking with Printful

So far, we‘ve looked at how to add shipment tracking to orders you fulfill and ship yourself. But what if you use a third-party fulfillment service to manufacture and ship orders on your behalf?

Printful is one of the most popular print-on-demand providers for WooCommerce stores. They offer automated drop shipping of products like t-shirts, wall art, mugs, and more. The good news is that you can sync Printful‘s tracking information with your WooCommerce orders.

Here‘s how to set up Printful tracking in WooCommerce:

1. Create a free Printful account and connect it to your WooCommerce store
2. Install the WooCommerce Shipment Tracking or AfterShip plugin using the steps outlined above
3. When you receive a new order containing Printful products, it will automatically import into your Printful dashboard
4. Once Printful produces and ships the order, the tracking details will automatically sync to the corresponding WooCommerce order
5. The plugins will add the tracking link to the order confirmation email as well as the customer‘s order history page

Printful will also send a shipping confirmation email directly to the customer containing their tracking link. This is a standardized email, but you can turn it off in your Printful notification settings if you‘d prefer to just send tracking info via WooCommerce.

This integration works pretty seamlessly, so you can manage all of your orders within WooCommerce while benefiting from Printful‘s automated fulfillment on the backend. Tracking details are synced automatically when the order ships, with no extra effort on your part.

Using Printful‘s Shipping Rate Calculator

In addition to streamlining the tracking process, Printful also provides tools to calculate shipping costs and speed prior to ordering.

Printful has a shipping rate calculator that you can use to estimate the shipping price for products based on the delivery destination and requested shipping method. It‘s a handy way to check costs and decide which shipping method to offer for an order.

To use it, you‘ll need to enter some key details:

• The destination address (country, state, and zip code)
• The desired shipping carrier (USPS, FedEx, etc.)
• The shipping method (Standard, Express, Overnight, etc.)
• The Printful product(s) being purchased, including any product modifications

The calculator will then display the shipping cost and estimated production/delivery times for this combination. You have the option to calculate rates for international as well as domestic shipping.

Printful also offers a live shipping rates feature that you can enable on your WooCommerce store. This will automatically show customers the real-time shipping costs for their order before they check out.

Live rates are based on the customer‘s shipping address and the shipping methods you have enabled in your Printful account. The available options will display on the cart/checkout page, allowing the customer to choose their preferred shipping method.

Tips for Optimizing Your Shipment Tracking Process

Whichever method you use to add shipment tracking to WooCommerce, there are a few best practices that will make the process smoother for both you and your customers:

1. Make sure to select a trackable shipping method for all orders. Some of the cheapest shipping services don‘t provide tracking, which presents a bad experience for customers.

2. If you‘re entering tracking info manually, do it as soon as you receive it from the carrier. The sooner it‘s added to the order, the sooner the customer is informed. Consider delegating this to a virtual assistant to save time.

3. Enable order status emails, including the "Completed Order" email which contains the tracking link. To customize this email, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Emails and open the "Completed order" email.

4. If you use multiple shipping providers, make sure you‘re entering the correct one along with the tracking number for each order. Selecting the wrong provider could result in a broken tracking link.

5. Consider also adding the tracking link to the post-purchase "Thank You" page the customer sees immediately after they complete their order. That way, they don‘t have to wait for the order complete email to check tracking.

6. Monitor your WooCommerce order dashboard regularly to check for any delivery delays or issues. If you notice a problem, contact the shipping provider right away to resolve it. Keep the customer informed with updates as you receive them.

7. Invite customers to leave you a review or feedback after receiving their order. Having the tracking info on hand will help them to provide informed feedback about their experience and the shipping service.

Providing an excellent post-purchase experience is just as important as optimizing your sales funnel. By implementing shipment tracking, you can boost customer confidence and satisfaction, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases.

We hope this guide has helped clarify exactly how to add shipment tracking to your WooCommerce store, whether you self-fulfill orders or use a third-party provider like Printful.

If you have any other questions about setting up tracking for your ecommerce store, let us know in the comments below!