Schedule Automated Notifications

Overview

AfterShip Tracking enables you to send prompt trigger notifications for various order, shipment, and delivery statuses, ensuring timely updates for customers on their order progress.

What you’ll learn

In this article, we will discuss:

• Supported notification statuses
• How to create a custom notification flow

Supported notification statuses

AfterShip Tracking consists of the following statuses under the Notifications flows.

How to create a custom notification flow

1. Go to Notifications > Flows > Create flow in your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard.
2. Select the status that you want to trigger from the available options.
3. Click Create.

Notifications flow editor

In the flow editor, you can edit the following sections:

1. Flow name: In this section, you can enter a suitable name for the flow.
2. Logic: This section consists of 3 blocks:

• Trigger split: Trigger splits are the conditions that are highly related to the Trigger event and will split into Yes and No paths.
• Conditional split: Conditional splits are the general conditions and will split into Yes and No paths.

Learn more conditional and trigger split filters and definitions.

• Random split (A/B test): In this block, you can randomly split your recipients into two groups (A and B) so that you can send different notifications and evaluate which one has the maximum engagement.

3. Timing: This section consists of 2 blocks:

• Time delay: Set the waiting period between the previous step and the next step in the flow.

• Trigger status unchanged: In this block, you can set the duration for which the trigger status remains unchanged as a condition to move on to the next step.

a. Both Time delay and Trigger status unchanged support the following configuration options.

• Minutes
• Hours
• Days

b. Count business days only

c. Select time of day

AfterShip counts trigger days based on when the event occurs.

A. 1-day delay: Notification sends 24 hours after the trigger event, or at a chosen time the next day.

Example:

If a shipment is delivered on Jan 1, Monday at 3:00 PM:

- 1-day delay - Notification will be sent on Jan 2, Tuesday at 3:00 PM
- 1-day delay + specific time (10:00 AM) - Notification will send on Jan 2, Tuesday at 10:00 AM

To send notifications the next day, always set a 1-day delay.

B. If Count business days option is enabled and Tuesday is marked as a non-business day, based on the above example, the notification will skip Jan 2 and go out on the next business day, i.e.,

- 1-day delay - Jan 3, Wednesday at 3:00 PM if it’s marked as a business day
- 1-day delay + specific time (10:00 AM) - Jan 3, Wednesday at 10:00 AM if it’s marked as a business day

4. Actions: In this section, you have Send email and Send SMS blocks. You can decide how you want to notify your customers or your organization’s members. You can also choose to send notifications with different content to your customers and your organization’s members separately.

To customize the general settings, messaging, and style of your email template, checkout this guide.

5. Flow trigger settings: On the right-hand side, you’ll see a Trigger event for which you can customize the settings. In case you want to send precise updates to specific customers, use the filters given in the trigger field.

• Trigger filters: In this section, you can add additional filters to determine what triggers this flow. Trigger filters decide when a flow is activated. They look for specific events such as an order being placed, a shipment status changing, or a delivery issue occurring, and start the flow the moment those conditions are met.

• Flow filters: This filter applies to the entire flow and is checked before every step. Flow filters decide who qualifies to continue through the flow. They check filters like customer, order, shipment, or engagement details like order value, delivery status, email activity, or subscription status, and ensure only the right customers receive messages or action.

• Trigger frequency

Trigger frequency controls how often the same shipment is allowed to start this flow again. When it’s enabled, it prevents customers from receiving duplicate or repeated notifications if the trigger condition happens multiple times. You can select between the following options.

a. Shipments can only re-trigger this flow after

• You set a gap period (for example, 1 day).
• Once a shipment triggers this flow, it cannot trigger again until that time period has passed.
• After the gap period ends, the shipment is allowed to re-enter the flow if the trigger conditions are met again.
• You can choose the gap period in:

a. Days (starting at 12:00 am)

b. Hours

c. Minutes

This gives you flexibility depending on how sensitive or time-critical the message is.

Example, If you set that shipments can only re-trigger this flow after 1 day. A shipment that triggers a “Out for delivery” notification today will not trigger it again until the next day, even if the status updates or re-qualifies.

b. Shipments can never re-trigger this flow 

If this option is selected, each shipment can only enter this flow once, even if:

• The out for delivery status/sub-status changes
• The shipment updates multiple times
• The trigger conditions (if applied) become true again

The customer will not get this notification again for that same shipment.

• If the Trigger frequency option is disabled, the same shipment can trigger the flow multiple times, so customers may receive duplicate messages whenever shipment data or delivery dates update.

6. Once all the settings are done, click Enabled under the Status.
7. Click Save.

Additional resources

• How to Set Up AfterShip Email Flows
• Introduction to the Notification Flows

Need help?

In case you need any further assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team.

Updated on: 06/03/2026