Offer an order tracking portal that lets customers check the status of their order and view shipment history in real-time.
Capabilities and Requirements
- Order tracking is a quota-based feature, similar to returns. This means that you have a certain number of shipments that you can track each month, and you will be charged for any additional shipments.
- To activate order tracking, you will need to contact us to purchase a shipment tracking quota for your store.
- Order tracking is a feature of the returns system, so it cannot be used independently at this time.
The Order Tracking Customer Flow
The order tracking portal looks similar to the return portal and has 2 steps:
1. Search screen- Customers can enter their order number and identifier to search for their order.
- Customers can view all shipments related to the order (including multi-shipment orders), along with the tracking number, status, estimated time of delivery, and shipment history.
- Customers can also choose to opt out of receiving further notifications about the order from this screen.
The order tracking portal is a valuable tool for customers as it enables them to track the status of their orders and receive updates along the way. This can help reduce anxiety and frustration, and make customers more likely to shop with you again in the future.
Unfulfilled Items
Unfulfilled items in partially-fulfilled orders can be seen on the order tracking portal as a separate "shipment", so the customer can see any remaining items that haven't yet been shipped.
How to Configure Order Tracking
To configure order tracking:
- Contact us to enable order tracking and purchase a shipment tracking quota for your store.
- Customize your portal settings by going to Settings > Portals > Look and Feel.
- Click TRACKING PORTAL.
4. In the General section, enable displaying the estimated delivery date when available if you want customers to see the estimated delivery date in the portal.
- Error Message
- Info Message
- Warning Message
Tip: The preview on the right of the screen will show how the selected display version will look.
6. In the Backgrounds section, select whether to set the background as a plain background color or an image.
7. Select a page background color or upload an image for an image background. For an image background, you can choose to stretch the image to cover the entire tracking page or a repeating image background.
8. Select the tracking portal background color.
9. Set the portal background opacity.
10. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
11. Go to Settings > Emails > Content to customize your order tracking notifications.
12. Go live with the tracking portal and add the link to your site.
How to Start Using the Order Tracking Portal
Before you go live with the portal, it’s recommended to test it first. Enable some of the relevant email notifications, then search for one of your orders in the tracking portal (keep in mind that tracking updates aren't always received in real-time from the carriers, so it might take some time for the tracking information to be available if it's a new order).
Once you’re done with editing and testing your notifications, you’ll be ready to go live with the portal.
Tip: When you want to start using the order tracking portal, make sure you set your store to start tracking all orders.
To go live with the order tracking portal:
- Go to Settings > Integrations > Products & Services.
- Open the Shopify Integration section.
3. Enter a name for the order tracking portal page.
4. Copy the order tracking portal URL and add it wherever you want customers to be able to find the portal - website header, footer, product pages, confirmation emails, etc.
5. Enable the Automatically track all store’s orders toggle.
- When it's disabled - ReturnGO won’t automatically track new orders when they’re created, but only when they are submitted in the tracking portal, sending email notifications (great for testing).
- When it's enabled - Any new order that's fulfilled/partially fulfilled and has a tracking number, will be tracked by ReturnGO and will receive the relevant email notifications.
6. Enable Custom Order Tracking Portal URL if you want to display a different order tracking portal URL to customers from the default, in cases where you've embedded the portal into a custom website page.
7. Enter the URL to the custom page.
8. Click on the save icon beside the section heading to save your changes.
Troubleshooting
Order Not Receiving Updates
Automatic order tracking in ReturnGO is triggered by order fulfillment. When an order is fulfilled and the automatic tracking setting is activated, ReturnGO receives updates from your eCommerce platform. As the shipment progresses through its life cycle, ReturnGO will be updated and trigger any related notifications.
However, if automatic tracking was not enabled at the time the order was fulfilled, ReturnGO will not receive further updates for that shipment. To backfill tracking information, manually enter the order's details into the tracking portal, and future updates will be registered in ReturnGO.
Tip: It's recommended to always enable automatic order tracking to avoid missing updates.
Commonly Conflated Order Tracking Statuses
- Ready for Pickup: Refers to when the carrier collects the package from the warehouse.
- Ready for Collection: Refers to when the customer can pick up the package from the delivery center.