If you own a WooCommerce store, having an order tracking system is a must. It has become one of the most basic elements of an online store.
Ranging from global e-commerce giants like Amazon to small-time local online stores, they all have an order tracking system to help their customers and themselves stay on top of the order status and other details.
Here are some specific reasons why order tracking is essential for your WooCommerce store.
The Importance of WooCommerce Order Tracking
While we have discussed the general idea above, it’s important to get into some details about the benefits of implementing order tracking on your store.
Customer Experience
Offering order tracking to your customers is an absolute no-brainer. No customer would be pleased with sitting blind on their order once they make the payment until they receive their shipment.
Users that shop online are already used to being given access to track the order delivery process. So not getting any functionality of that sort on your store would be very off-putting for them.
Moreover, being able to track their order and get important updates about the same will always contribute to a positive customer experience. Such a tracking system will help develop trust, add to your brand image, and improve your customer retention rate.
Reduce Order Cancellations
When customers have no updates on their order or delivery status, they are more likely to cancel their order. This is especially true with first-time buyers, since they may not have enough trust in your store to wait till the delivery without being able to track it during the shipping process.
Easier Order Management
An efficient order tracking plugin will not only offer many benefits for the customers but also make order management easier for you. It will help you control the information your customers are shown, and customize it the way you want.
You will also be able to track your completed, canceled, orders pending payment, and other types of orders quickly, all in one place. This will allow you to focus better on other more important aspects of your business and store.
There are many other benefits, but we did somewhat cover them when we explained above how an efficient order tracking mechanism will help improve trust, brand image, and customer retention.
But these benefits can only be achieved if you’re using the right WooCommerce order tracking plugin. While the options are plenty, you need to go with what fits your requirements the best.
With that said, let us review the best WooCommerce order and shipment tracking plugins out there.
Best WooCommerce Order Tracking Plugins
We have chosen the best WooCommerce shipping tracking plugins based on important factors that apply to WooCommerce stores in general. However, you can compare their features against your requirements and choose the plugin that has more of the specific functionalities that you’re looking for.
YITH WooCommerce Order & Shipment Tracking
If you run a large WooCommerce store and use a long list of shipping partners, then YITH WooCommerce Order & Shipment Tracking is going to be a plugin that’s hard to beat to build an efficient order tracking system.
Image credit: YITH Themes
It has both a free and pro version, but the latter is the real deal. It takes a lot of effort away from manually managing order tracking details, especially when working with tens of different shipping carriers. At the point of writing this post, it supports over 480 carriers, with the list still growing.
Image credit: YITH Themes
What’s even more impressive is their customer service. If you use a shipping partner that’s currently not supported by them, they make it very easy for you to let them know about it. And they do add those shipping partners surprisingly quickly.
A quick list of the plugin’s important functionalities.
- Extremely easy to configure and use on a day-to-day basis;
- Customization is possible to some extent on the customer’s order tracking page;
- Customized emails sent to customers with the tracking details;
- Create a simple order tracking page using a simple shortcode;
- Ability to let your customers choose from your supported list of shipping carriers;
- Smooth integration with other YITH plugins such as YITH SMS.
It basically lets you create an order tracking system that offers amazing ease of use for both you as the store owner and your customers.
There are no real shortcomings to this plugin. But some users do feel that they could have a bit more in terms of customizations and maybe if the tracking page showed an elaborate shipping process for the customers. These are nowhere close to being deal-breakers though.
Now, coming to the pricing, the pro version costs $69.99 per year. You have a 30-day money-back guarantee as well.
There’s the free version too like we said above, but it’s going to leave you wanting for more in terms of functionalities. So we wouldn’t really recommend the free version, especially for large stores.
WooCommerce Order Tracker by Code Canyon
Code Canyon is one of the most reputed plugin developers for WordPress and WooCommerce sites, and its plugin in this space WooCommerce Order Tracker lives up to their reputation.
Now, it does come with a wider range of features than the plugin we reviewed above, but there’s a catch to it. It doesn’t exactly have integrated support for many different shipping carriers, and you have to use 17.Net as an external tracking system if you’re using non-supported shipping partners.
It does offer features that allow you to do that easily, though. Also, you get a tight integration with the popular shipping services it does work with through third-party API support. These shipping services include USPS, FedEx, and Canada Post.
Coming to some of the functionalities it brings to the table apart from most of the features we discussed for the other plugins above, here are some key highlights below.
- Tracking functionality through Google Maps;
- Six different order tracking templates that offer more flexibility and personalization for your store;
- More detailed order information for your customers on the tracking page;
- A unique custom order status functionality for bulk product actions;
- Follow-up emails to customers who didn’t make a payment for their order with a payment link.
Image credit: Code Canyon
It might not be as easy to configure and use initially as the YITH order tracking plugin but the professional and quick customer service does make things a lot easier.
Finally, it’s priced at $29, but only includes support for a period of 6 months. You can extend it to 12 months by shelling out an extra $9 though.
Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce
Here’s a real free WooCommerce shipping tracking plugin option. While the other plugins might offer more in terms of overall features, they either don’t have a free version, or it doesn’t offer enough to get the job done.
But the Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce fills that gap. It offers all the basic functionalities as a free plugin, while also being flexible enough to allow a fair bit of customization.
Here are all the usual features you get.
- Add tracking information to orders;
- Mark orders as ‘completed’ or ‘shipped,’ while also having the option to mark multiple item orders as ‘partially shipped’;
- Flexible tracking widget that integrates with both order tracking emails and customer’s orders page while allowing a lot of customization;
- A unique functionality that allows associating specific orders with multiple tracking numbers;
- An impressive number of over 300 shipping partners;
- Ability to create tracking links for each of the shipping partners’ websites to track the shipment directly there;
- Support for third-party shipment provider APIs.
Of course, the pro version is even more impressive. One of the notable premium functionalities is a large number of integrations with many different services like Ordoro, AliExpress Dropshipping, CartRover, ReadyToShip, and many more.
They will turn out to be a great help for store owners looking to build a dropshipping business. Similarly, many of the integrations will also help build a more efficient shipping and marketing system for your store.
Some of the other premium features include a kind of AI system to auto-choose the best shipping provider, the ability to add tracking for every item in an order, a better, more advanced view of your unfulfilled orders, adding custom shipping partners, white-labeling your shipping providers, and more.
The pro version costs $129 per year for a single site, which is definitely quite expensive in comparison to the other pro plugins. So we would only recommend its free version currently.
AfterShip Tracking
AfterShip Tracking is another shipment tracking plugin that gets a lot done for free. It covers most bases well.
There’s no shortage of shipping couriers, as AfterShip offers support for over 900 shipping providers worldwide. It’s the only free plugin to offer these kinds of numbers.
You also have a lot of flexibility with managing tracking numbers, including the automatic tracking number import feature that means no manual admin labor. It comes with 7 standard order statuses, and the ability to filter your shipments using many different parameters.
You can also quickly filter and find out the shipments that have been delivered on time and the ones that have been delayed. Again, this can come in handy when you want to deal with shipment delays without increasing any load on the admin front.
There’s a fair bit of automation, starting with the ability to integrate the tracking information on both the customer’s order pages. Then there are automated emails and SMS messages going out to your customers for important order updates.
Similarly, you can also set up automated WooCommerce order notifications through email and SMS notifications for yourself. The notification text is customizable, the plugin supports multiple languages, and the email notifications allow an impressive amount of customization as well.
Some of these features are only available in the paid version of the plugin, though; and we don’t really like its pricing structure.
This is primarily because it tries to incorporate a limit on the number of orders you ship depending on the plan you choose. The simplest and cheapest plan is priced at $108 per year and allows up to 1200 shipments annually.
Any extra shipment will be charged at $0.08 per shipment.
Order Tracking for WooCommerce By Woo
Order Tracking for WooCommerce is another paid WooCommerce shipping tracking plugin. It’s priced fairly at $49 with a year of support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
It comes with pretty much the same core functionalities as many of the other shipping tracking plugins. However, what sets it apart from the rest is its focus on 3 major areas.
- The simplicity of use and setup, both for the store owner and customers;
- A tracking system design that’s way more attractive and aesthetically appealing than most other options out there;
- The kind of customization you won’t find in any free tracking plugin and even many paid ones.
The shipment tracking timeline design is certainly something to talk about for this plugin. It does make your store look a lot more professional than just another small-time e-commerce store.
Image credit: Woo
You get all the essential core features, including support for over 400 carriers. But you can also customize the tracking timeline quite a bit, and also the tracking notices based on different variables.
The Right WooCommerce Order Tracking Plugin for Your Store –Choice Made Easy
While we have discussed and reviewed the best WooCommerce shipping tracking plugins based on the factors that are considered the most important, you must note that you should also take your own specific shipment tracking management needs into account.
Not every store needs support for several hundred shipping couriers. Not every store owner is after full-fledged customization. However, you should never compromise on the core functionalities or overall reliability of the plugin.
And that is something you’re easily assured of with all the plugins we choose above. So go ahead and pick any one of them that fits your bill the best.
On a final note, your store’s payment management system is just as important, if not more, than the order tracking system. And when it comes to accepting and managing recurring payments, nothing beats Paid Member Subscriptions, a full-fledge payments and membership site plugin.
It has all the functionalities your store needs while being incredibly reliable and flexible at the same time. Give Paid Member Subscriptions a try too along with your shipment plugin to build a robust operational foundation for your store.
Paid Member Subscriptions Pro
The only plugin you will ever need to manage your subscription payments and run a membership website.
Have any questions? Shoot away in the comments below.
Source: https://www.cozmoslabs.com/2819117-woocommerce-order-tracking-plugins/
