If you’re sending your customers to a carrier’s tracking page, you could be leaving a lot of extra profits behind. 

Today’s customers track their order several times before it’s delivered. By keeping that tracking information on your own site, you have the chance to put your messaging in front of them, often multiple times per day. Not only that, but you give your customers the convenience of being able to check order status, review what items are in their order, and watch tracking progress – all without leaving your website. 

Why Merchants Use Third-Party Tracking Sites 

There are several reasons why merchants may send customers to a carrier’s tracking page, rather than keeping that information on their own website. Probably the most common one is that it’s easier and cheaper – your 3PL or carrier already has their own tracking page, so it’s simple to just link your customer to that. 

If you do want to integrate tracking on your own site, you have to deal with development costs to get that feature coded. That up-front developer expense turns some merchants off – but the long-term issues that third-party sites introduce far outweigh that initial investment.

The Problems With Third-Party Tracking Pages

The biggest issue with sending your customers off your own website is that you lose control of the customer experience. If the carrier’s tracking page is clumsy or difficult to use, it reflects back on you in your customer’s mind and can affect your ability to attract repeat sales. Even if the carrier tracking page is clear, it’s difficult for your customer to navigate back to your website to see what items are in each delivery or review their order.

You also lose control of the messaging when a customer has to track on a third-party site. Instead of a seamless, branded experience from shopping to delivery, they get sent to a page with the carrier’s branding. You can’t put follow-up offers, discounts, or reorder reminders in front of a customer on a third-party page.

Benefits of On-Site Order Tracking

Here’s why it’s essential to keep your customers on your own website for order tracking: you have full control of the customer experience. Instead of a confusing process where they have to go to a carrier’s website for tracking and find their way back to your site to review their order, you can keep everything in one place. 

You also have the opportunity to communicate with your customers while they wait for their order. Providing informational messages (like what to expect for their delivery) along with promotional messages (like offering limited-time deals while they wait for their order) can improve the customer experience and generate follow-up sales

Even better, from the customer’s point of view, is that you can combine all order-related information on a single page. Shipping details, ordered products and payment summary are all easy to integrate and put at the customer’s fingertips. If your customer has questions or concerns after ordering, it’s more convenient when they’re still on your website, as opposed to a carrier’s tracking page.

All of these benefits are great – but how can you integrate tracking on your website without a lot of hassle?

Headache-Free On-Site Order Tracking

Developer costs for coding your own order tracking page can be significant. This self-coded solution gives you the most control over your customer experience and messaging, but it’s not cost effective for many retailers.

A better option is to use a last mile delivery platform that handles real-time visibility and gives your customers a well-designed tracking page with your own branding for a seamless experience.

At Wismotion, we’re dedicated to providing you and your customers the best delivery experience. Our real-time order tracking helps you and your customers track all types of order, including drop-shipped orders and returns. It’s also easy to embed into your webstore or customer portal, keeping your branding in front of customers and reducing confusion.

This embedded tracking page shows your customer all items in an individual shipment, along with all shipments included in an order (if you have to ship multiple-item orders from different distribution centers or drop-shippers). It displays all tracking events, along with the estimated time of delivery so your customer knows what to expect.

You can even customize elements of your tracking page, like the graphical timeline and which tracking events to show. All of this provides your customers a personalized experience – and gives you the opportunity to encourage future purchases.

Ready to take back control of your customer experience throughout the order delivery and tracking process? Book a demo today.

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