A standard WooCommerce install has no tracking number field, so tracking emails need one of four tools: the built-in Order Fulfillments beta, the free Advanced Shipment Tracking plugin, Woo's $59-a-year Shipment Tracking extension, or a label tool that writes tracking back to the order. Here is how each one emails your customers, step by step, plus the no-plugin fallback.
Pick the option that matches how you buy shipping labels and how many orders you ship.
| If you… | Use | What emails the customer |
|---|---|---|
| Want a free, built-in option and are happy to enable a beta | WooCommerce Order Fulfillments | A fulfillment email with the tracking link when you mark items Fulfilled |
| Want a free, dedicated plugin | Advanced Shipment Tracking (AST) | A tracking widget in the order email when you mark the order Shipped |
| Want Woo’s own extension | Shipment Tracking, $59 a year | The Completed Order email, with the tracking link |
| Buy labels in WooCommerce Shipping, ShipStation or similar | Your label tool’s integration | Varies: check whether it emails the customer or hands the number to a tracking plugin |
| Ship a handful of orders a week | A note to the customer | WooCommerce’s Customer note email, sent straight away |
Since version 10.2, WooCommerce has its own fulfillments system for tracking numbers and split shipments. It is still labelled beta and is off by default. Once it is on, each order gets a fulfillments panel where you choose the items shipped, add a tracking number from 70+ providers or enter one by hand, and mark the shipment Fulfilled. The customer then gets an email with the shipment details, items and tracking link, and another if you update or cancel the fulfillment. Saving a fulfillment as a draft sends nothing.
wp option update woocommerce_feature_fulfillments_enabled yesBecause it is a beta, try it on a staging copy first and read the email it sends before you use it on a busy store. Shipping tools can create fulfillments through the REST API at /wc/v3/orders/{order_id}/fulfillments, which is how automation plugs into it.
Advanced Shipment Tracking (AST), made by zorem, is a free plugin with 70,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. It works with High-Performance Order Storage and the block checkout, and comes with tracking links for more than 1,000 carriers.
To stop typing numbers in by hand, AST also takes tracking from a CSV import, for hundreds of orders at once, and from a REST API that label tools and ERPs can push to. It lists compatibility with ShipStation, WooCommerce Shipping, Ordoro, Royal Mail Click & Drop, Sendcloud and Printful. For delivery updates after dispatch, TrackShip, a paid service that works with AST (6,000+ installs, 15-day trial), emails customers as the parcel’s status changes.
Shipment Tracking is Woo’s own extension, sold on WooCommerce.com at $59 for a one-year plan, with 50,000+ active installs. It adds a provider, tracking number, tracking link and shipped date to each order.
The tracking also appears on the order page in the customer’s account. You can add it from the WooCommerce mobile app, and shipping and fulfillment tools can create it through the REST API, as Woo’s documentation explains.
If you buy postage in a shipping tool, it already knows the tracking number, so let it fill in the order. Label services with WooCommerce integrations, such as WooCommerce Shipping, ShipStation and Sendcloud, can write the tracking number back to the order when you buy a label. What happens next varies: some email the customer themselves, others hand the number to a tracking plugin such as AST, and some only add a private order note. Place a test order and check what the customer actually receives.
For a handful of orders, WooCommerce can already do this. On the order page, add a note with the carrier, tracking number and tracking link, choose Note to customer and click Add. WooCommerce sends its Customer note email straight away. It is manual, but it costs nothing and needs no setup.
If you run stores for clients, this job looks the same on every store, which makes it a good one for an agent. WPOS works on WooCommerce through WooCommerce’s own APIs, covering products, stock, orders, refunds, customers, coupons, tax rates and shipping zones, from inside wp-admin on the store you already run. A request looks like this:
“Mark orders 1043 to 1050 as Completed and add each tracking number from this list to its order as a note to the customer.”
Because it uses WooCommerce’s own APIs rather than writing to the database behind WooCommerce’s back, those changes go through the same order logic as changes made in wp-admin. For the rest of a store’s emails, see our guide to WooCommerce email automation across a client fleet. WPOS is our product, so weigh this section accordingly: our WooCommerce page covers what the agent touches and what stays where it is, and you can try it free for 30 days with 5,000 credits, a live site plus a staging sandbox, and no card.
Not on a standard install, which has no tracking field. Turn on the Order Fulfillments beta, in WooCommerce 10.2 and later, or add a tracking plugin such as Advanced Shipment Tracking or Woo's Shipment Tracking extension, and the tracking goes out in the order emails.
No. The core plugin is free on WordPress.org and covers tracking numbers on orders, the tracking widget in order emails, CSV import and the REST API. zorem also sells AST PRO, $129 a year on WooCommerce.com, which adds automatic imports from label tools, carrier auto-detection, item-level tracking and PayPal and Stripe tracking sync. Delivery-status emails after dispatch come from TrackShip, a separate paid service.
With a tracking plugin or the Fulfillments beta, enter the carrier and number in the order's tracking or fulfillments panel. Without one, add a note to the customer with the carrier, number and link, and WooCommerce emails it straight away.
It depends on the method. Woo's Shipment Tracking adds it to the Completed Order email, AST adds a tracking widget to the order status emails such as Shipped, the Fulfillments beta sends its own fulfillment emails, and a note uses the Customer note email.
Yes. AST imports tracking from a CSV file, and both AST and Woo's Shipment Tracking accept tracking through the REST API, which is how label tools and warehouses push numbers automatically.
It is still labelled beta. It has been in WooCommerce since 10.2 and gained custom shipping providers in 10.7, but test it on a staging copy and check the customer emails before you rely on it for a busy store.
Yes. With most of these options the tracking shows on the order page in the customer's account. For a branded tracking page with delivery updates, use a tracking service such as TrackShip.
WPOS works on WooCommerce through its own APIs, inside wp-admin on the stores you already run. Free for 30 days: 5,000 credits, a live site plus a sandbox, no card.
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