How to Set Up Shipment Tracking - How to Ship Smarter As A Small Business Part 4

How to Set Up Shipment Tracking for FedEx, UPS

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, you know how important it is for customers to be able to track the shipment of their purchases. That being said, at first it can be a confusing and seemingly daunting task for small business owners to set up shipment tracking for their customers. Don't be alarmed, however, as most of the time, it's not as complicated as it may seem.

If shipping through UPS or FedEx, it's pretty simple to make sure that your customers get accurate tracking information. Basically for FedEx, you simply need to have the print shipping label feature enabled. You will print a shipping label with a barcode that is able to be tracked and the customer will automatically be emailed the tracking information. For UPS, when you print your shipping label, simply make sure you select the "Email Tracking Information" button.  The customer will be emailed with the tracking information. (Crazy, eh?).

Sending USPS Tracking Information - A Manual Process

USPS is not quite so friendly, however. There aren't really any automated tracking features when shipping USPS, meaning that it is a little more time intensive to pass along tracking information to customers on USPS shipped items.

When your orders are shipped via USPS, you will need to manually configure an email that inserts the tracking number. Depending on the level of software development in your organization, you may be able to create a system that automates this information if the number has been manually entered into the order information.

Otherwise, you will need to manually copy the number into the shipment confirmation email that you send to the customer. Unfortunately, that's just the way it works for USPS.

All in all, it's still worth the extra time to get the tracking information to your customers. It provides a level of transparency that customers demand, as well as allowing the customer to plan more accurately for their order, especially if there are any unexpected delivery delays.

Next week we'll explore one of the more difficult aspects of shipping for small businesses: How to decide on charging for shipping costs.