Shipment tracking

Shipment tracking

Once an order has a tracking number, Shippified works out the carrier and shows the package's history in the order's tracking drawer. For carriers with live tracking, Shippified also checks the package with the carrier in the background. When the carrier confirms delivery, the order moves to Delivered and the delivery date is recorded, even if you never open the dashboard.

This page covers which carriers have live tracking, how Shippified gets a tracking number and detects the carrier, when tracking refreshes, and what you see for packages without live tracking.

Supported carriers

Shippified recognises five carriers. Live tracking, meaning scan-by-scan updates straight from the carrier, is currently available for DHL and DHL Express only.

Shippified has integrations for UPS and FedEx, but they aren't switched on yet. When a carrier doesn't have live tracking, the drawer says so with a message such as Live UPS tracking isn't enabled on this Shippified server — showing updates from your order emails. You can't change this from your settings. The New order dialog also checks which carriers have live tracking before telling you what to expect.

You don't need your own carrier accounts or API keys. Shippified makes the lookups from its own servers, and the carrier only sees the tracking number.

How a tracking number gets onto an order

Tracking numbers can reach an order in three ways:

1. From the message. A built-in or custom template pulls the tracking number from a shipping email or monitor post. If no template captures it, Shippified also looks for the word "tracking" (for example "Tracking number:" or "Tracking #") followed by a UPS 1Z… number, a USPS-style number starting with 9, or an Amazon TBA… number.

2. From a later message. A shipping confirmation that carries the same order number is merged into the existing order, and the tracking number is added to it. See Order lifecycle.

3. By hand. Add it yourself (see Adding a tracking number manually).

Any order with a tracking number counts as Shipped.

How the carrier is detected

If the order already names a carrier, Shippified uses that name. It recognises the carrier names UPS, United Parcel Service, FedEx, Fed Ex, FDX, Federal Express, USPS, United States Postal Service, US Postal Service, DHL, DHL eCommerce, DHL Parcel and DHL Express. It also finds them inside a longer label, such as "USPS Ground Advantage" or "DHL Express Worldwide". The more specific name wins, so "DHL Express" is never read as plain DHL, and "USPS" is never read as UPS.

If no carrier is named, Shippified guesses from the format of the tracking number. Spaces are ignored, and the first matching rule in this order wins:

If none of these rules match, the drawer shows Unknown carrier and no live lookup is made.

Tip: When you add a DHL Express number by hand, you can leave Carrier on Auto-detect from tracking number for a 10- or 11-digit number, or pick DHL Express yourself. Either way it's tracked as DHL Express.

When tracking refreshes

Live tracking refreshes in four ways. All of them update the order itself: its status, estimated delivery date and delivery date.

Orders that are already Delivered, Canceled or marked Issue aren't refreshed by Sync tracking or in the background. Packages on carriers without live tracking aren't refreshed either, because there's nothing to look up.

How background refresh works

Background refresh keeps your orders current without any clicks. Every 5 minutes, Shippified picks a batch of packages to check across all workspaces:

• How often a package is checked depends on the order's age. Orders placed in the last 30 days are checked about every 30 minutes. Orders placed 30 to 90 days ago are checked about twice a day. Orders older than 90 days that still aren't delivered are no longer checked in the background, but Refresh and Sync tracking still work for them.

• New packages go first. A package that has never been looked up is checked before anything else, then the most overdue ones.

• Every workspace gets a turn. Workspaces take turns in each batch, so a workspace with thousands of shipments can't hold up everyone else's.

• Shared numbers are looked up once. If several orders share a tracking number, one lookup updates all of them.

• Carrier limits are respected. Each carrier allows a limited number of lookups per day, and Shippified keeps a rolling 24-hour count of them, shared by DHL and DHL Express. Your own Refresh and Sync tracking clicks count toward the same limit. If the daily limit is reached, or the carrier asks Shippified to slow down, background checks pause until there's room again.

Because the daily carrier limit is shared across all workspaces, a busy day can mean packages are checked less often than every 30 minutes. If you need the latest status right away, click Refresh in the drawer.

The tracking drawer

To open the drawer, click any order in Orders or Home. For an order with a tracking number, the drawer shows:

• Carrier chip at the top: UPS, FedEx, DHL, DHL Express, USPS or Unknown carrier.

• Tracking number as the heading, with the retailer and item name underneath.

• A notice when there's no live data, explaining why. For example, the carrier has no live tracking, or Shippified couldn't tell which carrier the number belongs to.

• A summary line with the number of events, when the carrier data was last updated (for example last update 3m ago), delivered once delivery is confirmed, and the recipient name if the carrier provides one. For a timeline built from your emails, the line says from your order emails.

• The timeline. Each scan shows its description, date and time, and location.

• Actions: Refresh, Copy number, and, for USPS packages, Check on usps.com.

• The order editor underneath, where you can fill in missing details, set a sale price or delete the order. See Editing an order.

The drawer shows the best timeline it has, in this order:

1. The live carrier timeline.

2. The last timeline Shippified successfully fetched, if a newer lookup failed.

3. A simple timeline built from your messages: Order placed, Shipped, and Delivered or Estimated delivery if those dates are known.

If none of these exist, the drawer shows No tracking events yet. If the request itself fails, you'll see Tracking lookup failed with a Try again button.

When a lookup changes the order, for example by marking it Delivered, the order list behind the drawer updates to match.

Note: For orders without a tracking number, the drawer shows only the order editor. That's where you add the tracking number (see below).

Delivery dates and carrier-confirmed delivery

Each live lookup can update the order:

1. Estimated delivery. If the carrier gives an estimated delivery date, it's saved on the order and shown as Estimated delivery in the drawer and Est. delivery on the Calendar.

2. Shipped. An Ordered order moves to Shipped once the carrier has scanned the package.

3. Delivered. When the carrier confirms delivery, the order moves from Ordered or Shipped to Delivered, and the delivery date is taken from the carrier's "delivered" scan. If the scan has no date, the date Shippified learned of the delivery is used. The Calendar then shows Delivered instead of the estimate.

4. Extra details. The shipping address, package weight and dimensions, who signed for it, and the service level are saved when the carrier returns them. They stay available through the API even after the carrier stops showing them.

The carrier's confirmation is treated as the source of truth, so you can't change the status from the dashboard. Canceled orders and orders marked Issue are never moved by a carrier lookup.

Carrier-confirmed delivery also survives re-parsing. If you later run Re-run parsing on the Templates page, an order the carrier marked delivered stays delivered.

Adding a tracking number manually

On a new order

1. Go to Orders and click New order.

2. Fill in Item name and any other details you know.

3. Paste the number into Tracking number.

4. Leave Carrier on Auto-detect from tracking number, or pick UPS, FedEx, DHL, DHL Express or USPS.

5. Check the hint under the form:

   • Live tracking on — Shippified checks … in the background and marks the order delivered when … confirms it. The carrier has live tracking.

   • Live … tracking isn't available, so the order stays as recorded. The carrier has no live tracking. Link an inbox in the same dialog so shipping and delivery emails still update the order.

   • Carrier not recognized. Pick the carrier yourself.

6. Click Add order. Because it has a tracking number, the order starts as Shipped.

On an existing order

1. Open the order. If it has no tracking number yet, the drawer shows the order editor.

2. Under Shipping, fill in Tracking number and, optionally, Carrier.

3. Click Save changes. If the order was Ordered, it moves to Shipped.

Note: The editor only fills in blanks. A tracking number or carrier that Shippified already has, whether from a message or a previous edit, is shown with a lock and can't be changed from the dashboard. Values you type are kept when orders are re-parsed or rebuilt from your mailbox.

Packages without live tracking

For UPS, FedEx, USPS and other carriers without live tracking, the tracking number is still stored, shown on the order, and searchable. Status then comes from your messages instead of carrier scans: a shipping email moves the order to Shipped, and a delivery email moves it to Delivered. The drawer's timeline is built from those messages.

To see live scans, use Check on usps.com for USPS packages, or Copy number and paste it into the carrier's own tracking page for UPS, FedEx and other carriers.

Related

• Order lifecycle explains how statuses move and how messages merge.

• Troubleshooting covers tracking that isn't updating.

• Orders API covers reading tracking fields programmatically.