Delivery Tracking Checklist

Daily order-to-delivery workflow for a DTC or marketplace operations team — covers order validation, pick-pack-ship, carrier handoff, tracking notifications, and exception handling for late or lost shipments.

Use this workflow
1

Order Processing

  1. Confirm order receipt in the OMS

    • Pull the order from Shopify, Amazon, eBay, or your OMS (Cin7, Skubana, ShipStation). Verify shipping address, line items, and any gift / subscription notes flowed through correctly. Address-validation failures and missing apartment numbers are the most common day-one fulfillment delays.

  2. Validate payment and fraud signals

    • Check Shopify / Stripe / Kount fraud score. Hold orders flagged for AVS mismatch, mismatched billing/shipping countries, or high-risk score for manual review before allocation. Chargebacks on shipped orders cost the merchandise plus the dispute fee.

    Collects list
  3. Manually review high-risk orders

    • Call the cardholder's bank for AVS confirmation, request ID for high-AOV orders, or cancel and refund. Document the decision in the order notes for chargeback defense.

  4. Allocate inventory and reserve stock

    • Reserve units against on-hand inventory in the OMS and decrement available counts across all sales channels (Shopify, Amazon FBM, eBay, Walmart). Overselling between channels is the most common cause of cancel-after-purchase emails and Amazon ODR hits.

  5. Send order confirmation to the customer

    • Confirmation triggers automatically from Shopify / Klaviyo. Spot-check that the order summary, expected ship window, and support contact rendered correctly — broken transactional emails drive a wave of CX tickets within hours.

2

Pick, Pack, and Dispatch

  1. Print pick lists and shipping labels

    • Batch labels in ShipStation, Shippo, or Pirate Ship using the rate-shopped carrier (USPS Ground Advantage, UPS Ground, FedEx Home, or regional). Confirm DIM weight on oversized items so labels don't get reweighed and adjusted by the carrier.

  2. Pick units against the pick list

    • Scan SKU/UPC at the bin to prevent the wrong-variant-shipped error that drives most preventable returns. For lot/expiration-tracked products (supplements, cosmetics under MoCRA, food), capture lot at pick.

  3. Inspect items for defects and accuracy

    • Check for cosmetic damage, missing components in multi-pack bundles, and correct variant (color, size). For fragile or hazmat SKUs, confirm prep matches carrier requirements.

  4. Pack items with appropriate dunnage

    • Match box size to product to avoid DIM-weight surcharges. Include the packing slip, any branded inserts (referral cards, review-request cards that comply with Amazon ToS for FBM orders), and protective material sized to the item's fragility.

  5. Hand off cartons to the carrier

    • Get the driver's signed end-of-day manifest with carton count. Without the signed manifest, lost-package claims with the carrier are nearly impossible to win.

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3

Tracking and Customer Notifications

  1. Push tracking numbers to all sales channels

    • Tracking must sync to Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Shopify within each marketplace's window — Amazon's Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) requires it within the promised ship date or account health drops. Confirm carrier code matches the tracking number format.

  2. Send shipping confirmation to the customer

    • Triggered via Klaviyo or AfterShip with a branded tracking page. Branded tracking pages reduce WISMO ("where is my order") tickets by 30-50% versus carrier-default tracking links.

  3. Monitor in-transit shipments daily

    • Pull the AfterShip / EasyPost / ShipStation exception report daily. Flag shipments stuck > 48 hours with no scan, delivery exceptions (address issue, refused, damaged), and weather/regional carrier delays.

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  4. Open carrier claims for stuck or lost packages

    • UPS and FedEx accept claims after 7 days no movement; USPS after 15 (Ground Advantage) or 21 (Priority). File with the signed manifest, packing slip, and product cost. For Shopify Shipping Insurance / Route / shipsurance, file through the platform instead.

  5. Send delivery confirmation and review request

    • Trigger Yotpo / Judge.me / Okendo review request 3-5 days post-delivery. For Amazon FBM orders, use Seller Central's "Request a Review" button only — off-platform incentivized review asks violate Amazon's Communication Guidelines and risk account suspension.

4

Customer Support and Returns

  1. Triage delivery tickets in Gorgias or Zendesk

    • Tag tickets by reason (lost, damaged, wrong item, late, refused). Aim for first-response under 4 business hours during normal volume; Amazon's response-time SLA on FBM messages is 24 hours including weekends.

  2. Issue replacements for lost or damaged orders

    • Pull replacement inventory and ship same-day with expedited service. Recover the cost via the carrier claim or shipping-insurance claim opened earlier — don't double-pay for the unit.

  3. Process RMAs through Loop or Returnly

    • Issue RMA with prepaid label, store credit incentive (typically +10-20% for credit vs. refund), and return reason capture. Reason codes feed the per-SKU returns analysis at month-end.

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  4. Refund or exchange per the returns policy

    • Refund within the policy window stated at checkout (typically 30 days). Late refunds drive chargebacks and CFPB / state AG complaints. For subscription orders, also pause or cancel the next billing cycle.

5

Post-Delivery Reconciliation

  1. Close out completed orders in the OMS

    • Mark orders fulfilled and reconcile actual ship cost vs. quoted. Carrier weight/DIM adjustments often appear 5-7 days post-ship and quietly erode margin if not tracked.

  2. Audit weekly delivery performance KPIs

    • Pull on-time delivery rate, late shipment rate, ODR (Amazon), VTR, refund rate, and per-carrier exception rate. Flag any metric that crossed an account-health threshold in Seller Central or eBay.

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  3. Document carrier or 3PL issues for the QBR

    • Log recurring problems (specific zone delays, FC mis-receives, carrier damage spikes) for the quarterly business review. This is leverage for rate negotiation and 3PL accountability.

  4. Roll improvements into next-cycle SOPs

    • Update pack instructions, carrier rate-shopping rules, or fraud thresholds based on the week's data. Close the loop so the same exception type doesn't repeat next cycle.