How AfterShip will help you keep track of your eCommerce orders

Introduction

For any business, the customer comes first. The same principle applies to e-commerce businesses. With the advancements in technology, e-commerce businesses have been focusing on providing the customers with a shopping experience as close to shopping at a physical store as possible.

To give these convenience and post-purchase features to their customers, companies use software like Aftership. 

Aftership has various APIs that focus on different parts of the delivery process and customize it to suit the needs of the customers.

The software allows you to avoid the technical hassle of having to develop these features. Instead, it will enable you to provide these features through a single click integration and centralize your order management from various sales channels. 

Aftership API is the comprehensive solution that optimizes your fulfillment operations. While the software does provide integrations with over 987 carrier partners, the software isn’t a preferred industry choice for finding a better solution for shipping management software.

The software is quite popular with e-commerce merchants and businesses with their platforms and takes advantage of the different platforms to boost their sales.

However, the software does have some drawbacks when it comes to tracking updates and user interface. Therefore, before you decide whether Aftership is the right solution for the business, let’s look at the software and its features.

Aftership: Introduction

Aftership is a delivery management software that focuses on delivering a seamless post-purchase experience to your customers. This includes the real-time tracking of their orders, hassle-free returns, and much more.

The software allows you to provide all these features through API integration. Another advantage of using this software is that Aftership will enable you to ensure your shipments at discounted rates, so you don’t face any unnecessary losses.

The Aftership Tracking API has integrated with 987 courier partners, which provide a seamless tracking experience for you and your customers. This seamless tracking experience comes in handy to ensure optimal order management.

Apart from the tracking API, Aftership has other APIs which come with the product. Along with the tracking API, the Aftership software provides a plethora of other features that allow you to automate and optimize the order fulfillment process on your platform. 

The software has multiple APIs that allow you to automate several manual tasks that are tedious. This eliminates manual errors and ensures that your order fulfillment process is efficient and accurate. 

While Aftership allows you to pick from over 987 carriers, the software also allows you to use its carrier selection algorithm for more intelligent selections. The software enables you to build a returning customer base with regular notifications being sent to the customers. 

Aftership has various features that enable the companies to grow and scale. Let’s take a look at the main features of the Aftership software and understand why it is a popular choice. 

Aftership Tracking

Aftership has a dedicated tracking API that allows you to get regular, insightful tracking updates. The real-time updates on the tracking page will enable you to reduce the WISMO calls on your website.

The insights provided by the tracking API will enable you to customize your deliveries and post-purchase experience according to customer demand. This increases the customer engagement on your platform to increase your ROI.

The reduced stress on the customer service team allows them to focus on the customer's need for their intervention. 

Aftership Tracking API allows you to deliver a customized branded tracking experience on your website. The branded tracking page can also reduce your customer acquisition costs by enabling cross-selling abilities on your branded tracking page.

The branded tracking page also helps in improving brand awareness and builds a returning loyal customer base. The branded tracking page provides customers with up-to-date information about the whereabouts of their orders. The customer has to come to your app or website to track their order, which increases post-purchase engagement. 

The Aftership API also comes with a notify feature. The feature allows you to send updates to the customer through SMS, e-mail, and Facebook. Regular communication about the orders helps build brand trust and adds channels through which you can drive sales.

However, Aftership Reviews show that the tracking API of the software is buggy and prone to frequent glitches. This can hamper the entire tracking feature of your website and impede your fulfillment operations if you do not know the exact whereabouts of your parcel. 

Aftership Returns

Returns are an integral part of the modern-day e-commerce experience. For a seamless returns experience, Aftership has a unique tracking management API. The API allows you to provide a branded returns experience to your customers for better brand awareness.

The Aftership API has been integrated with over 17+ carriers for easier return label printing. The integrated dashboard allows for better returns management and ensures an efficient supply chain operation. 

The Aftership Returns API also allows you to notify the customers about their return status, creating a hassle-free return experience. You can even set parameters for the return route to ensure that your parcels are being returned to the right place at minimal costs. 

Aftership also allows you to automate the return request acceptance process. However, other Aftership alternatives like ClickPost will enable you to automate the entire return process.

Along with that, Aftership also does not have any shipping delays and exception handling services to reduce the number of failed deliveries and RTO orders. Reviews of Aftership show that the product does not allow enough customization on the branded tracking page to align the return request page with the brand message and theme. 

Aftership API

One of the most significant assets of the Aftership service software is its API. The Aftership API is one of the best on the market,, with 99.9% uptime with a 10% refund guarantee.

The reliable API has been integrated with over 987 carriers for a single-window shipping and tracking experience. The integrated tracking dashboard of the software and the multi-user accessibility of the API equip your customer support team and your order tracking page with ample information to ensure effective communication between the business and the customers. 

As the Aftership API is excellent in creating custom-tailored branded experiences according to the customer's needs, the API is preferred by businesses who want to establish a returning loyal customer base.

The software has the ISO 27001 certification,, which shows the capabilities of the platform as an enterprise-grade platform. With 24x7 customer support and integration with 30+ e-commerce marketplaces, the Aftership API makes an ideal companion for e-commerce merchants and businesses with multiple sales channels. 

The Aftership API provides actionable insights into your fulfillment operations. The insights allow you to understand customer behavior and product perception with your customers to tailor your product and services to suit their needs better.

With data-driven decisions, you can increase your revenue as you can pinpoint the problems in your product and services better. 

While analyzing the user experience of the software, we found that even though the API offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, the API frequently experiences downtime. The customer support team of the software isn’t very responsive and can leave you stranded at crucial moments. 

Issues While Using Aftership

To get an honest and comprehensive review of Aftership to you, we studied the user reviews on various review platforms and talked to industry experts about the products. This research revealed some specific challenges with the software that can hamstring the benefits you expected from using the software. Some of the common challenges are: 

1) New Integrations

Although the Aftership software has a lot of carriers and platforms integrated within the software, multiple reviews of Aftership show that the platform struggles with new integrations.

The complexity of the API can slow down new integrations with platforms and carriers. Therefore, if you are looking to add a new platform or a new page while using Aftership,, you may have to wait a while for it to become a reality. 

2) Buggy Tracking

Since tracking has become a vital part of the modern e-commerce experience, the tracking feature of your platform has to be impeccable. However, the AfterShip Tracking API is not the most reliable tracking API. 

Multiple Aftership reviews show that tracking information is not continually pushed on the platforms, and shipments can go dark for days. Customers complained that their shipments were sent with the wrong courier, and they could not track shipments that they were paying to track. 

3) No Customer Feedback

Even though Aftership software highlights that it allows you to build brand trust and loyalty, there is no provision to collect customer feedback. You can tweak your website and product accordingly to suit the needs of your consumers. Customer feedback can be important while scaling as it provides valuable insights into the customer experience. 

4) Unresponsive Customer Service

While the Aftership website states that it provides 24x7 customer services, multiple reviews of Aftership show that the customer service is subpar at best. There is no phone number to contact customer support, and tickets can be raised through emails only. The CS team takes time to respond to queries, and requests leaving businesses helpless during the interim. 

Aftership Pricing

Now that we have an idea of the advantages and disadvantages of using Aftership API let’s look at the pricing plans of Aftership.

Aftership has four pricing plans, and you can choose anyone according to your order volumes and other requirements. You may have to pay a little extra if you choose to subscribe for just a month. If you subscribe yearly, the four basic pricing plans are - 

1) Free Plan

You can manage and ship with Aftership for free for up to 50 shipments per month. The free plan is ideal for starting businesses to see how delivery management software can add value to their fulfillmentt operations.

With the Aftership free plan, you can access all of their 987 carriers and create an integrated branded tracking page. It also allows you to provide a track button on your platform that allows the customer to track their orders without looking for the tracking information. 

2) Essentials Plan

The Aftership Essentials pricing plan is for companies and individuals who typically see an order volume of 1200 to 12000 shipments per year. Depending on the order volume you handle, the price of the essentials plan can range from 9$ to 49$. 

The 24x7 email support from Aftership allows you to ensure that you get the necessary help when needed. With the Aftership Essentials plan, you can notify your customers about their orders through emails and SMS.

You also access analytical insights into your shipping performance and customer engagement metrics. But, some reviews show Aftership does not have the most responsive technical support. 

3) Pro Plan

With the Aftership Pro Pricing plan, you can avail their services for 24,000 to 300,000 shipments per year. Depending on your order volume, the Pro plan will cost you anywhere between 99$ to 999$. If your order amount exceeds the limit, you will be charged an additional 0.08$ per order. 

The Pro plan gives you access to all the features included in the free and essentials plan. Apart from that, the Aftership API allows you to create dynamic tracking pages in multiple languages to give a personalized custom tracking experience to each of your customers.

You get to remove the Aftership branding and place your branding to strengthen your brand and access Aftership’s 24x7 live chat support in case of emergencies. With product recommendations and Tracking API, the Pro plan becomes ideal for companies looking to increase their revenue. 

4) Enterprise Plan

If you handle over 300,000 shipments per year, Aftership has an enterprise plan for you. The pricing structure of this plan would depend on the kind of orders and features you choose to incorporate from Aftership.

It allows you to even negotiate independent SLA terms with its carriers so that you have a financially optimized shipping solution through Aftership. 

With the Aftership Enterprise plan, you get a dedicated account manager that is available at the call to help you with any issues. You get a customized API that is more suited to your needs, and custom integrations for specialized features catering to the needs of your customer.

Most of the Aftership reviews suggest that the pricing plans of Aftership do not keep it financially feasible as you continue to scale. You can try some other popular AfterShip alternatives and competitors and get the best possible price and features on demand for your online store.

Conclusion

Aftership is an ideal delivery management solution for e-commerce businesses that are looking to focus on customer engagement. The software allows you to enhance the post-purchase experience on your platform without having to compromise the shipping services.

With 987 carriers under its API, Aftership Shipping services has one of the largest carrier libraries on the market. With independent APIs and services for handling Returns, Tracking and Post-purchase experience, Aftership allows you to automate every aspect of your fulfillment process. 

However, customer reviews suggest that Aftership may not provide all the features that it promises on the product pages. The pricing structure becomes quite steep as you begin to scale your operations. You may have to take a look at other Aftership alternatives like ClickPost to see if there is a solution that suits your needs.