A "where is my order?" email arrives at the point where the customer's information runs out: the shipping email never came, the tracking link opens a blank page, the tracking has said "label created" for four days, or the delivery date you gave has passed with no word from you. Each of those is a gap you can close. Work through them in the order a customer meets them, from the moment they pay to the day the parcel arrives, and the inbox shrinks to the cases where something really went wrong.
Before they pay: say when it ships
A customer who expects the parcel in two days starts asking on day three. Put two numbers where the customer reads them before buying and again in the order confirmation:
- dispatch time: how long until you hand it to the carrier ("ships within 2 working days");
- delivery time for each shipping option, as the carrier quotes it.
Add the two together in the confirmation email: "Ordered Monday, expect it by Friday." If you make products to order, say so in the same place, with the real number of days.
When it ships: a shipping email with tracking that works
This is the email that answers the question before anyone asks it, and it can stop going out without anyone noticing: a merchant on the Shopify Community found customers getting the order confirmation but no shipping email at all. Check four things.
The email is switched on and sent. On Shopify, the Shipping confirmation notification is sent when an order is fulfilled. When you mark an order as fulfilled by hand, the fulfillment screen has a "Send a notification to the customer" option, available when you have the customer's email address. If staff untick it to save time, customers get nothing.
Tracking is on the order. Enter the tracking number when you fulfill. Shopify may pick the carrier for you; if it picks the wrong one, choose the right carrier from the list. For a carrier Shopify doesn't fully support, select Other and paste the full tracking URL, including the tracking number. Click the link yourself once: a link to the carrier's home page is the same as no link.
An app or fulfillment partner is notifying the customer. If a shipping app, print-on-demand service or warehouse fulfills orders for you, it marks them fulfilled and adds the tracking. Whether the customer is told depends on how that app reports the fulfillment. Place a test order through the same route as a real one and check that the shipping email arrives.
Your edited template still has the links. Shopify's default shipping emails include a link to the order status page. If the template has been customised, Shopify can't add that link for you: either revert the template to default or add {{ order_status_url }} back in by hand.
While it travels: delivery updates
Shopify has three further shipping notifications: Shipping update, sent when tracking information is updated on a fulfilled order; Out for delivery; and Delivered. The last two are sent when the carrier or fulfillment app reports that tracking event, and Shopify notes that the sources, accuracy and timing of those events vary by carrier. They aren't available for local delivery orders. Check in Settings > Notifications that the ones you want are on.
The Out for delivery email is the one that saves a missed delivery. The Delivered email gives the customer a date to quote if the parcel isn't on the doorstep, which turns "where is it?" into a specific question you can take to the carrier.
Any time: one page that answers the question
Shopify's order status page is the last page of checkout, and customers can come back to it to follow the order. Once tracking numbers are added, customers can check progress there without contacting you, and with a supported carrier they see updates on where the parcel is. Customers with an account can log in to see their orders; without an account, they may need to confirm their email address or phone number with the order number.
Make that page easy to find for someone who has lost the email:
- Add a "Track my order" link to the footer and to your contact page, pointing to the customer account login.
- On the contact page, above the form, write one line: "Check your order here first. Your tracking link is also in the shipping email from [store name]." Customers who can answer their own question won't need the form.
- In the contact form, ask for the order number, so the questions that still arrive can be answered in one reply.
When it stalls: email first
The questions you can't prevent with emails are the delayed parcels. You can still get there first.
Once a day, or once a week if you ship a handful of orders, look at fulfilled orders whose tracking hasn't changed for longer than the carrier's quoted transit time. For each one, send a short email before the customer notices:
Your order #1047 left us on 3 March and the carrier's tracking hasn't updated since 5 March. We've asked them to check. If it hasn't moved by 12 March, we'll send a replacement or refund you — just reply to tell us which you'd prefer.
A delay you announce costs you one email. A delay the customer discovers costs you the same email plus a worried customer.
If you ship many orders and doing this by hand is too slow, an order tracking app can watch carrier events and flag stalled parcels. Check that the app covers your carriers before paying for it.
The reply template for the ones that still arrive
Keep one saved reply and fill in three facts:
Hi [name], your order #[number] shipped on [date] with [carrier]. The latest tracking update is "[status]" on [date]: [tracking link]. [Expected delivery / what we're doing about the delay.]
If you're writing the same sentence about the same problem every day, it's a gap in the steps above, not a customer service task.
Check the whole route once a quarter
Place a real order to your own address, using a personal email account, and follow it end to end: order confirmation, shipping email, tracking link, delivery updates, order status page. Do it again whenever you change carrier, install a shipping app or edit a notification template. If an email from the store lands in spam or never arrives, see why website emails don't arrive; if customers get two copies of each email after you added an email tool, see duplicate order confirmations.