TABLE OF CONTENTS


Overview

This FAQ reviews how to manage order shipments and tracking. 


Order Shipment Management in general

  1. In CatchFeeder go to Settings ->Marketplace Name (ie. Catch) -> General.  
  2. Scroll down on this page to the Shipment Control Heading.  
  3. By default the setting 'DO NOT mark orders as shipped if carrier and tracking code is not provided' is ticked. To mark orders as shipped if there is no tracking info then un-tick this setting.  (You can hover over the contextual help question mark to the right of this setting to read the full explanation.)


Options for marking orders as shipped

Here are two different ways to mark shipment status.


Mark orders as shipped if carrier and tracking code is not provided

By default, once the order status is "Completed" in WooCommerce, we will mark it as shipped and tell the marketplace that the order is shipped, regardless of whether or not it has shipper and tracking code information.  


or


DO NOT mark an order as shipped unless carrier and tracking code is provided

If your business process is to mark the order as complete and then add this information then tick DO NOT mark an order as shipped unless carrier and tracking code is provided so that we will hold the order as pending until we see the shipping information, even if the order is "Completed". Please note if this is ticked and you do NOT provide tracking details your orders will remain as pending Shipment in the marketplace.


Adding channel information to a metadata field

From CatchFeeder, go to Settings-> Woocommerce2 Feed -> General - scroll down.


If you want the channel that the order has come from to be added into a metadata field in the order, add the metadata field name in the Marketplace channel field. You can then refer to this to separate out orders from different marketplaces in WooCommerce. 


From CatchFeeder under Settings-> Woocommerce2 Feed -> General. On the General page scroll to the Order Settings Section.


Adding Tracking and Carrier Information in WooCommerce

There is no standard method/data field to add Tracking and Carrier information within WooCommerce, but Marketplaces such as eBay, Catch and Amazon require this information.

As there is no standard method in WooCommerce, our solution relies on the shipment information being in one of two places.  Please check which one works for you!  These two places in Woocommerce are Order Notes OR Meta Data.


Using Order Notes- an example

As a first step, you will need to ensure your shipping plugin adds a note such as the example below to the Order Notes field in WooCommerce when the order is marked as shipped:


This order has been shipped with: Fastway. The Tracking Number is: QB000165979. The Url is: http://www.fastway.com.au/courier-services/track-your-parcel?l=QB000165979   


Using CatchFeeder Preformatted Rules

CatchFeeder has a table which has a number of preformatted rules which can extract the Tracking and Courier Information (or you can add your own).

The easiest option is to add the information using preformatted rules e.g. the preformatted Fastway au rule is


If your order notes were:

Track your order at https://fastway.com.au/courier-services/track-your-parcel?l=QB000165979

The Fastway rule above would see that fastway.com.au is in the text and that a tracking code could be extracted between '/track-your-parcel?l=' and the end of the text


If your Carrier and Tracking information is not being input in WooCommerce in exactly the same format as an existing rule, you can add or edit and existing rule in CatchFeeder.


In CatchFeeder click Settings, Woocommerce Feed, Tracking and Carrier.

To add a new rule scroll down and click Add a new rule.

To edit an existing custom rule click 'edit' at the right of the rule.


When adding a new rule a new window will open

Fill in / edit these details

  1. Rule is for carrier, add the carrier to which this rule is applicable.
  2. Priority, this is the order in which this rule will be used, the lower numbers will be used first.
  3. The text that identifies the carrier
  4. The text that identifies the start of the tracking code
  5. The text that identifies the end of the tracking code. This can be left empty if there is no text after the tracking code


  6. Hit "Save"



Sending Tracking using Meta Data

  1. If you are storing the shipper and the consignment shipping number in the order metadata instead you can go to
  2. CatchFeeder, Settings, WooCommerceFeed, General and make sure the Meta Data radio button is selected. 
  3. If you had to select it because it was Order Notes be sure to hit Update.
  4. Navigate to Settings, WooCommerce Feeds, Tracking and Carrier page to view the area where you will need to add your Meta Data values.
  5. If your order metadata contains the shipping information like this:
  6. "meta_data": [
        {
            "id": 16014655,
            "key": "_tracking_number",
            "value": "TEST"
        },
        {
            "id": 16014660,
            "key": "_tracking_company",
            "value": "Test"
        }
    ],
  7. You will need to enter these fields into the settings section in CatchFeeder Settings, WooCommerce Feed, Tracking and Carrier, Meta Data page.  The fields Shipper and Tracking Code will need to be completed.
  8. _tracking_number
  9. _tracking_company  E.G. below example
  10. If however, your data is more nested, like this:
  11. "meta_data": [
        {
            "id": 209889,
            "key": "wf_auspost_shipment_source",
            "value": {
                "shipment_id_cs": "33MNW0000104",
                "shipping_service": "australia-post",
                "order_date": "2019-05-01",
                "shipping_postcode": "4053"
            }
        }
    ],
  12. You will need to specify the path to the data, using ~~ to join the path elements together.  In this example, you would enter the following into the settings section:
  13. wf_auspost_shipment_source~~shipping_service
  14. wf_auspost_shipment_source~~shipment_id_cs