Did you know that the majority of consumers want to stay informed and receive proactive updates about their order status?
Don’t just take our word for it. One research report after another, we’ve seen that online shoppers care about their experience post-purchase.
...Yet, it still seems to be neglected by the majority of online stores out there.
The main reason behind the hesitant adoption of e-commerce order tracking is that it’s pretty difficult to provide. Especially when online merchants try to do it alone.
Luckily, here’s when e-commerce order tracking software comes in useful. Better still, we’ve done our research, identified major decision criteria, and compared the best order tracking systems to help you find the right solution for your e-commerce business.
Let’s dive right in.
How to choose the best order tracking software for e-commerce?
Before taking a look at different order tracking solutions, there are at least a few things you might want to take into account when considering your options:
Implementation
How complex is the implementation process? How much time will it take? To what extent does your tech team need to be involved?
Integrations
Can the e-commerce order tracking tool integrate with all your carrier services? Can it be easily integrated into your current tech stack? Think e-commerce platforms, checkout solutions, transport management systems, emails and SMS marketing tools, and so on.
Features
What do you need from the e-commerce tracking app? There are different features and pricing plans to choose from depending on your needs, including full-circle tracking that starts right after the purchase, branded tracking pages, emails/SMS tracking updates, multi-parcel tracking, and more.
Customization
Can you tailor the tracking page and notifications to your needs? How smooth and cohesive the post-purchase experience is going to be?
Usability
How easy to use is the order tracking system? Is the interface straightforward enough? Would your team need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to complete the onboarding?
Support
Can you count on support during implementation and onboarding? Will you have a dedicated customer success manager to turn to in case of any questions or concerns?
Pricing
What’s the value for money? Are there different pricing options to consider? Any lengthy contracts involved?
Reviews
What e-commerce companies are using the solution? Are there any reviews or case studies you can take a look at?
Every e-commerce business is different, and might find different order tracking systems better. Knowing the answers to these questions should help you narrow down your choices and, eventually, choose the best e-commerce order tracking software for your needs.
Best e-commerce order tracking systems compared
When looking for the right e-commerce order tracking software, you might want to check what tools are out there and narrow down your options.
We’ve done the work and compared the best solutions on the market so you don’t have to.
- Ingrid
- Shipup
- AfterShip
- Narvar
- parcelLab
Ingrid
Ingrid Tracking is an advanced e-commerce order tracking app that offers multiple benefits for online retailers like yourself. It forms part of the Ingrid Delivery Platform, which connects merchants, carriers, and consumers to create a better shopping environment for everyone.
- G2 score: 4.0/5
- Ingrid’s solutions are compatible with global e-commerce platforms like Shopify Plus, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Centra and Norce, as well as solution partners, WMS & OMS systems (e.g. Ongoing, Proflog), and 150+ carrier services.
- Thanks to multiple API integrations, it covers all stages of the delivery process: an order being prepared by a merchant, handed over to a carrier (first-mile), transported, scanned in logistic hubs (mid-mile), and prepared for delivery to the end customer (last-mile).
- Key features include:
📍 Full-circle tracking — Ingrid Tracking starts when the order is placed and ends when the order is delivered or picked up by the end customer.
📍 End-to-end communication - with Ingrid, you can create branded tracking pages and have control over post-purchase messaging. There’s no need to redirect your customers to carriers' tracking pages anymore.
📍 Multi-parcel tracking — offering split delivery? Multi-parcel orders shipped with the same or different carriers can all be tracked under one link. - The Tracking widget is easy to customize and embed, allowing you to create your own tracking page and send customers to it.
- Ingrid’s Customer Success team is praised by online retailers. To make onboarding and solving any issues easier, every merchant is assigned a dedicated customer support representative.
- Pricing: from around 400 EUR a month for up to 3000 orders monthly, free plan available.
- Implementation usually takes a few weeks, depending on your involvement.
- Ingrid’s products are used by plenty of e-commerce companies like IDEAL OF SWEDEN, Elon, NN07, Houdini Sportswear, Nudient, Footway, and more. It's a popular choice among larger food and beverage, fashion, lifestyle, sports, and pharmaceutical brands in the Nordics.
"We've managed to reduce the number of customer support tickets from 37% to just 4%. It has been a joint effort where Ingrid’s brand new Tracking page played a big role.”
Adam Gudmundsson, Head of E-commerce at IDEAL OF SWEDEN.
Intrigued? Book a demo to see Ingrid Tracking in action.
Shipup
Shipup is a SaaS company that is known for tracking e-commerce orders in real-time, which ultimately helps to create a seamless, branded, and reassuring post-purchase experience.
- G2 score: 4.4/5
- Shipup is connected to the most popular e-commerce platforms, including Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce, as well as 90+ carrier service providers and a variety of business apps (such as Zapier, Mailchimp, Gorgias, and more).
- Prominent features include:
📍Proactive notifications — Shipup filters emails from carrier companies so you can send your own notifications at each stage.
📍 Analytics — Shipup brings transparency and efficiency to your logistics with customizable dashboards and reports.
📍 Satisfaction surveys — the order tracking system helps you turn shopper dissatisfaction into customer loyalty with proactive and branded feedback requests inside delivery notifications. - Shipup’s products are customizable and intuitive to use, no coding skills are necessary.
- Shipup offers 24/7 assistance to all customers. There’s no dedicated support during the onboarding phase — even though it seems pretty straightforward, some users report problems with the initial setup.
- Pricing: Basic features start from €99 per month (for up to 1200 orders annually), 14-day trial is available for free.
- If you’re short on time, the implementation can be completed within a week.
- The client list includes Blissim, bareMinerals, Volcom, Beerwulf, Withings, eve sleep, and more. It’s a popular choice among small and medium-sized online retailers.
“Cheerz delivers in all of Europe and Shipup allowed us to build our own post-purchase experience and to unify it for all our customers across our 11 delivery companies.”
Aurelien de Meaux, Co-Founder and CEO at Cheerz
AfterShip
AfterShip is a Hong Kong startup company offering automated shipment tracking as a service. Everything revolves around an online dashboard that allows for checking the status of shipments across multiple carriers and sending out emails and notifications automatically at different shipment stages.
- G2 score: 3.7/5
- AfterShip integrates with major e-commerce apps like Shopify, Salesforce, Klaviyo, and Gorgias. It currently supports over 900 carrier services.
- Key features include:
📍 Branded tracking page — users can track their orders on a branded tracking page instead of a carrier site.
📍 Shipment notifications — AfterShip lets you send updates from the moment an order is shipped to when it is delivered.
📍 Analytics — the order tracking app collects actionable data insights into your post-purchase experience and shipping performance. - Tracking pages and notifications are customizable and can be tailored to your branding.
- Even though it’s used by plenty of online retailers, AfterShip is rarely praised for its customer support. In fact, its low quality is one of the major factors behind AfterShip’s lower scores across different comparison sites. Interestingly, the level of support depends on the plan — if you want to make sure you’re offered a decent service, you have to pay more.
- Pricing: Essential plan starts from around 9 EUR a month (for up to 1200 shipments per year), but the final cost depends largely on the number of orders and specific features you’re after.
- The implementation usually takes several weeks — expect a lengthy onboarding process to get your tracking up and running.
- E-commerce brands and marketplaces using AfterShip: Marc Nolan, Etsy, Wish, Byte, Rakuten France, Gymshark, and more.
“AfterShip has given the team complete visibility into our delivery process. We now know where every item is and where the critical points are within our customer’s journey.”
Max Antonov, Product Owner at THE ICONIC
Narvar
Narvar is a pretty big post-purchase customer experience platform that consists of several products, including Narvar Track which is focused solely on order tracking. The company was established in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.
- G2 score: 4.3/5
- Narvar integrates with leading e-commerce platforms, including Shopify Plus and Magento, as well as various e-commerce solutions and over 300 carrier services.
- Available features:
📍 Branded tracking pages - customizable tracking pages depending on different shipment statuses and customers' locations.
📍 Post-purchase messages - you can use after-sales touchpoints to send marketing assets and product recommendations.
📍 Shipment performance monitoring - Narvar allows you to keep an eye on all your orders to see if any shipment needs your attention. - Contextual, branded tracking pages are at your disposal—just use a self-serve track page editor.
- Narvar has a pretty large team working around the world, but some of the reviews suggest poor communication with the customer support reps.
- Unfortunately, there’s no pricing displayed on Narvar’s website. It’s likely to offer different plans depending on the desired features and the number of orders per month.
- Narvar's implementation may take several weeks or months, as it typically requires the involvement of your tech team.
- Examples of e-commerce brands using Narvar: Dollar Shave Club, YETI, Russell & Bromley, Swiss Sports, and more.
"The tracking pages are simple, on-brand, and beautiful. That visual aspect is very important to us.”
Emily Code, Manager of Strategic Operations Initiatives at MM.LaFleur
parcelLab
parcelLab is an e-commerce post-purchase experience and returns management platform, focused on smart parcel monitoring and after-sales customer communication.
- G2 score: 4.7/5
- parcelLab integrates with 250 carriers worldwide. There’s no dedicated section for e-commerce platforms and tool integrations, though, which makes it difficult to figure out which are actually available.
- Prominent features include:
📍 Order status pages - you can get an order status and delivery page up and running with minimal effort.
📍 Post-purchase communications - parcelLab lets you keep customers proactively informed during the delivery and returns journey.
📍 Logistics reporting - the order tracking system helps to improve your post-purchase experience by understanding where you fall short of delivery promises. - Order status pages can be customized to match the look and feel of your brand.
- parcelLab has a strong, global team, with customer success reps known for being informed and attentive.
- There’s no pricing on the website, but rumor has it that plans can go as high as 2400 EUR per month for 25 000 orders monthly.
- The setup is likely to take a few weeks because of the customization.
- Featured clients: Lidl, Farfetch, MediaMarkt, bonprix and more.
“parcelLab provides all parties with more transparency in the otherwise opaque shipping process. The customers know the current status of their order and we know whether everything is running smoothly with our logistics partners."
Robin Jakoby, E-commerce Product Owner at Gravis
Which is the best order tracking app for e-commerce?
Ultimately, the best choice comes down to what your needs, requirements, and budget are. Make sure to weigh pros and cons, and take advantage of free demo calls to see all order tracking platforms in action.
If you're still looking for more alternatives, consider adding the following to the list:
- Outvio
- Wonderment
- Paazl
- Seven Senders
- Route
- Logtrade
- Sorted
- Centiro
No matter which option you're going to choose, one thing is certain. Being proactive and transparent throughout the whole shopping journey is far too important to miss out on.
Advanced e-commerce order tracking doesn't only ease anxiety around a product being lost, delayed, or stolen, but it gives you an opportunity to offer a stellar customer experience, increase predictability, and drive repeat purchases.
Book a demo to see how Ingrid Tracking can help you get there.