Frequently Asked Questions About Notifications

1. I imported a shipment that was already in 'Out for Delivery' status. Which notification emails will trigger if all notifications are enabled?

Since the shipment was already in Out for Delivery status at the time of import, AfterShip will only trigger the Delivered notification once the shipment is marked as delivered. Notifications for earlier statuses (such as Picked up or In Transit ) will not be triggered retroactively, as those checkpoints were already passed before the shipment was imported.

2. Which plan supports the email workflow for 'trigger when status remains unchanged'?

The trigger when status remains unchanged email workflow is available on the Premium and Enterprise plans.

3. There are products that are launched with pre-booking and require 10–15 days before they are shipped. What notification would you suggest for this?

Pre-booked products sit in a gray zone, meaning the order exists, money is collected, but the product won’t ship for another say, 10-15 days. Without a well-designed notification strategy, customers will be left anxious, WISMO tickets will rise, and trust will take a toll.

With the help of the proposed notifications flow strategy, you can keep customers up-to-date every step of their order’s journey till it is fulfilled.

1. Order placed trigger: Immediate notification 

The Order placed trigger will be sent as soon as the order is received from the customer, but has not yet been processed. This is your first and most critical touchpoint for pre-booked orders. 

Customize this email/SMS to set clear expectations. Mention the {n number of days} day pre-shipment window upfront in the email and SMS. Don’t send a generic “your order is confirmed” message. Give customers the reassurance they need after placing a pre-booked order that the delay is expected to be ready and process the product(s), not a mistake.

2.  Order processing trigger: Mid-window check-in notification 

The Order processing trigger will send an email/SMS notification when the entire order or some pre-booked items are being prepared for shipment. Only available via the Commerce API on Essentials plan and above.

Use the Time delay block after the initial notification to hold the flow and send a mid-window “we’re preparing your order” update around Day 5-7. This will reduce customer anxiety during the waiting period without requiring any new status changes to trigger it. 

• The time delay block lets you set a waiting period in minutes, hours, or days between steps, with the option to count business days only, and deliver at a specific time of day. This makes it ideal for scheduling a mid-window notification precisely. 

3. Custom status notification trigger: Alternate strategy limited to Enterprise plan users

The Custom status trigger lets you define your own pre-shipment statuses beyond the standard triggers. Only available via the Commerce API on the Enterprise plan.

You can create a custom status like pre-booking-confirmed or awaiting-production and send a branded email/SMS notification at that stage. This gives you full control over the pre-booking order experience and how you would like to keep the customer informed of the progress of their pre-booking order.

• Notification flow for custom statuses is required to be built from scratch. You need to first create the custom status in the Settings and then proceed to create the flow in the Notifications section.

4. Order fulfillment notification trigger: When the order ships

The Order fulfillment trigger will be sent when the order is partially or fully fulfilled, meaning the package has been handed to the carrier. This is when the order is finally on its way to the customer. Since customers have been waiting for the order to be shipped for a very long time, this email/SMS should be high-energy and impactful. Make sure to include the tracking link of the order. Use the Order Items special section to show exactly what’s been shipped and what’s yet to be shipped.

5. Trigger status unchanged block: Proactively handle stalled orders 

The Trigger Status Unchanged block lets you set a condition where the flow continues only if a status has remained unchanged for a set duration. Only available on Premium plan and above. Use this as a safety net. If an order hasn’t moved from processing to fulfilled after, say, 16 days, trigger an internal team alert (not customer-facing) so your team can investigate the issue before the customer complains.

6. Internal notifications

Within the Actions block, you can send notifications with different content to customers and organization members separately. Set up a parallel internal notification flow so your support and fulfillment teams are alerted when pre-booked orders are approaching or exceeding the 15-day window without fulfillment.

Learn more about Pre-Shipment Order Notifications and how you can configure them in AfterShip.

4. I want to set up an immediate alert for my support team whenever a customer leaves a rating of 3 or below at delivery. How can I do this?

• To set up real-time alerts for low delivery ratings, you need AfterShip Reviews app. Using the Shipment Review feature available within the Analytics section, you can schedule a notification to trigger whenever a customer submits a rating of 3 stars or below.

• If you want a quick overview of the shipment reviews that shoppers left on your tracking pages in the last 24 hours, you can configure internal notifications to send to yourself (owner and admins) and organization members.

Updated on: 10/03/2026