Set Up In-Pickup Tracking Notifications

Overview

AfterShip’s Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS), or In-Store Pickup Tracking enables customers to track when and where they pick up their orders originally bought online.

Additionally, you can send prompt trigger emails and SMS notifications to customers when their order status updates, such as when the order is ready for pickup and picked up, ensuring clear communication. These updates allow customers the time to go through the pick instructions and prepare for the pickup.

Before you start

• You should be on the Enterprise plan.
• The feature is available for Shopify and AfterShip Commerce API users.
• In-store pickup tracking is a paid add-on that needs to be enabled separately. Please get in touch with your customer success manager for assistance and activation.
• Enable the in-store pickup option for your store locations at checkout through your Shopify settings. For more information on in-store pickup tracking activation, order import, and status mapping, refer to this guide.

What you’ll learn

In this tutorial, we will show you:

• In-store pickup order notifications triggers
• How to create in-store pickup order notifications flow
• Special email sections for each in-store pickup notifications
• FAQs
• Additional resources

In-store pickup order notifications triggers

AfterShip employs predefined fulfillment status codes to trigger notifications for in-store pickups.

How to create in-store pickup order notifications flow

Step 1: Create a new flow

1. Go to Notifications > Flows in your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard.
2. Click Create flow.

4. From the available standard in-store pickup trigger flows— Order placed, Order processed, Ready for pickup, Picked up, and Order canceled, select the flow template for which you want to customize the trigger logic and email/SMS notifications content and click Create.

• If you want to create in-store pickup order notifications flow for standard and custom triggers from scratch, click Create from scratch, select the Trigger, and click Create.

Step 2: Customize your notification flow

In the flow editor, you can edit the following sections:

1. Flow name: In this section, you can enter a suitable name for the flow.
2. Logic: This section consists of 3 blocks:

• Trigger split: Trigger splits are the conditions that are highly related to the Trigger event and will split into Yes and No paths.
• Conditional split: Conditional splits are the general conditions and will split into Yes and No paths.

Learn more about conditional split filters and definitions.

• Random split (A/B test): In this block, you can randomly split your recipients into two groups (A and B) so that you can send different notifications and evaluate which one has the maximum engagement.

3. Timing: This section consists of 2 blocks:

• Time delay: Set the waiting period between the previous step and the next step in the flow. Configuration options for the Time delay include, X minutes, X hours, and X days.
• Trigger status unchanged: In this block, you can set the duration for which the trigger status remains unchanged as a condition to move on to the next step.

4. Actions: In this section, you have Send email and Send SMS blocks. You can decide how you want to notify your customers or your organization’s members. You can also choose to send notifications with different content to your customers and your organization’s members separately.

To customize the general settings, messaging, and style of your email template, check this guide.

5. Flow trigger settings: On the right-hand side, you’ll see a Trigger event for which you can customize the settings. In case you want to send precise updates to specific customers, use the filters given in the trigger field.

• Trigger filters: In this section, you can add additional filters to determine what triggers this flow.
• Flow filters: This filter applies to the entire flow and is checked before every step. Customers must meet these filter conditions to stay in the flow.

Get more information on Trigger and flow filters here.

• Trigger frequency

Trigger frequency controls how often the same pickup order is allowed to start this flow again. When enabled, it prevents customers from receiving duplicate or repeated notifications if the trigger condition occurs multiple times for the same order. You can select between the following options:

1. If the trigger frequency is enabled

a. Pickups can re-trigger this flow after

• You set a gap period (for example, 1 day).
• Once a pickup order triggers this flow, it cannot trigger again until that time period has passed.
• After the gap period ends, the order is allowed to re-enter the flow if the trigger conditions are met again.
• You can choose the gap period in:

a. Days (starting at 12:00 am)

b. Hours

c. Minutes

This gives you flexibility depending on how time-sensitive the pickup notification is.

Example: If you set pickups to re-trigger this flow after 1 day, an order that triggers a "Ready for pickup" notification today will not trigger it again until the next day, even if the pickup status is updated or re-qualifies.

b. Pickups can never re-trigger this flow

If this option is selected, each pickup order can only enter this flow once, even if:

• The pickup status changes or is updated multiple times
• The trigger conditions (if applied) become true again

The customer will not receive this notification again for the same order.

2. If the trigger frequency is disabled

The same pickup order can trigger the flow multiple times, meaning customers may receive duplicate notifications whenever the in-store pick-up order status updates.

6. Once all the settings are done. Click on the Enabled under the Status.
7. Click Save on the top right corner of the dashboard.

Step 3: Customize email content

1. To customize the content of the flow email, click the {...} icon directly on the email block on the preview window and click Edit.
2. Select how you would like to create/edit email content from the dropdown menu at the top of the email editor.

• Easy email editor (Legacy)
• Advanced email editor
• Basic email editor
• HTML editor

Special email sections for in-store pickup notifications

To customize the template of your in-store pickup orders email notification which follows the same process like other tracking notifications, get all details in this email customization guide.

Apart from the standard sections that each notification hosts to provide relevant shipment and order information to customers, there are certain pre-built sections specific to each in-store pickup order flow that are supported to provide additional information to customers once their order status is updated to that specific status.

These pre-built sections are only available in drag-and-drop and easy email editor for customization in each flow.

Let’s look at each one of those sections in detail.

1. Order placed/order cancelled notifications

2. Order processing notification

3. Order ready for pickup notification

4. Order picked up notification

5. Order {Custom status} notification

Step 4: Customize SMS content

The SMS notification settings page allows you to configure and customize the SMS sent to customers when their in-store pickup order is placed, processed, ready for pick-up or cancelled. Based on the event trigger, the subsequent SMS will be sent.

To customize the content of the flow email, click the {...} icon directly on the SMS block on the preview window of the flow editor and click Edit. On the SMS notification editor, configure the following settings

1. Compliance and settings:

To send tracking updates and important notifications to customers, you are required to go through a compliant SMS setup

• Set up an active sender number by selecting supported regions, providing company and contact information, defining their SMS use case, and confirming TCPA/GDPR compliance. 
• Sender numbers are assigned based on the destination country, with an AfterShip branded sender ID used in certain regions.
• Once enabled, you can manage subscription keywords (START/STOP), customize opt-out messages by language and region, enable URL shortening, and schedule messages using quiet hours based on the recipient’s timezone. These settings help ensure regulatory compliance while giving customers clear control over their SMS preferences.

For more information, refer to this article 

2.  Enable SMS  quite hours

If quiet hours are enabled, the SMS will not be sent during restricted times. Instead, it will be delivered during the next allowed sending window.

3. SMS name

This name is for your reference only and will not be shown to customers.

4. Customize SMS content

You can customize the SMS text using the message editor. The editor supports dynamic variables, such as:

• *|ORGANIZATION_NAME|*– your store name
• *|TRACKING_URL|* – a live tracking page for the order

These variables automatically populate for each customer, allowing one message template to work for all shipments. You incorporate (retrieve) new variables from the list to add additional information regarding the customer order or shipment by clicking the {...} option. 

• To further comply with SMS regulations, you can include the opt-out instructions such as Reply STOP to unsubscribe to provide customers greater flexibility over what notifications they would like to receive.

5. Send a test SMS with the option to choose mock or real data to see how the notification would look like to customers.

6. Save the changes if everything if as per your requirements.

FAQs

1. If an order contains multiple items processed separately, will status changes for each group of items trigger individual notifications? Does the trigger frequency affect notifications for each group?

Yes, notifications will be triggered separately for each group of item status changes. The trigger frequency is applied within each group of fulfillment, meaning each group of items will not trigger additional notifications due to re-trigger flow. The system does not cross-check status updates between different fulfillment groups.

2. How can I customize my email layout for pickup information if I don’t want to use the pre-built email section?

You can create a custom email layout for pickup information by using merge tags. These tags allow you to dynamically insert specific details into your email template, such as pickup time, pickup location name, pickup address, pickup location opening hours, and pickup instructions.

3. What happens if there is no value for certain pickup info fields?

If certain pickup information fields are empty, the field label will be hidden in the pre-built email section. For emails using pickup info merge tags, these tags will be replaced with a blank space when no value is available.

4. Why are there no in-store pickup notification triggers available in my account?

In-store pickup notification triggers are only available to users on AfterShip Tracking Enterprise plans. If you're on a lower plan, these triggers will not be accessible.

5. Why am I not seeing any ‘Processing’ notifications in my account?

Shopify currently does not support the "Processing" status for pre-shipment notifications.Therefore, you will not be able to use notifications for the processing in-store pickup order status.

Additional resources

• How to Set Up Custom Fulfillment Statuses
• Use AI to Translate and Generate Email & SMS Content
• How to Test Your Email or SMS Before Sending

Updated on: 24/02/2026