The Complete Guide to Magento Shipping Tracking [2025]

Magento, designed for intermediate to enterprise-level e-commerce, offers powerful customization and scalability. However, when it comes to shipping tracking, many merchants find themselves at a crossroads: 

1. Use Magento’s native shipping tracking features
2. Install extensions from Adobe Commerce Marketplace
3. Integrate professional third-party shipment tracking software

Each option offers different capabilities and complexities. In this guide, we’ll explore Magento shipping tracking solutions in detail, helping you make an informed decision for your business needs.

How does Magento Native Shipping Tracking Work?

Magento offers shipping tracking capabilities for four major carriers: UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL, allowing merchants and customers to conveniently track their orders on the platform.

Essentially, Magento has already built connections with these carriers through their APIs to pull tracking data. Merchants only need to sign up for carrier accounts and enter their key information (like API keys, account numbers, etc.) in the Magento platform to activate this functionality.

So, how do you configure these supported carriers for your store? How to create and track the shipments on Magento? To demonstrate the process, let’s take UPS as an example. 

Meet Jenny, who runs a pottery studio in New York. One of her customers has specifically requested UPS shipping, and she wants to set up this shipping option. Below is the typical process she should follow.

Step 1: Open a UPS shipping account

Before setting up UPS shipping on Magento, Jenny must sign up for a UPS account. Once that’s done, she needs to request API credentials from UPS, including the access key, UPS ClientID, and UPS Client Secret. She’ll also need to note the gateway URL (for API integration) and tracking URL (for shipment tracking access) provided by UPS.

Step 2: Enable UPS in Magento

With the UPS account created and API credentials ready, it’s time to enable the carrier in Magento. Jenny should:

1. Log in to her store’s Magento admin panel
2. Go to Stores > Settings > Configuration
3. Choose UPS as Delivery Methods
4. Set Enabled for Checkout to Yes

Step 3: Configure UPS API for shipping and tracking

Now that Jenny has enabled UPS for her store, she must proceed to enter the API credentials to automate the shipping process and enable UPS package tracking. Let’s walk through the exact steps she needs to follow to complete this setup.

1. Type in the UPS API credentials: UPS ClientID as User ID, UPS Client Secret as Password
2. Set Mode to Live to send data to the UPS shipping system over a secure connection (Development mode does not send data over a secure connection.)
3. Verify the Gateway URL required to send requests. Use a sandbox URL (https://wwwcie.ups.com/) for test mode and a production URL (https://onlinetools.ups.com) for live requests
4. Verify the Tracking URL using the same domain pattern as the Gateway URL. Make sure to use the respective endpoints for each request with the given host
5. Enter the Origin of the Shipment. In Jenny’s case, the shipments originated in the United States
6. At this point, Jenny can Enable Negotiated Rates if her store has special rates with UPS
7. Set the Live Account to Yes to run UPS in production mode and offer the shipping method to her customers

It’s worth noting that besides the four major carriers (USPS, UPS, DHL, and FedEx) natively supported in Magento, merchants can also add custom carrier partners that better suit their specific shipping needs. For detailed guidance on adding custom carriers, click here to learn more.

2. Creating and Tracking Shipments in Magento

After configuring UPS shipping, Jenny must first create shipments on the order page before tracking them. She has two ways to track shipments in Magento.

Using the Order Page

1. At the admin panel, Jenny should go to Sales > Orders
2. Then click View in the Action column for the order requiring UPS shipping
3. Click Ship to create the shipment
4. Scroll down to Payment and Shipping Method and click Add Tracking Number
5. Set the Carrier to UPS and enter the tracking Number
6. Finally, click Track Order

Note: If you want to track orders from a custom carrier not included in the default options, you can set Carrier to Custom Value, enter Title for the custom carrier, and enter the tracking Number. All this should be based on the configuration done previously.

Using the Shipment Page

Jenny can also use this alternative method if she’s created the order shipment on the order page. The tracking information can be edited as follows.

1. At the admin panel, go to Sales > Shipments
2. Find and open the shipment requiring UPS shipping in edit mode
3. Scroll down to Payment and Shipping Method
4. Select UPS as the Carrier
5. Enter the tracking Number and click Add
6. Finally, click Track this Shipment (should be in edit mode)

Also, Jenny can click Send Tracking Information to send her customer an email with the tracking number and shipping status.

Streamlining with Shipping Labels 

While the methods above work well, Jenny can further automate the process using Magento’s shipping label feature, which automatically generates tracking numbers for orders:

1. First, she should ensure her UPS account is configured to support labels
2. Once set up, Magento can automatically connect to UPS, submit the order information, and retrieve both a shipping label and tracking number in one step

To create shipping labels for new shipments:

1. At the admin panel, go to Sales > Orders
2. Open an order with a Pending or Processing status
3. Click Ship in the upper-right corner
4. Confirm shipping details as required by UPS
5. Select Create Shipping Label at the bottom right
6. Click Submit Shipment and OK

For existing shipments:

1. From her Admin sidebar, go to Sales > Operations > Orders
2. Identify the UPS order in the grid and open its shipping form
3. Click the Create Shipping Label option under the Shipping and Tracking Information section
4. Assign the customer’s orders to the appropriate packages and click OK
5. She can then click Show Packages to review the package information

This approach eliminates the need for Jenny to manually enter tracking numbers for each order. Any new tracking numbers are added to existing ones rather than replacing them.

Once Jenny has shipped the pottery order, her customer can track it by going to My Orders > View Order > Track Shipment in their account.

Is Magento Native Shipping Tracking Enough for Your Business?

Yes, if your business resembles Jenny’s Pottery Studio. 

If you process up to 50 orders a month, ship exclusively via UPS and FedEx, and your customers are satisfied with email notifications, then Magento’s basic tracking is enough.

Let’s look at what Magento’s native tracking offers.

Key Features of Magento Native Shipping Tracking

• Integrates with four major carriers: DHL, UPS, USPS, and FedEx
• Links tracking numbers to customer orders
• Supports adding custom shipping carriers
• Supports multiple tracking numbers per shipment
• Notifies customers of shipment status via Email
• Customers can track orders from their accounts

While small to medium-sized businesses may find these out-of-the-box features sufficient, businesses should determine whether this solution meets their specific needs based on shipping volume and complexity.

Larger operations or businesses with complex shipping requirements will likely need more advanced solutions that offer wider carrier support, visual dashboards for monitoring real-time shipment statuses, advanced analytics for carrier performance evaluation, and more customized customer notifications.

Additionally, dependency on carrier APIs creates vulnerability to updates, as seen with the recent UPS OAuth 2.0 security requirements change. When carriers update their systems, Magento merchants may need to apply patches to maintain functionality—adding another layer of consideration when evaluating tracking solutions.

For businesses whose needs extend beyond Magento’s native capabilities, let’s explore additional tracking options available for Magento platforms.

Magento 2 Shipment Tracking Extensions

Magento 2, the current version of the platform, offers a marketplace with specialized extensions that can significantly enhance your store’s shipping tracking capabilities. These purpose-built solutions address many of the limitations we’ve discussed with the native tracking system.

Key Features of Magento 2 Shipment Tracking Extensions

• Order status sync with Magento
• Multi-carrier tracking support
• Real-time tracking updates
• Branded tracking pages
• Automatic email and SMS notifications
• Advanced shipment analytics

These extensions offer improved order tracking capabilities while maintaining seamless integration with your existing Magento store. 

Imagine a dashboard where you can monitor all order statuses at a glance. Even managing thousands of shipments becomes straightforward.

When shipping exceptions occur, customers automatically receive notifications. No manual intervention is needed. The entire process is automated, which is especially valuable for managing problematic shipments.

Create branded tracking emails and self-service tracking pages featuring your logo, color scheme, and consistent messaging that reinforce your company identity. The tracking pages also bring customers back to your site where you can showcase new products and generate additional sales.

When to Use Dedicated Shipment Tracking Software?

However, when order volumes grow, basic extensions struggle to track hundreds or thousands of shipments effectively. For larger businesses that ship 1,000 orders daily or companies selling across multiple channels, a more powerful shipment tracking solution is necessary.

Dedicated shipment tracking software provides robust API connections that retrieve tracking data for thousands of packages in real time. These software solutions also provide webhook notifications that deliver instant updates to business internal systems, helping identify exceptions before they become problems.

Beyond this, dedicated tracking solutions always integrate with significantly more carriers, including major services as well as regional and international providers that most extensions don’t support.

Let’s explore the key features of such a professional tracking solution.

Key Features of Shipment Tracking Software

• Extensive carrier support across global and regional services
• API solutions for efficient bulk order tracking
• Webhook notifications for real-time status updates
• Customizable branded tracking experience for your customers
• Compatibility with existing systems like ERPs and TMS
• Integration with multiple eCommerce platforms

With these capabilities, you gain a more reliable tracking experience while automating your shipment operations. You can manage shipments from Magento, Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and other platforms in one central system—creating a truly one-stop approach to shipment management.

Making an Informed Choice!

To help you better understand the differences between various tracking options, let’s examine how Magento’s native tracking compares to marketplace extensions and dedicated shipment tracking software.

Key Features	Magento native shipping tracking	Magento marketplace extensions	Dedicated shipment tracking software
Carriers integration	4 main carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL)	100+ popular carriers	1000+ carriers worldwide
Basic tracking	√	√	√
Real-time tracking	×	√	√
Shipment dashboard	×	√	√
Email notification	√	√	√
SMS notification	×	√	√
Branded tracking page	×	√	√
Shipment tracking API	×	×	√
Webhook notification	×	×	√
Custom tracking rate	×	×	√
Multi-channel tracking capabilities	×	×	√

Choose TrackingMore as your Shipment Tracking Partner!

TrackingMore delivers an enterprise-grade shipment tracking solution that stands above the competition. Our powerful tracking API sets us apart, delivering highly accurate, lightning-fast, and consistently reliable tracking data across thousands of carriers worldwide.

SHEIN relies on TrackingMore to monitor millions of daily shipments across its vast fashion empire. Similarly, AliExpress depends on TrackingMore’s robust infrastructure to provide reliable tracking for its massive marketplace of international sellers.

With over 10 years of specialized experience in shipment tracking, TrackingMore has built an impressive record:

• Serving 10,000+ international businesses
• Tracking more than 3 billion packages successfully
• Integrating with 1,300+ carriers worldwide

TrackingMore provides true global tracking coverage regardless of destination, ensuring your customers always know where their packages are.

Upgrade your Tracking Service Now!

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