The Importance of Order Tracking

Customer experience has become a defining factor for successful eCommerce businesses.

Buyers have prioritized the shopping experience above any other things in online shopping.

Such things as time of delivery, tracking and delivery notices throughout the transportation of goods can help reduce the uncertainty of ordering online and build trust with customers.

Things you need to know about order tracking:

Allowing customers to track the products they ordered at every stage of the delivery process is an effective way to improve the customer experience.

In addition, the order tracking system gives them confidence and a sense of security about their purchase.

Tracking numbers benefit companies and clients alike and we will discuss those benefits in the following.

What Is Order Tracking in E-commerce?

Generally, your order will go through a few stages before you get your products. They are order received, in-progress, shipped, delivered and completed.

The specific process might be slightly different, it varies from business to business depending on the store owner's preferences.

After the order was received by the website, the tracking number was generated. This is where order tracking begins.

The order tracking process is all about delivery tracking, estimated delivery time and frequent update of order status. Every step is critical and powerful in all aspects.

Once the tracking number has been generated online, both the seller and the customers are able to conduct the tracking process. E-commerce order tracking enables you to monitor all online orders and shipments at any time.

You can also communicate order status to customers if they wish to know, or provide them with the tracking number and a platform where they can follow the orders themself.

All in all, the tracking process keeps everyone at the same table and eliminates confusion between buyers and sellers.

There are some essential reasons why we need order tracking, both for sellers and for buyers.

For Sellers

Reduce Costs

Customer service has always been a busy department in e-commerce. Dealing with customer complaints or inquiries can be too much to handle.

It is time-consuming for the sellers when they have to deal with customers looking for constant updates about the status of their packages.

In case you don’t have an efficient way to provide tracking to the customers, you may be forced to hire more people to keep your clients updated, leading to higher costs.

Luckily, order tracking solutions can easily solve this problem. Buyers are able to check their package status according to the tracking number.

Thus, it not only reduces the customer service request but also saves the cost of recruiting more people to handle this.

By saving time and money, your customer service team has more time to invest in other ways to improve the customer experience.

Transparency and Boost Trust

Package tracking numbers make it easier for sellers to provide transparency to customers.

No one will trust a seller who hides everything. By using order tracking, customers will know whether their order is shipped or not, and where it is exactly. Every step is clear so that customers are more assured.

By providing order tracking, which gives the up-to-date information the customers want, their expectations are met.

Once the customers feel satisfied with the service, being able to know what the status of their order is, or when their order is supposed to be delivered, they tend to have more faith in the seller.

This in turn can increase customer loyalty and translate to more sales in the future and higher retention for the business.

Minimize Delays

There is usually an exact date of arriving or a range of arriving dates after the product is shipped.

Without order tracking, the logistic company might not take it seriously and always delay the shipping.

However, the order tracking can help you detect any potential delays. What's more, it gives you enough time to be proactive about fixing these delays and ask the delay reasons to the shipping company or apologize in advance to your clients.

Click here to learn more about Why You Need Tracking.

For Buyers

Meet Customer Expectations

By providing the information the customers need, they are more aware of the shipping progress.

In addition, monitoring their orders throughout every step of the shipping process gives them more power over online purchases.

When the customer knows the estimated delivery time, they are able to arrange their plans.

For example, you need to fly to another country on Sunday and your order status says it'll be arrived on Friday, therefore you know you can take it with you.

Every time the customer's expectations are fulfilled, they will be pleased and might purchase again.

Recover Lost Package

Do you ever order something online, then wait for a few days, but end up receiving nothing? It happens sometimes when we do online shopping.

The goods may have been lost due to poor logistics, during transportation or it was simply delivered to the wrong house on the customer's street.

A tracking number can help you to recover lost packages and make it easier to deliver them to the proper destination.

Diminish Customer Anxiety

One of the benefits of using a tracking number is that it helps to lessen customer anxiety.

Not knowing where it is located and when it will arrive can be torturing and stressful for customers.

For example, what if the goods aren't the ones we want? We want to have it right on time so that we can make plans for the follow-up.

How to Track

There are plenty of useful tools online to help you track orders more efficiently. According to different requirements and functions, various platforms were put into the market to help you.

For example, there is a kind of platform that can track your orders no matter where you bought them.

Such as Ship24 and 17Track, they are powerful apps to help people to track orders.

Simply input the tracking numbers and the information required, the status of the product will then appear.

Order tracking not only applies in traditional shopping but also dropshipping. There are some plug-ins that work only on a certain website like Shopify and WooCommerce.

For example, you can use Aftership in Shopify and DSers in WooCommerce. Other than order tracking, they are really helpful when you do the dropshipping .

Click here to learn more about how DSers can help you track your WooCommerce orders.

Conclusion

The order tracking process is influencing e-commerce in every possible way, both for sellers and buyers.

For sellers, it can reduce their costs and help to gain trust from customers through transparent services.

In addition, it provides a way to minimize delays of the order, thus building a good image in front of the public.

For buyers, order tracking gives them the power to monitor the package status and meet their expectations.

They are able to know the specific time when the package will arrive and whether it was lost or not.

Therefore, their doubts will be eliminated, increasing their trust in the sellers. The order tracking process itself is not hard, but it can bring a huge impact on customer experience.

After all, how the order tracking goes can greatly affect the E-commerce business and is essential for any business nowadays.

Merchant must make sure to provide adequate tracking to their clients.