AfterShip Integration
AfterShip is an alternative to the manual method of tracking shipment deliveries. With rapidly growing businesses having tens and thousands of packages flying out everyday, it’s not feasible to follow up on the position of every single one of them.
Luckily, things have gotten a lot easier! Consider your job done the moment you send out the courier, as the new AfterShip integration with Zoho Inventory not only facilitates automated shipment tracking but also periodically intimates the status of the shipment till it reaches your customer’s door step.
Guide Layout
- Why choose AfterShip?
- The way it works
- Establishing the integration
- Instant activation
- Connecting your AfterShip account
- Tracking a manual shipment
- Viewing the Shipment Status
- Deactivating the integration
Why choose AfterShip?
You get more than one reason for why you should integrate with AfterShip.
- It supports tracking of over 400+ international couriers worldwide.
- It keeps you, as well as your customers apprised on the position of the shipment by sending out push notifications via e-mail or SMS. Thus, increasing trust and customer retention.
- It lifts the excess workload off your shoulder and automatically fetches and updates the realtime shipment statuses in Zoho Inventory.
The way it works
Upon creating a trackable shipment in Zoho Inventory, AfterShip transmits the tracking ID to the appropriate shipping carrier, from whom the status details of the particular shipment is fetched and updated on a regular basis within Zoho Inventory. It also simultaneously notifies your customers on the whereabouts of their shipment via email and SMS.
Establishing the integration
- Sign in to your Zoho Inventory account.
- Navigate to Integrations module either on the side bar or under Settings.
- Open Shipment Tracking.
- There are two ways in which you can integrate with AfterShip:
1) Instant Activation
Don’t have an AfterShip account? We’ve got you covered!
Click the Activate Now button to establish the integration in an instant. Requires no sign ups, account verification or other intricate procedures.
Benefit: The charges to avail this service will be included as part of the Zoho Inventory subscription plan.
Note: Zoho Inventory shares only the shipment tracking ID, carrier name and shipper account number (for selective carriers) with AfterShip. In this case, you will receive all the shipment related notifications via email through Zoho Inventory and not AfterShip. This will help safeguard the personally identifiable information of your clients.
2) Connect your AfterShip account
Already with AfterShip? Excellent. It just takes a couple more steps to get started.
- Click the Connect my AfterShip account button.
- Paste the API key in this space and proceed to connect.
- You can generate the API key by following the procedure as stated in this link.
Benefits:
- In your AfterShip account, you can view the list of shipments that are marked for tracking.
- You will be able to send both email and SMS notification to your customers.
- You can customize your email and SMS content as you see fit.
Note: If you have your own AfterShip account integrated, the charges incurred for availing this service will be settled by you as a direct payment to AfterShip.
On tracking a shipment in Zoho Inventory, details such as your contact information, your customer’s contact information, the shipment details as well as your shipper account number (for selective carries) will be shared with AfterShip. In this case, you and your customers will receive all shipment related updates directly from AfterShip. Duly note that Zoho Inventory is not responsible for any information shared post integrating with AfterShip.
Tracking a manual shipment
Once the integration is successful, you can start keeping your deliveries in check.
Important Note: Please be informed that this integration is meant for tracking manual shipments only.
- Open a confirmed sales order.
- Go to Create and select Ship >> Ship Manually. A New Shipment page opens up.
- Check the option that says ‘Track this shipment in real-time?’. Doing so will populate all the AfterShip supported professional carriers.
- Find and select the appropriate carrier and enter the Tracking ID provided by them.
- Specify the contact details of the customer to which the status notifications should be sent.
- Fill up any other essential details and hit Save to create a package slip with the tracking ID and shipment details.
If you would like to enable tracking for the untracked shipments,
- Open an untracked shipment.
- Click on the Enable real-time tracking option.
- Provide the tracking details.
- Specify the contact details of the customer to which the status notifications should be sent.
- Hit Save to make the shipment trackable.
Viewing the Shipment Status
To view the real-time status of shipments,
- Open a tracked shipment.
- Click the Shipment In Transit button. (Note: The same button appears as Shipment Timeline for shipments that are marked as Delivered.)
- A slider tab opens from the right where you can view the current location and the complete timeline of a shipment.
Note: When the shipment is delivered, AfterShip automatically marks the status as Delivered in Zoho Inventory. If the status is not updated due to some unexpected reasons, you can manually mark it as Delivered.
Deactivating the integration
To deactivate this integration,
- Go to the Integrations section under Settings.
- Open Shipment Tracking.
- Click the gear icon and select Disable Tracking.
