Shop emails

Your order has shipped: the shipping email a small shop sends, and the one when a parcel goes wrong

The "your order has shipped" email is the one a customer actually waits for. In Omnisend's 2025 data, 62.67% of shipping confirmations were opened and 16.01% clicked, against 30.41% and 0.74% for marketing campaigns. That makes it the most-read email a small shop sends, and for many shops it's a bare tracking number in a platform template. Here's what it should carry, links that open properly on a phone, and the three emails for when the parcel doesn't behave.

The short answer: say what is in the parcel, who is carrying it, when it should arrive as a date, and give a tracking link that opens the carrier's page with the number already filled in. Send it from the shop's own name, with replies going to an inbox someone reads. When something goes wrong, write first, before the customer has to ask.

Why this email gets read

Open rates have been inflated since 2021 by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, which loads images for the reader, but the gap between the rows is real: the click rate on a shipping email is more than twenty times a campaign's. People open it because they're waiting for something. Narvar's 2025 survey of 3,461 US shoppers found 74% had a late delivery in the previous year and 86% had at least one delivery problem; 38% said frequent tracking updates make them less anxious, and 40% said they won't buy if no delivery date is shown.

What the shipped email carries

• A subject that says it all: "Your order 1042 has shipped, arriving Thursday 29 October". The order number lets the customer search for it; the date answers the question before the email is opened.
• What is in this parcel, item by item with quantities. Not "your order": if something is coming separately, this is where the customer finds out.
• The carrier's name and the tracking number as text, so it can be copied or read out to the carrier's phone line.
• One tracking link that opens the carrier's page with the number already in it (formats below).
• The expected day as a date, not "3 to 5 business days". The customer doesn't know which day you posted it or what counts as a business day. Work it out: posted Friday 23 October, carrier says 3 to 4 business days, so arriving Wednesday 28 or Thursday 29 October. Write "Wednesday 28 or Thursday 29 October".
• The delivery address, so a wrong one is spotted while there's still time to call the carrier.
• Who to talk to: "Reply to this email if anything's wrong" only works if replies reach someone. See below.

The tracking link should never be the only content. Carrier pages lag, show "label created" for a day before the first scan, and some block visitors in some countries. If the link is all there is, a customer whose page says "label created" two days later writes to you asking where the parcel is. If the email lists the contents, the carrier and the expected date, most don't need to.

Tracking links that open on a phone

A link to the carrier's home page makes the customer copy a 22-digit number on a phone. Use the address that takes the number in the link. These are the patterns WooCommerce's own shipment tracking code uses (2026); we opened each with a phone browser's identity on 23 October 2026.

Two habits that save support emails: put the number in the link with no spaces (customers copy it from the email with them), and test one link from your own phone each time you change carrier or template. Click tracking from an email service rewrites the link into a long redirect; if a customer reports that the link "doesn't work", read what click tracking does to your links.

Your platform may already send one, or none

Sent from the shop, replies to a person

The email should come from the shop's name ("Harbour Roasters"), not a platform's, and a reply should land in the shop's inbox. Most shipping problems are solved by a reply: "I'm away that week, can it go to my neighbour?". A no-reply address turns that into a contact form hunt. With email59 the sender address is on our domain, and reply_to sends the customer's answer to yours:

curl https://email59.com/v1/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMAIL59_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "harbourroasters",
    "to": "sam@example.com",
    "reply_to": "hello@harbourroasters.example",
    "subject": "Your order 1042 has shipped, arriving Thursday 29 October",
    "text": "Hi Sam,\n\nIn this parcel: 2 x Harbour Blend 250 g, 1 x Decaf 250 g.\nStill to come: the burr grinder, shipping on 30 October.\n\nCarrier: UPS, tracking 1Z999AA10123456784\nTrack it: https://www.ups.com/track?tracknum=1Z999AA10123456784\nExpected: Wednesday 28 or Thursday 29 October.\nGoing to: 14 Pier Road, Portland, ME 04101\n\nAnything wrong? Just reply to this email.\nHarbour Roasters"
  }'

Where replies should go and why, in more detail: reply-to on a no-reply sender. A shipping email is transactional: it goes to the customer whether or not they joined your newsletter, as long as it doesn't turn into an advert. Keep the "you might also like" strip small or leave it out (where the line is).

Two parcels for one order

When an order leaves in more than one box, send one email per parcel, each with its own tracking link, and say so in the subject: "Order 1042, parcel 1 of 2 has shipped". In the body, list what's in this parcel and what's still to come, with its own date. The worst version is one email with two tracking numbers and no word on which item is in which box: the customer opens the first parcel, finds the grinder missing, and writes in.

When the parcel goes wrong: three more emails

Carriers are good but not perfect, and December is when it shows. ShipMatrix counts a parcel as on time if it arrives within a day of the promise:

At 94.1%, a shop that sends 200 parcels in December has about 12 late ones. Add theft: SafeWise estimated 104.3 million packages stolen in the US in the 12 months to August 2025, and 31% of Americans said they'd had one taken. Narvar found that after one bad delivery, 60% of shoppers aged 18 to 29 say they won't buy from that shop again (17% of those over 60). The emails below are how a small shop keeps those customers.

1. "Your parcel is running late"

Send it when tracking stops moving for two working days, or the expected date passes, before the customer asks. Say what you know (last scan and where), what you're doing ("we've opened a trace with UPS"), the new expected date if there is one, and what happens if it doesn't turn up ("if it hasn't arrived by Wednesday 4 November we'll send a replacement or refund you, your choice").

In the US this email is also the law if you are the delay. The FTC's Mail, Internet or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule says you must ship within the time you advertised, or within 30 days if you gave no time. If you can't, you must tell the customer before that date, give a new date, and offer the choice to cancel for a full refund. Silence counts as agreement only for a delay of 30 days or less; refunds are due within 7 working days (one billing cycle if you extended the credit yourself). In the UK the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says goods must arrive without undue delay and within 30 days unless you agreed another date, and they stay at the shop's risk until the customer has them: a parcel lost on the way is the shop's problem, not the customer's (unless the customer picked a carrier you didn't offer).

2. "Your parcel is waiting to be collected"

When tracking says "notice left" or "held at depot", the clock is running. USPS holds a parcel that needs a signature or was insured for 15 days, with a final notice after 5 (Priority Mail Express: 5 days). Royal Mail keeps items at the delivery office for 18 calendar days. Then it comes back to you. Send one email on the first day it's held: where it is, until what date, what to bring ("the card through your door and photo ID"), and the carrier's redelivery link.

3. "Your parcel has come back to us"

When it's returned (unclaimed, refused, address not found), say so plainly, show the address it was sent to, and offer the two choices with any cost stated: send it again (to a corrected address) or refund. Don't make it sound like the customer's fault even when it was; ask them to check the address and reply.

A checklist to copy

The receipt that went out when they paid is a different email with different rules: what a payment receipt has to carry. And if you write plain text alongside HTML, as above, every link stays readable in both: every HTML email needs a plain-text twin.

Sources

• Omnisend: email marketing benchmarks, 2025 data (shipping 62.67% / 16.01%, order 57.91% / 8.36%, campaigns 30.41% / 0.74%)
• Narvar: 2025 State of Post-Purchase report (3,461 US shoppers, August 2025)
• WooCommerce: carrier tracking URL providers (source code, 2026)
• DHL Express: tracking (10-digit waybill)
• Shopify Help: shipping notifications
• Etsy Help: add tracking and complete an order
• Etsy: Star Seller criteria
• WooCommerce: emails (Completed order)
• Logistics Management: ShipMatrix peak season 2024 and 2023 (30 January 2025)
• FreightWaves: ShipMatrix peak season 2025 (12 January 2026)
• SafeWise: package theft report (6 November 2025)
• FTC: business guide to the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28 (delivery)
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29 (risk)
• USPS FAQ: second and final notice and return dates
• Royal Mail: redelivery and how long items are kept

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