What Do I Tell Customers When Their Tracking Shows No Updates?
Tell them what you actually know: when it shipped, the last scan and when, what that usually means, and what happens next if nothing changes. AeroChat reads the order and its tracking in Shopify or your tracking tool and gives exactly that answer in the chat. If the parcel has had no scan for longer than you allow, it tells the customer you are checking with the carrier and passes the order to your team with the details. AeroChat can’t fix a carrier’s tracking feed, but it can stop the silence that turns a delay into a complaint.
Shopify behavior from Shopify’s help center: Adding tracking numbers to orders and Local delivery fulfillment, checked 11 November 2026.
Why it happens
Merchants on the Shopify Community describe several versions of this. A store doing its own deliveries can’t show customers a delivered status, so customers keep seeing “fulfilled”. Others needed to add a missing tracking number to an order that was already fulfilled. Some want real carrier tracking inside Shopify instead of sending customers to the carrier’s site, or tracking pulled from local couriers. A small gift box store says couriers delay pickups, don’t update tracking and cancel deliveries, and the customer blames the store.
When tracking stops moving, customers assume the worst. They message, then message again, then open a dispute.
What Shopify’s help center says
Per Shopify’s help center, checked 11 November 2026:
- If you receive a tracking number after fulfilling an order, you can still add it to the order, and choose whether to notify the customer.
- If your carrier isn’t fully supported, or you choose Other, you can enter the tracking URL by hand. It’s used on the order status page to link to the carrier’s tracking page.
- Local delivery orders don’t generate carrier tracking events. You mark them as delivered in the admin, and the customer receives a delivery confirmation email.
The usual fixes and their limits
- Send the carrier link. Quick. If the carrier page hasn’t updated, it answers nothing.
- A tracking app, such as AfterShip, 17TRACK, Track123 or ParcelPanel. Brings many carriers’ updates into one tracking page. It still depends on the carrier sending scans.
- Check each parcel by hand. Accurate, and takes a person’s time for every message.
- A canned “it’s on its way” reply. Calms some customers for a day. Customers notice when it doesn’t match the tracking.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
The customer asks in the chat. AeroChat verifies them, reads the order and its tracking, and states the facts: shipped on this date, with this carrier, last scanned here on this date. Your recipe sets what counts as normal. If the gap is inside it, AeroChat explains that scans can pause between hubs and gives the expected delivery window. If it’s past your limit, it says you’re checking with the carrier, tags the order for your team and promises a follow-up in the same chat. For your own local deliveries, it tells customers the delivery day you set rather than waiting for a scan that will never come.
Customer: My tracking hasn’t changed in four days. Is my order lost? (example)
AeroChat: Let me check. What’s your order number and email?
Customer: #4475, kai@example.com
AeroChat: Thanks, Kai. Your order shipped on 4 November with the carrier, and the last scan was at the regional hub on 6 November (example). Four days without a scan is longer than we expect, so I’ve asked our team to check with the carrier. You’ll hear from us here by tomorrow afternoon.
In Shopify: order #4475 is tagged “tracking-stale” with a note of the last scan, for the team to raise with the carrier.
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks about tracking that isn’t updating, follow these steps.
- Verify them with their order number and the email or phone number they ordered with.
- Read the order and its tracking. Tell them the ship date, the carrier, and the last scan with its place and date.
- If the last scan is less than 3 days old (example), explain that scans can pause between hubs, and give our usual delivery window.
- If it is 3 days or older, tell them we are checking with the carrier. Tag the order “tracking-stale”, add a note with the last scan, and hand it to our team.
- If the order is a local delivery, tell them the delivery day from the order, not a carrier status.
Never say a parcel is lost or promise a replacement. Reply in the customer’s language.
Set your own limit and delivery windows before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store. AeroChat reads the order, fulfillment and tracking number.
- A tracking tool, if you use one. Connected through its API, so AeroChat reads the latest scan for any carrier it covers.
- Your courier, if it has a public API. For example POS Malaysia is built in.
Questions
Can AeroChat fix tracking that isn’t updating?
No. The scans come from the carrier. AeroChat tells the customer what is known and gets your team involved when the gap is too long.
Can it follow up with the customer later?
Yes, in the same chat. On WhatsApp, a message more than 24 hours after the customer’s last message needs an approved template.
What about orders I deliver myself?
Shopify’s help center says local delivery orders don’t get carrier tracking events. Mark them delivered in the admin, and AeroChat tells customers the delivery day you set.
Where can I read more?
See stopping where-is-my-order questions, order tracking on WhatsApp and the glossary entry on WISMO.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Give customers a straight answer on stuck tracking
Install AeroChat, paste the tracking recipe, and ask your own store chat about a test order.
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