I know I’m not the only one and probably just overlooking it, but there seems to be no good way to update the order with freight tracking. Sure shopify have a list of shipping carriers, but none of them are for freight and 80% of our goods ship freight. So how do I update customers without having to go to “other” and look up the carriers tracking portal website and manually input it for 20 orders a day?
Is there a shipping plugin that integrates into the back end of the shopify orders page that I can quickly add a tracking so it goes through the conventional emails and etc?
You’re absolutely right — Shopify’s built-in “shipping carriers” list is mostly geared toward parcel carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.). For freight (LTL, FCL, FTL, third-party freight forwarders), there isn’t a great default “plug-and-play” flow, so many merchants end up doing workarounds (manual “Other” entries, custom emails, etc.).
But there are solutions (apps, middleware, or custom setups) that can make this process much smoother. Below are approaches + app suggestions + things to watch out for — and I’ll also highlight tradeoffs so you can pick what fits your workflow.
Use an Order Tracking / Shipment Tracking app that supports custom carriers: These apps let you push tracking into into the shopify order and automatically send notifications. Many support hundreds or thousands of carriers, and some allow “Custom carrier / custom tracking url“ entries so you can plug in your freight forwarder’s tracking link.
Examples:
AfterShip Order Tracking: It supports te1,100+ carriers, has branded tracking pages, Automated email/SMS notification.
Tracktor Order Tracking: It supports 1,700+ carriers, custom statuses, integrates directly into Shopify Admin.
Shipment Tracking & Notify (by PluginHive): Geared for Shopify; lets you send tracking numbers (but it might be too lightweight for freight needs).
By using any of the above suggested app you can ensure to have a solution regarding the issue of Freight Shipping.
If you need more help to integrate the app then you can reach me out.
Best,
I appreciate the response, but with all of those I still have to scroll to “other” and then find the freight carriers tracking link. Once I paste the tracking link then the plugins like aftership and etc take over tracking and emailing the customers. I’m not sure why shopify wouldn’t allow us to add others and then save them for future use as this is going to take a lot of time for our warehouse manager to have to manually search and input those daily.
Yes — and you’re 100% correct again.
That’s one of the biggest workflow pain points for anyone shipping freight or using smaller regional carriers in Shopify.
Shopify’s order admin is simply not built for recurring “Other carrier” tracking URLs — it never saves your custom carrier names or URLs, so your team ends up doing the same manual steps (scroll → Other → paste link) over and over. Even though you can use apps like AfterShip or PluginHive to handle the notifications and tracking pages, the data entry part remains painfully manual.
Let’s find the real solution.
Custom private app / script to save & reuse freight carriers:
You can use Shopify’s Admin API or GraphQL API to:
Automatically update orders with the proper carrier name + tracking URL
Store those carrier presets in a small custom dashboard for your warehouse team
**Bulk CSV upload with saved carrier rules: **
If you can export your daily shipment manifest (from your TMS or freight portal), you can set up a carrier mapping CSV like:
Order #
Carrier
Tracking #
1234
R+L Freight
987654
1235
XPO
112233
Then upload it to a tracking app (e.g., Tracktor, Shipway, or PluginHive).
The app automatically inserts URLs and updates Shopify orders in bulk — no manual clicking in the admin at all.
By using one of the above method you can easily fix your issue.
If you need help with building the private app then you can reach me out.
Thanks