How To Grow Your E-commerce Brand Through Order Tracking Pages

Editors Note: This blog was last updated on February 2024.

As any seasoned marketer will tell you, growing your e-commerce brand isn’t restricted to just the pre-purchase process. As a matter of fact, the actions you take post-purchase can increase customer loyalty, brand visibility, and even generate additional sales. One of the pillars of post-purchase: order tracking pages.

But before we can get into the nitty-gritty of how you can grow your e-commerce business through order tracking pages, consider a few stats.

• Approximately 97% of all customers expect to be able to track their orders throughout the shipping process.
• Customers will look at their tracking page roughly 3.5 times per order.
• Having a proper tracking page in those customer touch points will be crucial since a reported 40% of shoppers believe that the most memorable part of their brand experience comes from the post-purchase experience.
• According to the latest State of Shipping Report from Shippo, only 18% of online merchants are sending customers to a branded tracking page while 67% are sending their customers directly to the carrier’s tracking page.

The importance of having an order tracking page for your e-commerce business is clear. But, there are additional steps you can take when developing these pages to boost brand awareness and sales.

Generate Repeat Sales Through Shipment Tracking Pages

Getting more exposure and brand recognition is one thing, but growing your brand financially is another thing. But, why not both?

Bringing in new customers can cost five times more than retaining existing ones. On top of that, according to research from invespcro, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% compared to 5-20% for a new customer. And to top it all off, current customers spend 67% more on average than new customers.

Got your attention?

One of the most common ways to reengage existing customers is through email. However, as mentioned before, the emails with tracking information outperform the average email. In fact, most emails have an open rate of 10-20% while those with tracking information have an open rate of 50 to 80%.

Taking these stats and the previously mentioned stats into account, you’ll find that

• Customers expect to have order-tracking pages
• Are highly likely to open those pages
• Will view those pages multiple times on average
• Those customers are more likely to purchase than new ones
• Those customers have a greater chance to spend more per order than new ones

With that being said, your shipment tracking page can become a powerful platform to reengage and upsell existing customers.

With Shippo, you can include links to related products on your order tracking pages as a way to personalize those pages while also exposing your customers to products they may want and missed the first time they were browsing through your e-commerce store.

You can also use order tracking pages as a means to communicate sales and promotions currently happening on your site. These banners can be a part of your strategy to bring attention to new and popular products or part of your strategy to get rid of certain items taking up too much warehouse space and costing you money.

Even a simple link back to your homepage is valuable since the longer your customers are on your website, the more likely they are to make a purchase. So, using every opportunity to get them to log back on will be key to achieving the most out of your customer retention tactics.

Reinforce Your Brand To Your Customers

Whether it's online or in-person, building a brand takes time. There’s no easy way around it. Garnering brand recognition requires repeated exposure to your branding materials such as logos, colors, and slogans. We all know Nike’s “Just Do It” and it’s not because they just did it once.

While your e-commerce website is most likely decked out with these marketing materials, there is a way to reinforce your brand in the post-purchase experience. One of the simplest ways to do this is to include your business’s logos, color, and messaging in your order tracking pages.

For Shippo users with a Pro/Premiere or API plan, shipment tracking page customization is included and can be achieved with a few simple clicks. You can also include a link to their tracking page in shipment notification emails, giving them greater visibility.

With customers checking shipment tracking pages 3.5 times per order, the opportunity to get your brand to stick with your new and existing customers is there and should be taken advantage of.

Grow Your Social Media Presence Through Tracking Pages

In the current e-commerce market, it’s common for brands to engage in social media with the same energy as individual users of those platforms. It’s a great way to expose your brand to the masses in a potentially positive and organic way. That exposure is valuable as it can lead to more sales.

At a high level, online stores with at least one social account have up to 32% more sales on average than sites without social media. Digging deeper we can see that social media users spend. The average order value (AOV) for customers referred from Instagram is $65, Facebook is $55, Twitter (or X) is $46, and Youtube is $38.

But, getting followers for your business’s social media accounts can be a challenge. One way to try and gain followers from past customers is by including links to your social media accounts on your tracking pages.

This is another feature Shippo Pro/Premiere/API members have access to.

Your customers are checking their order tracking pages to keep up with the status of their delivery. But, some may be interested in keeping up with the status of your business. Including a link on those pages and a call to action to follow you on social media may be enough to gain new followers who will be exposed to your brand even when they’re not currently shopping with you.

Minimize Tickets Sent To Your Customer Service Team

One asset any e-commerce business will need to grow their brand is simply time. Answering the question “where’s my package” a hundred or more times a day can become overwhelming and exhausting to you and your customer service team.

According to research conducted by Microsoft, 90% of Americans use customer service in deciding if they will buy and/or do business with a company. In this regard, ensuring your Customer Service department is operating at its highest level is extremely important to growing your brand.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by including an order tracking page for each shipment that goes out. This will limit the number of tickets your CS team will receive and allow them to give greater attention to customers that are having any serious issues with your business.

Order Tracking Page Solutions Through Shippo

Shippo recognizes that the shipping process doesn’t end when you hand off your package to the carrier of your choice. It continues all the way until it reaches your customer and even afterward if they choose to make a return.

Creating a positive post-purchase experience is key, and using those post-purchase touchpoints to expand your brand at a time you have your customers' attention the most is crucial.

Try a 30-day free trial of Shippo’s Professional Plan or contact sales to discuss joining our Premiere Plan and integrating our Order Tracking API today.