How to Set up Tracking an Order on Your Shopify Store

Tracking orders is a fundamental part of the eCommerce experience, especially for Shopify store owners and their customers. Knowing how to efficiently track orders not only provides peace of mind but also enhances customer satisfaction and trust. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how to track orders on Shopify and dive into some of the best Shopify order tracking apps that can take your store’s tracking experience to the next level.

Why Order Tracking is Crucial for eCommerce Brands

Order tracking plays a vital role in eCommerce for several reasons:

• Customer Satisfaction: Customers expect to know where their orders are at every stage and will be frustrated if they're not updated on it. Providing accurate tracking information meets this expectation and reduces anxiety.
• Reduced Support Inquiries: Clear tracking information can significantly reduce the number of "Where is my order?" (WISMO) inquiries to your customer support team. This will save your team time and emotional energy that could have been avoided with proactive order notifications.
• Trust Building: Transparency in order tracking builds trust with your customers, leading to repeat purchases and positive reviews.
• Brand Loyalty: A smooth post-purchase experience can convert one-time buyers into loyal customers.

How to Track an Order on Shopify as a Customer

If you’ve purchased from a Shopify store and you're here to try and find out where your package is, here’s how you can easily track your order:

1. Email Confirmation: After you make a purchase, the store will send an email confirmation that includes your order details and a tracking link.
2. Order Tracking Page: Click the tracking link in your email to access the Order Tracking Page. This page provides real-time updates on your order's status.
3. Customer Support: If you can't find your tracking information, reaching out to the store’s customer support team is a good step. They can provide the most up-to-date information on your order.

Optimizing the Order Tracking Experience for Shopify Store Owners

As a Shopify store owner, ensuring a seamless order tracking process is essential. Here are some strategies to optimize the tracking experience:

1. Reliable Shipping Carriers: Choose shipping carriers that integrate smoothly with Shopify and offer reliable tracking services. Popular options include USPS, UPS, and FedEx, among others.
2. Automated Tracking Notifications: You can use Shopify’s built-in features to automate tracking notifications instead of using an email service provider (ESP) for your transactional notifications if it makes more sense for your company. Merchants usually choose this option when they're just starting out, but look to an ESP and third-party order tracking app when they start to scale. No matter what provider you choose for your transactional notifications, you'll want to set up automated transactional notifications to keep customers informed without requiring manual updates.
3. Customizable Order Tracking Pages: Shopify does not allow for the customization of the Order Tracking Page, so you must implement a third-party app, like Malomo, that specializes in branded tracking. Customizing your order tracking page can help reinforce your brand identity, generate revenue with post-purchase cross/upsells, present loyalty/referral programs, and provide additional customer support options.

Shopify Order Tracking Apps to Consider

To further enhance the tracking experience, Shopify offers a range of order tracking apps that integrate seamlessly with your store. Here are some of the best:

1. Malomo

Malomo is a powerful order tracking app designed specifically for Shopify merchants. It focuses on turning the post-purchase experience into a brand engagement opportunity. Here’s what Malomo offers:

• Branded Tracking Pages: Malomo allows you to create fully customizable tracking pages that reflect your brand’s identity, rather than directing customers to generic carrier pages.
• Proactive Notifications: Keep your customers informed with automated, branded email and SMS notifications that are triggered at every step of the shipping process.
• Engagement Opportunities: Use tracking pages to promote additional products, content, or special offers while customers wait for their orders to arrive.
• Robust Shipping Analytics & Reporting: Malomo provides their customers with detailed and customizable reporting for your shipments and carriers.

Malomo isn’t just about tracking; it’s about enhancing the entire post-purchase experience, which can lead to higher customer retention and more repeat purchases.

2. AfterShip

AfterShip is another Shopify tracking app that offers:

• Tracking: AfterShip supports tracking for Shopify merchants
• Notifications: Send email and SMS notifications to keep customers informed

3. Narvar

Narvar is an app in the Shopify ecosystem that allows customers to:

• Track: Narvar supports order tracking but has limited customizability features
• Notify: Narvar also enables their customers to trigger order notifications

How to Set up Tracking an Order in Shopify with Transactional Emails

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up Shopify transactional emails:

Step 1: Access the Shopify Admin Dashboard

1. Log in to your Shopify account.
2. From your Shopify admin dashboard, navigate to Settings by clicking on the gear icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Step 2: Go to the Notifications Section

1. In the Settings menu, click on Notifications.
2. This section contains all the default Shopify email notifications, such as order confirmations, shipping updates, and account-related emails.

Step 3: Customize Your Transactional Emails

1. In the Notifications section, you’ll see a list of all the different email templates available, including:
   • Order Confirmation
   • Shipping Confirmation
   • Shipping Update
   • Delivery Confirmation
2. Click on the notification type you want to customize. This opens the template editor for that specific email.
3. Edit the Subject Line and Body: In the template editor, you can customize the subject line and the body of the email. Shopify uses Liquid variables to dynamically insert order-specific information (e.g., {{ customer.first_name }} to greet the customer by name).

Step 4: Preview and Test Your Emails

1. Preview Your Changes: Before saving, click the Preview button to see how your email will look to customers.
2. Send a Test Email: To ensure everything is working as expected, send a test email to yourself by clicking on Send Test Email. This lets you review the email in your inbox and make any necessary adjustments.

Step 5: Save Your Changes

1. After customizing your email template and testing it, click Save to apply your changes.
2. Repeat the process for any other transactional emails you want to customize.

Step 7: Consider Using a Third-Party App to Send Transactional Emails (Optional)

If you want more advanced customization options or analytics for your transactional emails, consider using a third-party app like Klaviyo, Attentive, Yotpo, or Sendlane.

One thing to note is that if you choose to work with one of these email service providers (ESPs), there will be certain transactional emails Shopify will allow you to turn off whether you're on Shopify or Shopify+. Shopify merchants will be able to shut off the 'order confirmation' and 'shipping confirmation' emails but not the 'put for delivery' or 'delivered' emails. Shopify+ providers will be able to shut off all notifications and trigger them through an ESP if you please.

Please note you'll only want to shut off these notifications if you are working with a third-party app that will send these notifications instead, because your customers will want to get these notifications. To do this, go back to the Notifications section, find the notification you want to disable, and click Disable next to the template.

Step 8: Consider Branding Your Tracking Page to Generate More Revenue (Optional)

Branding your tracking page gives your brand an extra leg in standing out and impressing your customers while also providing the opportunity to generate more revenue. It seems counter-intuitive that a customer would purchase right after they jsut placed an order, but Malomo's revenue report proves that thought wrong.

To integrate Malomo with your Shopify storefront, you can follow these steps.

Tracking an order on Shopify is essential for both customers and store owners. For customers, it provides peace of mind and transparency. For store owners, it’s an opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction and build brand loyalty.

By integrating advanced tracking apps you can offer a superior post-purchase experience that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations. These tools allow you to create branded, engaging tracking experiences that turn every shipment into an opportunity to delight your customers

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