How to set up shipping notifications and branded tracking pages

What are shipping notifications and why should you use them? Shipping notifications are used by retailers to keep customers informed about their online orders at every step of the delivery process.

Shipping notifications proactively manage customer delivery expectations and provide additional touchpoints. The primary purpose is to provide the tracking number and in addition other personalisation opportunities.

A benefit of switching on notifications is you can build customer loyalty. Providing your customers with the tracking information allows customers to track their shipment, therefore reducing the number of queries for your customer service team, say good bye to ‘where’s my parcel?’ enquiries.

“74% of customers say that receiving delivery updates increases the chances of them returning to shop again with the merchant.”
— Voxco Website Blog

When should you send shipping notifications? How many are too many?

Shipping notifications can be sent via SMS or email. There are five touchpoints that you can personalise and notify your customer of their order status.

• Printed
• Picked-up
• In transit
• Out for delivery
• Delivered

When it comes to deciding how many is too many it’s always best to put yourself in the position of your consumer. You want to ensure that your customers remain engaged, without sending too many notifications that will overwhelm them or too few and they feel ignored.

Many customers enable either the printed or manifested customer notifications (these are triggered by actions in Starshipit), alongside one or two of the other touchpoints. This ensures that the notifications are spread throughout the post-purchase journey, without overwhelming customers.

Another thing to remember is that you may already have by default, notifications sent from your eCommerce platform. You may want to consider disabling these when using the Starshipit notifications, to ensure they are not receiving double.

What is a branded tracking page and why should retailers use it?

A branded tracking page is a landing page that you can direct your customers to from your shipping notifications. This allows customers to view all of their order’s delivery information, including live tracking updates.

This is a great tool for post-purchase engagement, many retailers include their social channels, recommended products, community pages, loyalty programs or return policies.

After investing in marketing spend to attract your customers is makes sense to keep them highly engaged with your brand, so instead of your customers constantly looking at the couriers’ tracking page, you can create your own, showcasing your brand and its value.

There are multiple benefits of using branded tracking pages:

• By creating branded tracking pages, you will keep your brand in your customers' front-of-mind.
• Branding your tracking page with your logo, imagery and tone of voice, linking to your social media pages, and encouraging people to sign up for your brand's email list will help you grow your database.
• Customers can track the status of their order via visual progress indicators, increasing brand trust.

What should you include on a branded tracking page

A branded tracking page should include:

• Your brand’s logo
• Order number
• Tracking number
• A live status such as packed, dispatched, in transit, out for delivery and delivered
• The carrier of the order, for example, Australia Post, DHL Express or Hermes
• An additional element to drive brand loyalty, repeat purchase or a positive customer experience.

How to add value to your branded tracking page

To create a strong brand message, you should consider only using a maximum of two additional elements on your branded tracking page. This could include:

For a positive customer experience

• A thank you message
• Your returns policy
• Showcase what your brand believes for example, sustainability, donating to charity or your brand mission

To encourage brand loyalty

• Showcase your loyalty program
• Request a review
• Invitations to follow your social channels or brand communities

To incentivise repeat purchase

• Product recommendations
• Showcase new products
• Upcoming sales or events

Lastly, always reset expectations and include a clear and simple way for the customer to contact you.

Branded tracking page examples from leading eCommerce brands

Now, let's explore some examples of real branded tracking pages in use today by eCommerce businesses – just like yours!

How to set up branded tracking pages

It's simple to set up a branded tracking page with a shipping and fulfilment tool like Starshipit. To use branded tracking pages, you firstly need to enable email notifications.

Included in the email notification will be a tracking URL link that directs customers to your branded tracking page instead of the default courier page.

You can customise your branded tracking page in your customer Starshipit dashboard using our user-friendly editing tool.

How to send a branded tracking page

The branded tracking page is a web page and the URL link is sent to customers via shipping notifications using email or SMS.

This means you need to use the notifications first and then set up branded tracking.