An Insider's Guide to E-Commerce Order Tracking

Once only a buzzword, online shopping is now the preferred way to purchase goods. According to a Wunderman Thompson Commerce study , up to 59% of all customer spending is online. But customers are not just splashing money online on items they love. They spend wisely on items and brands that provide an exceptional post-purchase experience.

Metapack's consumer research report found that 70% of online shoppers globally rank the ability to track their orders as a top-three consideration when shopping. A further 56% say it is the top consideration when buying luxury items.?

In short, e-commerce order tracking is critical for driving conversions and ensuring customer satisfaction. This article will explore why e-commerce retailers and marketplaces need to provide a convenient way for customers to track orders online and discuss tips for choosing the right e-commerce order tracking system.

Why E-commerce Order Tracking?

If you run an e-commerce brand, you may have asked yourself, why e-commerce order tracking ? Is it that important, and how would it help my business? Implementing an order tracking system helps your business to:

1. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Efficient order tracking is key to improving customer satisfaction. As a brand, investing in efforts to enhance shipment visibility ensures 100% transparency in the order processing, shipping, and delivery processes.?

This end-to-end visibility helps reassure customers that your business is working around the clock to ensure that their orders arrive on time. As a result, confidence in your brand increases significantly, you gain their trust, and satisfaction improves.

2. Manage Expectations

Once a customer clicks the buy button, pays for the product, and the transaction is confirmed, post-purchase anxiety sets in. At this juncture, brands need to start proactively communicating with customers to update them on the delivery progress of their orders.

With order tracking in place, you can send your customer accurate and up-to-date tracking information, including out-for-delivery notifications and an estimated delivery date. These messages help calm the customer's anxiety, letting them know when to expect the order to be delivered.

3. Reduce WISMO and Support Costs

E-commerce retailers and marketplaces that fail to update customers on the status of their orders get bombarded with 'Where Is My Order?' (WISMO) tickets. These are messages of inquiry by concerned or frustrated customers who are in the dark about the delivery progress -? whether their orders are out for delivery or still being processed.

An e-commerce order tracking system helps your business reduce WISMO tickets and cut support costs by automatically updating customers on the shipment status of their orders.?

With a tracking system, your brand no longer needs to hire an expansive customer support team to respond to WISMO tickets. It can reinvest the effort and resources into other value-creation aspects of the business.

Read more about WISMO calls and our top six strategies for reducing them here .

4. Boost Engagement and Customer Loyalty

Whenever a customer tracks an order online, your brand has the chance to engage with them until their order is delivered.

What better way to do this than with a branded tracking page? This is a dedicated webpage on your website where customers enter their package tracking number, and the order tracking system retrieves the latest status update.

A well-designed tracking page simplifies the order tracking process, resulting in a positive post-purchase experience. Customers who enjoy such convenience are more likely to become returning customers and become loyal to your brand.?

5. Monitor the Fulfillment Progress

E-commerce fulfillment is a complex but vital process that should be carefully monitored to ensure your brand is meeting its obligations to the customer. Tracking systems allow online retailers to go about this process efficiently.

Monitoring fulfillment progress also allows online retailers to identify and address any issues in the logistics and supply chain operations in real time. Coping with delays and exceptions becomes easier, ensuring smooth operations and effective customer communication.

6. Optimize Logistics Operations

Order tracking generates valuable data on shipping times, delivery success rates, and other vital logistics metrics. Through data analytics, online retailers and marketplaces can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies and quickly arrive at data-driven insights to optimize logistics operations.

How to Choose an E-commerce Order Tracking Solution?

TrackingMore has had the pleasure of helping thousands of e-commerce brands introduce or revamp order tracking. Below are some of the pointers decision makers from these businesses used that can also help you choose the best e-commerce order tracking solution.

1. Check Carrier Network

The first step in choosing an order-tracking solution for your e-commerce brand is to evaluate your postal services and express delivery partners. The order-tracking solution of choice should support package tracking across these service providers.?

Furthermore, it should be scalable to support your vision to grow your delivery network and partner with more carriers and logistics service providers. As a rule of thumb, the more carriers it integrates into its network, the better.

If your existing delivery partners are not supported, check with the customer support team of the tracking solution to know if the company provides custom carrier integrations.

2. Consider Your Business Needs

What does your business need in terms of an order-tracking solution? Asking yourself this question allows you to choose a tracking system that will have the most impact on customers' post-purchase experience.

If your store is hosted on a platform like Shopify, one of the top Shopify order-tracking apps may be the best choice. CSV and shipment APIs provide better flexibility and integration for custom cart stores, respectively. It is worth noting that you may need to involve your IT team in implementing an API solution.

Dropshippers sourcing their items from China may want to hide the addresses and carrier names of shipping methods used on popular dropshipping platforms like AliExpress. Merchants selling custom products like print-on-demand T-shirts may require a solution that allows them to communicate information about lead time.

Some must-have features businesses should insist on when considering tracking solutions include the following.

3. Create a Free Account

Before making any financial commitment, create a free account with the tracking solutions provider you are evaluating. Use this account to test all the features advertised about the order tracking solution, including the ease of use and customization of the shipment visibility dashboard, notifications, analytics, reporting tools, and as many other features as you can.

A good experiment is to upload some tracking numbers of actual orders and analyze the tracking results the order tracking system returns. Compare the results if they are consistent with the data you get from the official courier partners.

4. Compare Different Tracking Solutions

You should repeat the process above with different e-commerce delivery tracking solutions to compare their performance. Take note of the service experience you have with each platform or tracking service provider. Evaluate the customer base and read through any customer success stories available to see what the solution can do.

Compare the features of each solution while considering your business needs. Another key comparison point is the pricing. A quota-based pricing system is the best because it allows you to pay more or less according to your shipment tracking needs.

Customer privacy is more crucial than ever, and in the quest to enhance the customer experience, protecting their privacy should be a top priority. Tracking service providers that are compliant with data regulations, such as GDPR and ISO 27001, can guarantee better data handling practices.

5. Learn More via a Demo

Booking a demo is the best way to learn more about the tracking solution from an insider and see it in action. With a demo, the objective is to ask questions about some of the features you tested on your own and understand more about the contract, payment, and best practices.?

Don't forget to investigate how long the tracking service provider stores order tracking information. You can also take this opportunity to ask about other features that the service provider plans to introduce in the future.

6. Go Through Reviews

Customer reviews are an invaluable resource for choosing an e-commerce order tracking solution. Their first-hand experience shared on public review sites can give you an idea of what to expect should you opt into the tracking service. Pay keen attention to recurring topics while reading reviews, as they may indicate persistent issues that the order tracking service provider has yet to address.

7. Evaluate Customer Support

Customer support for an order tracking system is one aspect you can not compromise on. Since the service is critical to ensuring a positive post-purchase experience for your customers, you need a provider that assigns you a dedicated account manager to help with any issues that arise. 24/7 live chat, customer success manager, technical support, email notifications, and website announcements are other vital things to look out for when evaluating customer support.

8. Upgrade When Necessary

Although committing to a monthly payment plan may seem more feasible at the start when you are convinced you have found a long-term tracking service provider, upgrading your subscription is more cost-effective. Take advantage of annual plans that often offer better discounts, and stay alert to end-year promotions like the ones TrackingMore runs to upgrade to an annual plan at a fraction of the normal price.

Final Words

In today's e-commerce world, customers demand that brands provide reliable order tracking. The importance of this goes beyond just providing a positive post-purchase experience. It also helps improve the efficiency of your brand's logistics operations. As you ponder how to make post-purchase the new customer retention channel for your brand, we are here to help. Let's connect to learn more about your business and what TrackingMore can do for you.