How to add a tracking number to a WooCommerce order

To add a tracking number to a WooCommerce order with StoreRuler, open the order on the order desk once it is ready to ship, click Record delivery, choose the carrier, type the tracking number and an estimated delivery date, and save. Then email, copy or WhatsApp the details to your customer. This is in the free version.

What StoreRuler does, and what it does not

In plain WooCommerce, you add a tracking number by writing a note to the customer on the order. Nothing remembers the carrier, and the number is buried in the notes.

StoreRuler keeps a shipment record on the order: carrier, tracking number, expected delivery date and the products in the parcel. It does not connect to any carrier. It buys no labels, reads no shipping rates and shows no live parcel status. You get the tracking number from your carrier as you do today, by hand or with a scanner, and StoreRuler takes it from there.

Set up your carrier list

1. Open StoreRuler → Settings and go to the Shipping tab.
2. Under Common carriers, type the carriers or couriers you use most in Carrier names (up to 8), one per line.
3. Click Save carrier names.

Your names come first whenever you record a shipment, and the carrier you used last is chosen for you. Saving a name connects no carrier account. Stores in some countries also see common local carriers by name, for example USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL Express in the United States. Stores in Turkey see the main Turkish carriers, each with a link to its website for tracking.

Record a shipment

1. Open StoreRuler → Sales, go to the Ready to ship tab and open the order.
2. Click Record delivery. The Ship order window lists the packed products to hand over.
3. Choose the Carrier. For one that is not listed, choose Other carrier / courier and type its name; tick Add this carrier to my list to keep it.
4. Type the number in Tracking number (optional). If you do not have it yet, leave it empty and add it later with Add tracking number.
5. Pick an Estimated delivery date if you know it.
6. Click Save shipment, only after the parcel has physically left with the carrier.

The order moves to Completed on the desk. If nothing is left to pay, StoreRuler also sets it to Completed in WooCommerce, which sends its completed-order email. An open payment stays on the order: for cash on delivery, click Confirm delivery once the customer has the parcel and has paid, and the payment counts as received.

To ship part of an order, use Prepare / hand over on a product and choose I handed it to the carrier; the same carrier fields appear. To ship many orders at once, select them in the Ready to ship tab and click Ship selected: one carrier and an optional date for all, with tracking numbers added on each order afterwards.

yourstore.com/wp-admin › StoreRuler

The screenshot comes from a store on a paid plan; a few parts of it, such as the invoice details box, are not in the free version.

Send the tracking details to your customer

Each shipment appears as a card under Shipping and delivery on the order. Once it has a tracking number, the card offers:

• Send email. A window shows the recipient and the message. Tick the box to confirm and send. WooCommerce delivers it as its customer note email, so that email must be turned on in WooCommerce's email settings; StoreRuler links to them if it is off. The message names the carrier and gives the tracking number, with the carrier's tracking page when StoreRuler knows it.
• Copy tracking details. Copies the same message, with the estimated delivery date, to paste anywhere.
• Send on WhatsApp. Opens the message as a WhatsApp draft in your browser, addressed to the customer's number when WhatsApp can read it. You send it yourself.
• Open carrier tracking. Shown when the carrier has a tracking page.

StoreRuler never sends a tracking message on its own. Emails you send are listed on the order under Customer email requests.

Correct a number

If a saved number was mistyped, click Correct tracking number on the shipment card and type the right one. The order history keeps both the old and the new number, and the customer's tracking page follows the new one.

Record that the customer collected the order

For a store pickup order, the last step is a handover instead of a shipment. On any open order you can also open If the customer collects in store under the products.

1. Click Record in-person handover.
2. Type who received it in Recipient / reference.
3. Tick that you handed over all remaining products, then click Record handover.

The handover completes picking and packing, but it does not take a payment.

Next step: let customers check their order without asking you, with the "Where is my order?" page. The order desk explains the stages, and shipping gives the overview.

Frequently asked questions