E-commerce Order Tracking: Why It Matters and How to Implement It

What is E-commerce Order Tracking?
Why E-commerce Tracking Matters
How to Set Up Order Tracking For Your E-commerce Business
E-commerce Tracking with TrackingMore
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Order tracking has become an essential part of managing e-commerce fulfillment and meeting customer delivery expectations. With online shoppers demanding more transparency and predictability around their purchases, implementing a reliable shipment tracking system is crucial for brands with online stores looking to optimize the post-purchase experience.

The good news is that as technology evolves for e-commerce fulfillment systems, providing package tracking functionality and delivery date estimations has become simpler and more efficient. That means it is also important to select the right tracking service to leverage maximum output for your company.

In this post, we’ll explore what e-commerce order tracking entails, why it matters for your business, how to effectively implement tracking, and the key benefits it provides. Whether you handle fulfillment internally or use a 3PL, a robust tracking system can reduce logistics costs, minimize customer inquiries, and give you greater visibility into your order lifecycle.

What is E-commerce Order Tracking?

Before diving into its importance, it is necessary to first define the scope and definition of order or shipment tracking. E-commerce order tracking refers to the monitoring of package orders from the time they are placed until successful delivery.

It involves tracking shipment status, providing estimated delivery dates, and sending proactive notifications to update customers throughout the order lifecycle. From the moment an online order is received, through fulfillment, and until the customer’s doorstep, tracking gives visibility into each step.

For e-commerce fulfillment services, key tracking capabilities include order confirmation, shipping notifications, delivery ETAs, and status alerts if exceptions arise during transit. Implementing tracking allows brands to closely follow each order and keep customers informed.

Why E-commerce Tracking Matters

E-commerce tracking is central to delivering an ideal post-purchase experience to customers, which defines the success of an e-commerce fulfillment business. There are several key reasons why e-commerce tracking should be a priority.

Reduces Customer Inquiries

By providing automated delivery updates to customers, e-commerce tracking significantly reduces the volume of WISMO (Where Is My Order) tickets to your support team. This saves substantial time for fulfillment staff fielding repetitive questions about order status that tracking information resolves proactively.

Streamlining order communication allows your business to reallocate support resources to other customer experience priorities.

Provides Visibility & Control

Comprehensive e-commerce tracking gives managers real-time visibility into order status as orders move through your fulfillment workflow. This enables you to closely monitor processes within the warehouse to rapidly identify and resolve any bottlenecks or order management issues.

With deep logistics insights, operational managers can take a proactive approach to optimizing workflows, staffing, and inventory planning to meet demand.

Meets Customer Expectations

Research shows that almost all customers expect delivery date estimates and proactive notifications when shopping online. E-commerce tracking enables your business to meet these expectations around predictability and communication.

This prevents customers from being caught off guard by unexpected delays, which could otherwise result in negative reviews. By keeping customers informed, tracking brings transparency that today’s online shoppers demand.

Optimizes Workflows

Robust data analysis from an e-commerce tracking solution allows you to identify patterns and areas for improving your fulfillment workflows and inventory management. With data on fulfillment and order delivery time, delays, staffing needs, and more, managers can easily pinpoint supply chain process bottlenecks and save operational and shipping costs.

Tracking provides the visibility to optimize everything from inventory picks and packing to carrier integration and returns management for systemic gains.

Enhances Customer Experience

Parcel tracking gives customers confidence throughout the post-purchase experience by setting clear delivery expectations and informing shoppers.

This leads to happier repeat customers and loyal brand advocates. Furthermore, swift resolution of any delivery hiccups enabled by tracking leaves customers with a positive lasting impression of your brand’s commitment to customer service.

By making delivery predictable and transparent for customers, tracking directly impacts customer satisfaction, retention, and lifetime value.

How to Set Up Order Tracking For Your E-commerce Business

Once you recognize the immense value of e-commerce package tracking, the next step is properly implementing a robust tracking system for your business.

Simply follow the steps below and enable a seamless buyer’s journey for your customers.

a. Choose a Package Tracking Platform

Selecting a powerful system that centralizes tracking across your channels and carriers is the first and most crucial step to a successful package tracking implementation. Top e-commerce platforms, such as TrackingMore, provide real-time updates, custom notifications, exception monitoring, and integrations. Make sure you know what features you need or even may require in the future and choose the best pricing plan for your company.

b. Get Shipment Tracking Data Through the Tracking Platform

Package tracking platforms typically come pre-integrated with a wide array of major carriers, such as UPS, FedEx, etc. It’s essential to choose a platform that not only supports the carriers you currently use but also those you may consider in the future based on your business projections. Once set up, the rest is automated, seamlessly pulling tracking data from your carriers and providing a comprehensive view of all your shipments and orders from just the dashboard.

c. Set Up Order Confirmation and Shipping Notifications

The system should automatically send an order confirmation and tracking number to customers when the order is processed from online shops. You can also set up additional email or SMS notifications to alert customers when the order ships and reaches key transit milestones. This is important to keep your customers engaged and keep them satisfied.

d. Monitor Exceptions

You should also set up notifications in a way that you get notified immediately if orders encounter exceptions like shipping delays. This enables you to take swift action and resolve it before it prompts any customer complaint.

e. Track Metrics

Use the large quantity of collected tracking data to observe KPIs like on-time fulfillment rate, delivery ETA accuracy, customer inquiry rate, and more. This helps you optimize your workflows and delivery routes so that you do more with fewer resources.

f. Offer Branded Tracking

Try to create branded tracking pages for your company for a streamlined customer experience. This helps you deliver a far superior post-purchase experience as opposed to just linking to carrier sites.

g. Integrate Support Systems

Connect your helpdesk/ticketing system to your tracking platform and tracking page. This enables your customer service agents to quickly access shipment information to reduce customer response rates and improve overall customer support service.

By implementing a centralized tracking system, brands gain end-to-end visibility into their e-commerce order lifecycle. This allows them to identify and resolve any fulfillment issues proactively and keep customers happy with transparent delivery communication

E-commerce Tracking with TrackingMore

As customer demands rise, tracking has become essential for e-commerce success. To maximize value, partner with a proven provider like TrackingMore that offers rich features tailored to modern fulfillment needs.

TrackingMore centralizes real-time tracking across all your carriers on a unified dashboard. Customizable alerts keep customers informed of delivery status. TrackingMore’s powerful API integrates with your systems to provide actionable insights to optimize logistics performance.

Trusted by leading retailers worldwide, TrackingMore gives brands the visibility, control, and exceptional delivery experience needed to thrive, going above and beyond just a simple tracking tool.

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With reliable tracking, you can focus on business growth while TrackingMore handles the res