The shipping confirmation email, and the flow that follows the parcel to the door
The emails between paying and opening the box: dispatched, out for delivery, delivered. Dull to build. They're what a customer checks first when the parcel's late.
- 121Shipping Confirmation Flow
- A sequence of 1-3 emails updating customers on their order’s shipping progress. The first email typically confirms that the order has been shipped, including a tracking link and estimated delivery date. Follow-up emails might alert customers when the order is out for delivery or has been successfully delivered.
- Usually sends
- One to three emails: dispatched, out for delivery, delivered
- Triggered by
- Fulfilled Order from Shopify, then delivery events where the carrier provides them
- Counts as
- A transactional email, as long as it doesn't start selling
- Smart Sending
- Off. Nobody should miss a tracking link because of a promotion
What each shipping email is for, and the event that sends it
| Sent when | What it carries | |
|---|---|---|
| Dispatched | The order's marked as fulfilled | The tracking link, the carrier and an honest delivery estimate |
| Out for delivery | The carrier says it's on the van | That it's arriving today, and what happens if nobody's in |
| Delivered | The carrier marks it delivered | Where it was left, and who to tell if it wasn't |
In Klaviyo those map to Shopify events: Fulfilled Order for the first, then Marked Out for Delivery and Delivered Shipment. There's also Fulfilled Partial Order, for orders that ship in more than one box. Without it, the first email waits until the last box has left.
Why the delivery updates depend on your carrier
Blame the carrier, not Klaviyo. It only receives the out for delivery and delivered events if Shopify has them, and Shopify only gets them from certain carriers. Klaviyo's help centre says so plainly. If your carrier doesn't pass them on, the flow is one email long, and that's fine.
So check the events are arriving before you design the other two emails. Some shops plug a tracking app into Klaviyo for more detail, like a delay or a failed delivery. That earns its place if parcels go missing often enough to keep your customer service inbox busy. It doesn't earn it for a prettier version of the same email.
What to keep out of a shipping email, and where it goes instead
Keep it a service message. That's what lets it reach every customer, including the ones who never agreed to marketing, and it's what Klaviyo checks before it'll approve the email as transactional. A discount, or a product they haven't bought, ends both.
- Leave out discounts. Somebody who's just paid doesn't need paying again
- Leave out other products. They haven't opened this one yet
- Put in the returns route and a real contact, because that's what a worried customer looks for
- Use the delivered event as the start line for whatever comes next
That last one matters more than it looks. Delivered is the honest moment to start a review request, and a useful check for anything in the post purchase flow that assumes the parcel has landed.
Related terms
FAQs
Should shipping confirmations come from Shopify or Klaviyo?
Either, as long as only one of them sends. Shopify's notifications work out of the box and look like Shopify. Sending from Klaviyo lets them match the rest of your email and feed the flows that come after, but each message needs Klaviyo's approval as transactional, and Klaviyo's advice is to turn off the platform's version first so nobody gets two.
Can I add a discount code to a shipping confirmation email?
You can, but it stops being a service message. A discount is promotional, so the email starts needing marketing consent, and Klaviyo won't treat it as transactional. The customer's just paid you, so there's nothing to win back yet. Save the offer for the post purchase flow, where the second order is the whole point.
Why isn't my delivered email sending?
Usually because the event never arrives. Klaviyo only gets out for delivery and delivered updates from Shopify when the carrier provides them, and not every carrier does. Look for Delivered Shipment in your Klaviyo metrics. If it isn't there, the flow has nothing to fire on, and a tracking app or a shorter flow is the fix.
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