Set Up Pre-Shipment Order Notifications

Overview

AfterShip’s Pre-Shipment Notifications enable you to send real-time customer updates during order preparation. The order preparation starts when the order is placed and concludes when the order is fulfilled, meaning the package has been handed over to the carrier for shipping.

What you’ll learn

In this tutorial, we will show you:

• Pre-shipment notifications triggers
• Create pre-shipment order notifications flow
• Special email sections for pre-shipment notifications
• Key takeaways
• FAQs

Pre-shipment notifications triggers

AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to trigger notifications for orders that are yet to be shipped.

How to create pre-shipment order notifications flow

Step 1: Create a new flow

1. Go to Notifications > Flows in your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard.
2. Click Create flow.
3. From the available standard pre-shipment trigger flows, Order placed, Order fulfillment, and Order canceled, select the flow template for which you want to customize the trigger logic and email content.
4. Click Create.

• If you want to create pre-shipment order notifications flow for standard and custom triggers from scratch, click Create from scratch, select the Trigger, and click Create.

Step 2: Customize your notification flow

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 2 blocks:

• Trigger split: Trigger splits are the conditions highly related to the Trigger event and will split into Yes and No paths. If the customers meet the condition defined, they will enter the Yes path and to the next step in the flow. Those who do not meet the defined conditions will enter the No path and subsequent steps in the flow. You can decide what both the paths would entail and set up actions accordingly.

• Conditional split: Conditional splits are the general conditions and will split into Yes and No paths.

Learn more about conditional and trigger split filters and definitions.** **

3. Timing: This section consists of two blocks:

• Time delay: Set the waiting period between the previous step and the next step in the flow. Configuration options for the Time delay include - X minutes, X hours, and X days.
• 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.

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, check this guide.

5.  Flow trigger: 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.

• Flow filters: This filter applies to the entire flow and is checked before every step. Customers must meet these filter conditions to stay in the flow.

Get more information on Trigger and flow filters here.

6. Once all the settings are done. Click Enabled under the Status.
7. Click Save (top right corner of the dashboard).

Step 3: Customize email content

1. To customize the content of the flow email, click the {...} icon directly on the email block on the preview window and click Edit.
2. Select how you would like to create/edit email content from the dropdown menu at the top of the email editor.

• Easy email editor (Legacy)
• Advanced email editor
• Basic email editor
• HTML editor

Special email sections for pre-shipment notifications

To customize the template of your pre-shipment email notification, get all details in this email customization guide.

Apart from the standard sections that each notification hosts to provide relevant order information to customers, there are certain pre-built sections specific to each pre-shipment flow that are supported to provide additional information to customers once their order status is updated to that specific status.

These pre-built sections are only available in drag-and-drop and easy email editor for customization in each flow.

Let’s look at each one of those sections in detail.

1. Order placed/order cancelled notifications

Step 4: Customize SMS content

The Order placed notification informs customers of the successful placement of their order and that it will be processed soon. This proactive message gives customers the peace of mind that their order is set to be processed and dispatch soon, reducing “Where is my order?” inquiries, and improves the overall delivery experience.

To customize the content of the flow email, click the {...} icon directly on the SMS block on the preview window of the flow editor and click Edit. On the SMS notification editor, configure the following settings

1. Compliance and settings:

To send tracking updates and important notifications to customers, you are required to go through a compliant SMS setup

• Set up an active sender number by selecting supported regions, providing company and contact information, defining their SMS use case, and confirming TCPA/GDPR compliance. 
• Sender numbers are assigned based on the destination country, with an AfterShip branded sender ID used in certain regions.
• Once enabled, you can manage subscription keywords (START/STOP), customize opt-out messages by language and region, enable URL shortening, and schedule messages using quiet hours based on the recipient’s timezone. These settings help ensure regulatory compliance while giving customers clear control over their SMS preferences.

For more information, refer to this article 

2.  Enable SMS  quite hours

If quiet hours are enabled, the SMS will not be sent during restricted times. Instead, it will be delivered during the next allowed sending window.

3. SMS name

This name is for your reference only and will not be shown to customers.

4. Customize SMS content

You can customize the SMS text using the message editor. The editor supports dynamic variables, such as:

• *|ORGANIZATION_NAME|*– your store name
• *|TRACKING_URL|* – a live tracking page for the order

These variables automatically populate for each customer, allowing one message template to work for all shipments. You incorporate (retrieve) new variables from the list to add additional information regarding the customer order or shipment by clicking the {...} option. 

• To further comply with SMS regulations, you can include the opt-out instructions such as Reply STOP to unsubscribe to provide customers greater flexibility over what notifications they would like to receive.

5. Send a test SMS with the option to choose mock or real data to see how the notification would look like to customers.

6. Save the changes if everything if as per your requirements.

Key takeaways

• Set up Pre-shipment notifications to update customers in real time during order preparation.
• Supported triggers include order placed, Processing, order fulfillment, order cancelled, and custom status.
• Notifications are sent via Email/SMS, with availability depending on the platform and plan you use.
• Pre-shipment flows can be created from templates or built from scratch with one trigger per flow.
• Flow logic includes trigger splits, conditional splits, timing delays, and status-unchanged conditions.
• Actions within flows allow sending emails and SMS notifications to customers and internal team members.
• Each pre-shipment trigger includes special email sections designed for its specific order status.

FAQs

1. If my order contains multiple items that are processed separately, will each item’s status updates trigger individual notifications?

Yes, each item's status updates will trigger separate notifications.

2. Why am I not seeing 'Processing' notification flows in my account?

Your eCommerce platform currently does not support "Processing" status notifications for pre-shipment updates. As a result, notifications for the processing stage are not available.

Additional resources

• How to Set Up Custom Fulfillment Statuses

Updated on: 17/02/2026