How to setup Shipment Tracking in WooCommerce

• Add shipment tracking information to your orders
• Provide customers with an easy way to track their shipment
• Integrates with major shipping providers and softwares

If you need a way to easily add shipment tracking details to orders in your WooCommerce store, then we’ve got the solution for you.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up Shipment Tracking on your WooCommerce store. Shipment Tracking is an easy way to allow customers to track their shipments.

It costs just $49 a year and supports over 15 of the world’s major shipping providers out of the box. Yes, that includes USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL. See the full shipping provider list.

The plugin also integrates with 3rd party tools like ShipStation, Shippo, ShippingEasy and others.

For example, let’s say you want to use ShipStation and are trying to figure out how to connect with your WooCommerce store. When a new shipment is created in ShipStation it will sync the tracking number back to WooCommerce and also update the order in WooCommerce from Processing to Completed. You will not have to manually add the tracking number for each shipment. I also recommend turning off the notification email in ShipStation that sends to your customers. How come? The Completed Order email in WooCommerce will include the tracking number. Just make sure you are using the free ShipStation plugin and the Shipment Tracking plugin and everything will be integrated.

If you are more of a visual learner, see the video below that goes over how to do this! I also have another video at the bottom of the post that may be helpful as well!

Let’s jump into it!

How to setup Shipment Tracking in WooCommerce

The first step is to purchase the Shipment Tracking plugin.

Next, download the .zip file and navigate to your WordPress dashboard.

Then, go to Plugins, add a new plugin, and upload the .zip file.

Finally, activate the plugin. If you navigate to the WooCommerce Orders page in your WooCommerce backend, you will see that the Shipment Tracking column has been added.

How to add a tracking number to an order

If you use ShipStation, Shippo, ShippingEasy or another shipping platform they will automatically integrate with the Shipment Tracking plugin. For example, if a shipment is created in ShipStation it will automatically send the tracking number to WooCommerce and update the Order Status from Processing to Completed and send out the Completed Order email with the tracking number. However, if you are curious how to manually add a tracking number here is how to do so.

– Go to WooCommerce > Orders and click on an order.

– Next, in the top righthand corner, click Add Tracking Number.

– Then, add the Provider and Tracking Number.

– Finally, click Save Tracking.

Finally, if you want to let your customer know that their order has been shipped and provide an email notification with their tracking URL, simply update the order status from Processing to Completed.

This will trigger the Completed Order Email to send to the customer with your branding and includes a tracking number that is linked to USPS, FedEx, UPS, or whatever you use as your shipping provider.

Here is an example:

In addition, your customer will also be able to see their tracking number on the My Account page.

For example:

Pretty cool eh!?

How can you automate this process further?

If you use a plugin such as ShippingEasy or ShipStation to print off your labels, these shipping tools will automatically POST back to your WooCommerce store with the tracking number.

Here is how the process works:

1. Customer orders a product on your store
2. Orders that are “processing” will be exported to ShipStation or ShippingEasy
3. Store manager prints off label and ships product to the customer
4. ShippingEasy or ShipStation POST back to your WooCommerce store and updates order status to “completed”
5. Automated email goes out to the customer that their shipment is on their way with tracking code available on the email

How to add shipment tracking from custom order meta

You are trying to integrate a 3rd party integration (like DEAR Inventory) with the WooCommerce Shipment Tracking plugin.

However, the issue is that the _wc_shipment_tracking_items order meta is in an array.

I CANNOT specify the field name when it’s inside an array.

Thus, we have to do a workaround!

First, add the following fields to your order meta data:

• _tracking_number
• _tracking_provider
• _date_shipped

This will show up as order meta data in your WooCommerce Order, but not yet inside the meta key _wc_shipment_tracking_items.

Next, add this snippet to your functions.php file:

function auf_order_status_completed($order_id) {

    if (class_exists('WC_Shipment_Tracking')) {

    	if (function_exists('wc_st_add_tracking_number')) {

    		$tracking_number = get_post_meta($order_id, '_tracking_number', true);
    		$carrier = get_post_meta($order_id, '_tracking_provider', true);
    		$timestamp = get_post_meta($order_id, '_date_shipped', true);
    		
			wc_st_add_tracking_number($order_id, $tracking_number, $carrier, $timestamp);

		}
    }
}

add_action('woocommerce_order_status_completed', 'auf_order_status_completed', 10, 1 );

This snippet updates the _wc_shipment_tracking_items order meta when the Order is shipped, based on your custom fields you defined.

Let me know if this snippet works for you!

How to return real-time rates to customers during Checkout?

If you want to return real time rates to your customers during the Checkout process, USPS, UPS, and FedEx have separate plugins for that.

Customizations

Add the Track Shipment link to Orders page

To further improve the experience with the Shipment Tracking plugin, you’ll want your customers to be able to access their tracking info directly from the frontend of your site’s My Account page.

Let’s look at how to set this up so your customers can see the Track Shipment link next to their Orders.

First, edit your active WordPress theme via SFTP or SSH. I use FileZilla.

Next, create a ‘woocommerce’ folder inside your active WordPress theme if you have not already. This will allow you to override core WooCommerce files.

Then, inside the /woocommerce/ folder, create another folder titled ‘myaccount’.

Next, open up the file inside your /woocommerce/myaccount/ folder called orders.php.

Edit your current orders.php file and search for the following snippet on lines 56 and 57:

// Search for this line of code in your orders.php file
<?php elseif ( 'order-status' === $column_id ) : ?>
	<?php echo esc_html( wc_get_order_status_name( $order->get_status() ) ); ?>

Replace with this snippet below:

// replace with the following code below in your orders.php file
<?php elseif ('order-status' === $column_id) :

	$status = $order->get_status();
	$column_output = "";

	// show tracking link
	if ($status == 'completed' && class_exists('WC_Shipment_Tracking_Actions')) {

		$st_actions = WC_Shipment_Tracking_Actions::get_instance();

		if ($tracking_items = $st_actions->get_tracking_items($order->get_id(), true)) {

			foreach ($tracking_items as $tracking_item) {

				if ($tracking_item['formatted_tracking_link'] !== '') {

					$column_output = sprintf("<a href='%s' target='_blank'>%s</a>",
						$tracking_item['formatted_tracking_link'], __('Track Shipment', 'bdl'));

					break;
				}
			}
		}
	}

	if (empty($column_output))
		$column_output = esc_html(wc_get_order_status_name($status));

	echo $column_output; ?>

If you would rather just replace the entire orders.php file, copy the code below and replace it.

<?php
/**
 * Orders
 *
 * Shows orders on the account page.
 */

defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

do_action( 'woocommerce_before_account_orders', $has_orders ); ?>

<?php if ( $has_orders ) : ?>

	<table class="woocommerce-orders-table woocommerce-MyAccount-orders shop_table shop_table_responsive my_account_orders account-orders-table">
		<thead>
			<tr>
				<?php foreach ( wc_get_account_orders_columns() as $column_id => $column_name ) : ?>
					<th class="woocommerce-orders-table__header woocommerce-orders-table__header-<?php echo esc_attr( $column_id ); ?>"><span class="nobr"><?php echo esc_html( $column_name ); ?></span></th>
				<?php endforeach; ?>
			</tr>
		</thead>

		<tbody>
			<?php
			foreach ( $customer_orders->orders as $customer_order ) {
				$order      = wc_get_order( $customer_order ); // phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.GlobalVariablesOverride.OverrideProhibited
				$item_count = $order->get_item_count() - $order->get_item_count_refunded();
				?>
				<tr class="woocommerce-orders-table__row woocommerce-orders-table__row--status-<?php echo esc_attr( $order->get_status() ); ?> order">
					<?php foreach ( wc_get_account_orders_columns() as $column_id => $column_name ) : ?>
						<td class="woocommerce-orders-table__cell woocommerce-orders-table__cell-<?php echo esc_attr( $column_id ); ?>" data-title="<?php echo esc_attr( $column_name ); ?>">
							<?php if ( has_action( 'woocommerce_my_account_my_orders_column_' . $column_id ) ) : ?>
								<?php do_action( 'woocommerce_my_account_my_orders_column_' . $column_id, $order ); ?>

							<?php elseif ( 'order-number' === $column_id ) : ?>
								<a href="<?php echo esc_url( $order->get_view_order_url() ); ?>">
									<?php echo esc_html( _x( '#', 'hash before order number', 'woocommerce' ) . $order->get_order_number() ); ?>
								</a>

							<?php elseif ( 'order-date' === $column_id ) : ?>
								<time datetime="<?php echo esc_attr( $order->get_date_created()->date( 'c' ) ); ?>"><?php echo esc_html( wc_format_datetime( $order->get_date_created() ) ); ?></time>

							<?php elseif ('order-status' === $column_id) :

								$status = $order->get_status();
								$column_output = "";

								// show tracking link
								if ($status == 'completed' && class_exists('WC_Shipment_Tracking_Actions')) {

									$st_actions = WC_Shipment_Tracking_Actions::get_instance();

									if ($tracking_items = $st_actions->get_tracking_items($order->get_id(), true)) {

										foreach ($tracking_items as $tracking_item) {

											if ($tracking_item['formatted_tracking_link'] !== '') {

												$column_output = sprintf("<a href='%s' target='_blank'>%s</a>",
													$tracking_item['formatted_tracking_link'], __('Track Shipment', 'bdl'));

												break;
											}
										}
									}
								}

								if (empty($column_output))
									$column_output = esc_html(wc_get_order_status_name($status));

								echo $column_output; ?>

							<?php elseif ( 'order-total' === $column_id ) : ?>
								<?php
								/* translators: 1: formatted order total 2: total order items */
								echo wp_kses_post( sprintf( _n( '%1$s for %2$s item', '%1$s for %2$s items', $item_count, 'woocommerce' ), $order->get_formatted_order_total(), $item_count ) );
								?>

							<?php elseif ( 'order-actions' === $column_id ) : ?>
								<?php
								$actions = wc_get_account_orders_actions( $order );

								if ( ! empty( $actions ) ) {
									foreach ( $actions as $key => $action ) { // phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.GlobalVariablesOverride.OverrideProhibited
										echo '<a href="' . esc_url( $action['url'] ) . '" class="woocommerce-button button ' . sanitize_html_class( $key ) . '">' . esc_html( $action['name'] ) . '</a>';
									}
								}
								?>
							<?php endif; ?>
						</td>
					<?php endforeach; ?>
				</tr>
				<?php
			}
			?>
		</tbody>
	</table>

	<?php do_action( 'woocommerce_before_account_orders_pagination' ); ?>

	<?php if ( 1 < $customer_orders->max_num_pages ) : ?>
		<div class="woocommerce-pagination woocommerce-pagination--without-numbers woocommerce-Pagination">
			<?php if ( 1 !== $current_page ) : ?>
				<a class="woocommerce-button woocommerce-button--previous woocommerce-Button woocommerce-Button--previous button" href="<?php echo esc_url( wc_get_endpoint_url( 'orders', $current_page - 1 ) ); ?>"><?php esc_html_e( 'Previous', 'woocommerce' ); ?></a>
			<?php endif; ?>

			<?php if ( intval( $customer_orders->max_num_pages ) !== $current_page ) : ?>
				<a class="woocommerce-button woocommerce-button--next woocommerce-Button woocommerce-Button--next button" href="<?php echo esc_url( wc_get_endpoint_url( 'orders', $current_page + 1 ) ); ?>"><?php esc_html_e( 'Next', 'woocommerce' ); ?></a>
			<?php endif; ?>
		</div>
	<?php endif; ?>

<?php else : ?>
	<div class="woocommerce-message woocommerce-message--info woocommerce-Message woocommerce-Message--info woocommerce-info">
		<a class="woocommerce-Button button" href="<?php echo esc_url( apply_filters( 'woocommerce_return_to_shop_redirect', wc_get_page_permalink( 'shop' ) ) ); ?>">
			<?php esc_html_e( 'Go to the shop', 'woocommerce' ); ?>
		</a>
		<?php esc_html_e( 'No order has been made yet.', 'woocommerce' ); ?>
	</div>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( 'woocommerce_after_account_orders', $has_orders ); ?>

Video Tutorials

Summary

The WooCommerce Shipment Tracking plugin is an easy-to-use plugin if you need a solid way to allow your customers to track their shipments.

You can use this plugin to allow your customers to track their order with the world’s major shipping providers, ensuring your brand remains linked in their minds to a high-quality and professional delivery service.

Additional Resources

• Docs: WooCommerce Shipment Tracking plugin
• ShippingEasy
• ShipStation