To cut shipping status questions, start by sorting the questions in your support inbox by where the parcel was when the customer wrote, and count how many questions each stage produces per 100 orders. Then close each group at its source: give a dispatch day at checkout that you can keep, send the tracking message once the parcel has actually left, make sure the tracking page shows the delivery date and the current stage, and tell customers about a failed delivery before they ask. Handle the questions that still come in with buttons that sort them by topic, a saved reply that asks for the order number and, where needed, a person on your team.
Follow the steps and you will be able to tag and count shipping questions by five stages, and to decide which carrier events deserve a message to the customer and which can stay on the tracking page. You will also find sample texts for a failed delivery, a parcel marked as delivered that never reached the customer, and a question sent without an order number. The first section shows how to measure the effect of each change without mixing it up with campaign weeks.
Tag questions by where the parcel is
A single “shipping” tag on support messages tells you how many questions you get, but not why. A question asked while the parcel is still in the warehouse and one asked after the courier has left the door empty-handed come from different gaps and go away with different fixes. Open the last two to four weeks of chats and give each shipping question a tag that shows where the parcel was when the customer wrote. Start with five tags:
- The parcel has not been handed to the carrier yet; the customer asks when it will ship or whether it is still being prepared.
- The customer has a tracking number but the tracking page shows no movement: “The number doesn’t work”, “It says no record found”.
- The parcel is in transit but taking longer than the customer expected: “When will it arrive?”, “It’s been in the same place for two days”.
- The courier has taken the parcel out for delivery or failed to deliver it: “Is the courier coming today?”, “I was home, but it says nobody was at the address”.
- The record says delivered but the customer does not have the parcel: “It says delivered, but I never got it”.
Below we call these stages “in the warehouse”, “no movement”, “in transit”, “delivery failed” and “not received”. You can keep the tags with the labels in the WhatsApp Business app, the topic field of your help desk or a simple spreadsheet. Next to the date, channel, order number and stage, add one more column: had the customer received a shipping notification before writing? If customers who received it still ask the same question, the gap is in the message content or its link; if the ones asking never received one, the missing piece is the notification itself.
Count three messages in a row about the same order as one question. Add shipping questions that arrive by phone, Instagram and e-mail to the same sheet; if the WhatsApp count falls while the phone count rises, the questions have only changed channels. Our guide to understanding customer behaviour in e-commerce shows what other decisions you can draw from the questions your support team receives.
Count questions per 100 orders at each stage
The total number of questions rises and falls with order volume. To compare two periods, divide the number of questions at each stage by the number of orders you shipped in the same period and multiply by 100. A hypothetical example: a store that ships 1,600 orders in four weeks counts 176 shipping questions, which is 11 questions per 100 orders. Of these, 72 are tagged “no movement”, 40 “in the warehouse”, 30 “delivery failed”, 22 “in transit” and 12 “not received”. The store should start with “no movement”, the largest group at 4.5 questions per 100 orders. The complaint your team remembers best is not always the largest group in the sheet; let the sheet set the order.
Compare like-for-like weeks
After you put a fix live, count a period of the same length again with the same tags and again work out the result per 100 orders. Compare weeks without campaigns with weeks without campaigns. During peak sales such as 11.11 and the late-November sales, both your order count and the carriers’ workload differ from an ordinary week; track those weeks as a separate period. Set up your notification flow before the peak starts, because the effect of a change made in the middle of a campaign is hard to separate from the noise of that week.
Give a dispatch day at checkout that you can keep
A tracking message cannot reduce questions while the parcel is still in the warehouse, because it only goes out once a tracking number exists. Pushouse’s WhatsApp Order Tracking module, too, writes to the customer once the order’s shipping details have been created; the message carries the order number, the tracking number and a link to the page where the shipment can be followed. Until then, the only information the customer has is the dispatch day they saw when ordering and read in the confirmation message.
A customer whose parcel is still in the warehouse wants to know when it will arrive. In Baymard Institute’s checkout testing, users likewise had one main concern about delivery: when they would receive their order. Among the uncertainties that made participants stop, the research lists what counts as a business day, whether weekends and holidays fall within the stated time, and the order cutoff time, including whether today still counts. Answer these questions up front when you state the dispatch day: if you say “Orders placed by 3 p.m. ship the same day”, say in the same place when an order placed on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday will ship.
The dispatch day shown on the product page, in the cart and in the confirmation message should match; if it does not, the customer will ask you which one to believe. If the “in the warehouse” group is large, measure your promise too. Pick 50 orders from last month at random and compare the dispatch day stated in the confirmation message with the day each order actually shipped. If a significant share left later than promised, the fix belongs in the warehouse: either speed up preparation or change the day you state to match reality.
Send the tracking message on the day the carrier takes the parcel
Questions tagged “no movement” come from the gap between the tracking number in the customer’s hands and the carrier’s records. A tracking number can be created when the label is printed, before the parcel leaves the warehouse. While the parcel waits for the courier, a customer who gets the message clicks the link, may see an empty page or a “no record found” notice, and writes to you. The store has said the parcel is on its way; the carrier does not know about it yet.
Adding another notification can look tempting when you are working out how to reduce “where is my order” questions; for this group, look at timing first. Set the order to “shipped” in your panel on the day the parcel is handed to the carrier; if you print labels in the morning and hand parcels over in the evening, change the status after the handover. If your platform sends the tracking number automatically with the label and you can edit the message text, add a sentence or two saying when the first movement will show on the tracking page:
The tracking page updates once the carrier processes your parcel at its branch. If you see no movement by the evening of {{first scan day}}, reply here and we will check and get back to you.
You will find what else belongs in the message, including orders split into several parcels, with examples in our article on the order and content of post-purchase messages. Don’t send the same news twice, either. If the “shipped” step of your order status notifications is switched on and you have also set up a separate tracking notification, the customer gets two messages on the same day; keep the one that carries the tracking details and switch off the other.
Show the three things customers look for on the tracking page
Even a tracking message sent at the right time can bring the question back because of the page it opens. According to Baymard’s order tracking research, most users need three details to track an order: the delivery date, the name of the courier company and the stages the shipment has gone through. The research finds pitfalls at every stage of order tracking, especially at two transitions: when the customer follows the link in the shipping email to the store’s site, and when they move from the site to the courier’s page. Hard-to-find details, missing tracking information and unclear terms are among the problems on tracking pages; courier pages add clutter and even vaguer wording. If the link in your WhatsApp message takes the customer straight to the carrier’s page, that page is the first screen they see.
Open the link the way your customer will: send a test parcel to yourself, or open a new order’s message on your phone with Wi-Fi off and mobile data on. Check the following:
- The page should open with the tracking number already filled in. Copying the number into a separate box is tedious on a phone.
- A robot check, a cookie banner or an app download prompt should not cover the shipment details.
- The parcel’s current stage should be visible on the first screen; the customer should not have to scroll to find it.
- A delivery date or date range should be visible. If the carrier shows no date, part of your “in transit” questions may come from that gap.
Explain the stage names your carrier uses on a help page on your site, in your own words. In one sentence each, say what a status such as “at transfer centre”, “at delivery branch” or “out for delivery” means for the parcel and whether the customer needs to do anything at that stage. Link the help page from your site’s order tracking page and from your FAQ.
The order tracking page on your own site should show the same three details. According to Baymard, order tracking is the main reason users visit the account area of e-commerce sites. A customer who checked out as a guest has no account to log into; if your platform allows it, let them look up the order with the order number and phone number. If a parcel is genuinely late, meaning the date you gave is slipping, the tracking page alone is not enough; you need to tell the customer about the delay yourself. You will find these messages, which need planning separately from the routine notification flow, in our article on how to keep customers informed when a shipment is delayed.
At which carrier events should you message the customer?
Carriers usually record several events on a parcel’s journey: acceptance, arrival at and departure from a transfer centre, arrival at the delivery branch, out for delivery, delivered or delivery failed. Sending a message for each one moves the tracking page to the customer’s phone piece by piece and buries the message that really matters. Apart from dispatch and delivery, you need to write to the customer at a carrier event in two cases: when the customer has to do something, or when the day they expect has changed.
- Send a message when the parcel is handed to the carrier; that is the first moment the tracking number is useful.
- Don’t write for in-between events such as arrival at or departure from a transfer centre or arrival at the delivery branch; a curious customer can see them on the tracking page.
- Announce out-for-delivery only when the customer needs to prepare: having the amount ready for cash on delivery, making sure someone is home for a bulky item, or a parcel that can only be handed to the recipient in person. If your carrier already sends the recipient an SMS at this stage, your message is a duplicate.
- Report every failed delivery or parcel waiting at a branch; if the customer does nothing, the parcel may come back to you.
- Send a short check-in after delivery; if something is wrong, the customer tells you on day one.
In Pushouse’s WhatsApp Order Updates module you choose the step at which a message goes out: when the order is confirmed, packed, shipped or delivered; you can tie the post-delivery check-in to the “delivered” step. Use the same test parcel to work out which channel the carrier, your e-commerce platform and your own flow use at each stage. News of one stage arriving through two channels tells the customer nothing new; we cover how to split the work between e-mail, SMS and WhatsApp in our article on post-purchase messages.
The number of messages also has a cost: according to Meta’s pricing documentation, WhatsApp template messages are charged per message. A message about an in-between event that is already visible on the tracking page can incur that charge without telling the customer anything new.
Tell customers about failed deliveries and parcels waiting at a branch yourself
When the courier finds nobody at the address, or leaves the parcel at a branch or a pickup point, the customer only finds out if they check the tracking page, unless the carrier notifies them separately. If they don’t, they wonder about the order while the parcel sits at the branch and write to you; once the holding period ends the parcel may come back to you, and you may face a second shipping charge. Because this is the stage where the customer has to act, send this notification without waiting to be asked. Filter shipments with “delivery failed” and “waiting at branch” statuses once a day in your carrier’s panel or your integration; if your carrier does not offer such a list, ask your account manager for one.
The message should say where the parcel is, until when it will wait and what the customer can do. Take the holding period and what is needed to collect from the branch from your carrier’s rules; don’t guess.
As you write the text, keep in mind that fraudsters use the same situation. According to a 2024 warning by PTT AŞ, Türkiye’s national postal and cargo company, as reported by the Turkish news outlet Habertürk, fake messages sent under the name “shipment tracking” claim the parcel was returned because of a wrong address and ask the recipient to update the address, then request a fee for resending and the recipient’s card details. Your message should look clearly different from that pattern: don’t ask for an address or a payment through a link, ask the customer to reply in the chat, and say plainly that you are not asking for a payment.
Hello {{customer name}}, the carrier brought your order no. {{order no}} to your address today but recorded that it could not be delivered. Your parcel will wait at the {{branch name}} branch until {{last day}}: {{branch address}}. If you would like it brought to your address again, just reply here and we will arrange it with the carrier. We are not asking you for any payment or card details for this notice.
Chase the parcel that shows as delivered but never arrived
A post-delivery check-in may increase “not received” questions in the first weeks. Don’t read that as a bad sign in your measurement: a customer who did not get the parcel is telling you on the day of delivery with a short reply instead of complaining a week later. What to write in the check-in, and why it should go separately from the review request, is covered with a sample text in our article on post-purchase messages.
Don’t reply “You need to contact the carrier”. Under Article 17 of the Distance Contracts Regulation (Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği), the seller is responsible for loss and damage that occurs until the goods are delivered to the consumer or to a third party, other than the carrier, designated by the consumer. Ask the carrier for the delivery record yourself: find out to whom, where and at what time the parcel was handed over. While you wait for the record, send the customer a first reply right away from a saved text:
We’re looking into it right now, {{customer name}}. The carrier’s record shows your parcel as delivered at {{delivery time}}. It may have been left with a neighbour, the building concierge or a nearby pickup point; if you can check, please let us know. In the meantime we are requesting the delivery record from the carrier and will get back to you by {{reply time}} at the latest.
Decide in advance which options (resending or a refund) you will offer the customer if the parcel cannot be found, so your agent does not debate it from scratch every time. Report losses that keep happening in a particular neighbourhood or at a particular delivery branch to your carrier’s account manager separately.
Handle the questions that still come in with buttons, saved replies and a person
However well your notifications are set up, some customers will still write: they missed the message, didn’t trust the link, or want to talk to a person. The goal is to handle these questions with the least load on your team.
Let the customer pick the topic in the welcome message
Put short buttons such as “Where’s my order?”, “Returns and exchanges” and “Something else” under the welcome message. For people who type instead of tapping a button, set keyword rules: messages containing words like “shipping”, “tracking”, “hasn’t arrived” or “didn’t get it” should go to the order status path. Test the rules with a few real messages before going live. A customer who writes “Where’s my return shipping code?” may land in the order path because of the word “shipping”; make sure the returns question reaches the returns path. Pushouse’s WhatsApp Question Routing module does this sorting in two ways: the customer taps one of the one-tap buttons under the welcome message, or the message they type is routed to the right path by the rules and keywords you define. A message that matches no rule falls to the welcome path you set, and when an agent takes over the conversation, the bot goes quiet.
Ask for the order number in one message
The first reply to a customer who lands in the order status path should shorten your agent’s work. In the saved reply, ask for the order number, say where to find it and give the customer who cannot find it another way:
Let’s check your order right away. Could you type your order number here? You’ll find it in your order confirmation message and e-mail. If you can’t find it, the phone number you used for the order is enough; our team will send you the status of your order and, if available, the tracking link here.
If you close sales chats with the order number, the same customer’s later shipping question links straight to the right order; we explain how in our guide to selling on WhatsApp.
Hand over to a person when needed
A damaged parcel, a lost shipment, a customer writing for the second time about the same issue or an angry customer should not be kept waiting with saved replies. Write down in advance when the hand-off happens, to whom, and how it works outside working hours. WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy also requires a business that uses automated replies on the WhatsApp Business Platform to offer clear routes the customer can use promptly and directly; the examples it lists include in-chat transfer to a human agent. Under the policy, once 24 hours have passed since the customer last wrote to you, you can no longer reply with free-form text and can only send an approved template; how this limit affects replies to order messages is covered in detail in our guide to post-purchase notifications.
Once a month, read the messages that matched no rule and fell to the welcome path. Words customers use for shipping that are missing from your rules show up there: “courier”, “branch”, “my parcel”, “still nothing” and so on. Add them to your rules, repeat the count from the first section in a comparable period and see which group is still large. Send your count sheet to our team, and let’s set up shipping notifications and question routing together, starting with that group.
