Set Up Pre-Shipment Order Notifications
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AfterShip’s Pre-Shipment Notifications enable you to send real-time customer updates during the 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.
In this tutorial, we will show you:
Pre-shipment notifications triggers
Create pre-shipment order notifications flow
Special email sections for pre-shipment notifications
FAQs
AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to trigger notifications for orders that are yet to be shipped.
Log into your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard.
Go to Notifications > Flows.
Click Create flow.
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 and 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.
Please note that each flow will have only one trigger event and a few trigger filters. Customers will enter the flow only if they meet the required conditions.
In the flow editor, you can edit the following sections:
Flow name: In this section, you can enter a suitable name for the flow.
Logic: This section consists of 2 blocks:
I. 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.
II. Conditional split: Conditional splits are the general conditions and will split into Yes and No paths. Learn more about conditional split filters and definitions.
Timing: This section consists of two blocks:
I. 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.
II. 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.
Not available for ‘Order placed’ and ‘Order cancelled’ flows.
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.
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.
I. Trigger filters: In this section, you can add additional filters to determine what triggers this flow.
II. 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.
Once all the settings are done. Click on the Enabled under the Status.
Click Save on the top right corner of the dashboard.
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.
Order placed/order cancelled notifications
Order processing notification
Order fulfillment notification
Order {Custom status} notification
Yes, each item's status updates will trigger separate notifications.
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.
How to Set Up Custom Fulfillment Statuses
Overview
AfterShip’s Pre-Shipment Notifications enable you to send real-time customer updates during the 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
FAQs
Pre-shipment notifications triggers
AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to trigger notifications for orders that are yet to be shipped.
| Notification trigger | Definition | Message channels | Platforms | Plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| order placed | The order has been received but not yet processed. | Email & SMS | All platforms and Commerce API | Essentials plan |
| processing | The entire order or some items in the order are being prepared for shipment. | Email & SMS | Commerce API users only | Essentials plan |
| order fulfillment | The order is partially fulfilled, fully fulfilled, or the fulfillment status remains unchanged. | Email & SMS | All platforms and Commerce API | Premium plan |
| order cancelled | The order has been cancelled and will not be shipped. | Email & SMS | All platforms and Commerce API | Essentials plan |
| custom status | The order status is updated to the {custom pre-shipment status} that the merchant has defined in addition to the above standard triggers. | Email & SMS | Commerce API users only | Enterprise plan |
How to create pre-shipment order notifications flow
Log into your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard.
Go to Notifications > Flows.
Click Create flow.
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 and 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.
Please note that each flow will have only one trigger event and a few trigger filters. Customers will enter the flow only if they meet the required conditions.
In the flow editor, you can edit the following sections:
Flow name: In this section, you can enter a suitable name for the flow.
Logic: This section consists of 2 blocks:
I. 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.
II. Conditional split: Conditional splits are the general conditions and will split into Yes and No paths. Learn more about conditional split filters and definitions.
Timing: This section consists of two blocks:
I. 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.
II. 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.
Not available for ‘Order placed’ and ‘Order cancelled’ flows.
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.
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.
I. Trigger filters: In this section, you can add additional filters to determine what triggers this flow.
II. 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.
Once all the settings are done. Click on the Enabled under the Status.
Click Save on the top right corner of the dashboard.
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.
Order placed/order cancelled notifications
| Section name | Section intro |
|---|---|
| Order summary | The section contains information on the items in the order, order subtotal, tax, discount, order total, and shipping address |
Order processing notification
| Section name | Section introduction |
|---|---|
| Processing items | The order items that are newly updated to be processed. |
| Other items in order | The other items in the order section include products in the order but are not part of the items that have been newly updated to processing status. The use case would be that there are multiple items in the order, and they will be processed separately during fulfillment. |
Order fulfillment notification
| Section name | Section intro | |
|---|---|---|
| Order items | The section contains the details of the order items that have already been shipped along with shipment information. The order items that have not been shipped yet are also listed here with the link to track their current status. |
Order {Custom status} notification
| Section name | Section introduction | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom | The order items that are newly updated to the custom status. | |
| Other items in order | The other items in the order section includes other products in the order that are not part of the items that have been newly updated to the {custom} status. The section displays these items along with their current fulfillment status and shipment information of those that are already been shipped. The use case would be that there are multiple items in the order, and they will be processed separately during fulfillment. |
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: 19/09/2024
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