Customer Parcel Tracking: Keep Buyers Informed to Delivery

A customer who pays on delivery has not spent a single dirham when the parcel leaves your warehouse. Between confirmation and the courier’s knock, all they see is your silence or your messages. This guide covers that stretch, the transit, and how to keep the customer informed until the parcel is handed over, without burying them in notifications.

Why tracking counts twice when customers pay on delivery

In Morocco, more than 66% of online orders are still paid in cash on delivery, according to the ANRT survey quoted by Le Matin. In that model, refusing the parcel at the door costs the customer nothing. If they hesitate, forget the order or do not know when the courier is coming, refusal becomes the easiest answer. The same article puts refusal at delivery between 20 and 40% for the merchant, and lists delays among the reasons buyers distrust online sellers.

Silence also eats your team’s time. DigitalGenius, a customer service software company, measured that in March 2023 21% of the queries reaching its clients’ support teams were, on average, “where is my order?” questions. That is one conversation in five, about information the seller could have given before anyone asked.

On expectations, La Poste notes that nearly 95% of French shoppers want access to order tracking. The figure comes from another market, but the habit travels: an order placed on a phone gets followed on that same phone. For checking the order before it ships, see our guide to COD order confirmation; this article starts once the parcel is with the carrier.

The five messages that travel with a parcel

A survey by the Canadian delivery company Intelcom sets the priorities: 86% of consumers want to be notified when their package is on its way, and 75% want to know when it has been delivered. La Poste advises notifying the customer at each key step, and sending a message whenever there is a problem or a delay. For a cash-on-delivery store, that means five messages and no more:

1. Order confirmed: the product, the exact amount to pay in cash, and a realistic delivery window.
2. Handed to the carrier: the carrier’s name, the tracking number and a link to check it.
3. Out for delivery: on the day, in the morning. This is the most useful message of all: the customer keeps their phone on, gets the cash ready and knows the courier will call.
4. Delivered: a thank-you, the contact to use if something is wrong, and possibly a review request.
5. Problem or delay: as soon as you know, with a new date and what the customer can do.

Each message should answer a question the customer is already asking. Internal steps, such as moving from one sorting centre to another, do not matter to them as long as the announced date holds. Too many notifications get ignored, including the one that counted: the courier is coming today.

Email, SMS, WhatsApp or a call: the channel the customer reads

European and North American studies put email first. In the ParcelLab and OpinionWay survey, for which 1,000 French people were interviewed in November 2020, email was the preferred channel for delivery tracking (61%), ahead of SMS (34%). In Canada, Intelcom found 73% preferring email and 45% preferring SMS or text messages.

Cash-on-delivery selling changes the picture. Many orders come from a sales page where the customer leaves only a name, a city and a phone number; the email address is often missing or never opened. The number is always there, and it is reachable: DataReportal counts 35.5 million internet users in Morocco at the end of 2025, a penetration rate of 92.2%. In practice:

• mobile messaging, on WhatsApp or by SMS, carries the transit messages;
• email is a copy, when the customer gave one;
• calls are for incidents: a postponed delivery, a customer who cannot be reached, a parcel that is stuck.

Two simple rules. Stay on the channel where the order was confirmed: a customer confirmed on WhatsApp expects the rest there. And write in the language the customer used, Darija, French or Arabic, in short sentences that read well on a locked screen.

What a good tracking message contains

A useful transit message fits in a few lines and always carries the same elements:

• the order number and the product name, so the customer recognises the purchase;
• the exact amount to pay in cash, so they can have it ready;
• the carrier’s name and the tracking number;
• a delivery window (“tomorrow or the day after”) rather than a date you do not control;
• a way to reply to you directly.

A shipping message could read: “Hello [First name], your order [number] ([product]) left today with [carrier]. Tracking number: [tracking number]. Expected delivery: [day]. To pay on delivery: [amount] in cash. Any question? Just reply to this message.”

The tracking link deserves care. A long technical carrier URL inspires little trust and displays badly on a phone. A page where the customer types the tracking number is easier to read (example of a tracking page). Drop the jargon too: “picked up” or “at hub” means nothing to a customer waiting for a gift for their mother.

Turning carrier statuses into customer language

Carriers describe a parcel’s journey in their own words, written for their branches. Your job is to choose which statuses deserve a message and how to phrase them:

Never forward every carrier scan as it is. The customer sees trips between cities they do not understand, and every step they misread becomes a call to your support team.

Delays and incidents: tell them before they call

Incidents are common. In the ParcelLab study, 47% of consumers said they had a delivery problem in the last 12 months, while 37% of online merchants do not even state their delivery times. A customer who hears about a delay from you takes it as a setback; one who discovers it after chasing the seller takes it as neglect.

The announced delivery time is more than courtesy. During its inspections of online stores, the Moroccan ministry reminded consumers of the importance of reviewing prices and delivery timelines before buying. Morocco’s 2011 consumer protection law also has provisions on distance and internet selling, with information specific to this kind of trade. What you announce in your messages commits your store.

A good delay message has four parts:

1. what happened, in one sentence, without blaming the courier;
2. the new date or window;
3. the customer’s choice: wait, or cancel at no cost;
4. a direct contact to reply to.

For example: “Hello [First name], your parcel [number] has been delayed at the sorting centre. New expected delivery: [day]. Are you still expecting it? Reply YES, or CANCEL if not.” With cash on delivery, a cancellation obtained before the courier sets off costs far less than a refusal at the door.

What Cashod takes care of

The first message in the series, confirmation, happens in Cashod. Its call center lets agents confirm COD orders by phone, and Cashod can also confirm orders over WhatsApp, including with an AI agent. That is the right moment to tell the customer the amount and the delivery window they will see again later.

Cashod creates and tracks shipments with the carriers on its list: Sendit, Ozon Express, Ameex, Cathedis, Forcelog, Onesta, Kargo Express, Speedaf, Gold Colis, Express Relais, HL Express, Livo, Olivraison, Digylog and Navex (see the integrations page). You see where each parcel stands in one place before you answer a customer. Any other carrier can be added manually, without automatic shipment creation or tracking; for those parcels, checking the status with the carrier is up to you.

Finally, Cashod tracks returned parcels, and each carrier’s delivery and return fees are set per city. That lets you compare what returns cost depending on whether the customer had been warned or not. The transit messages themselves remain yours: take the templates in this article and adapt them to your tone.

Measuring whether your messages work

A handful of indicators tell you whether your transit communication pays off:

• the share of incoming messages asking “where is my order?”, compared with the 21% average measured by DigitalGenius;
• the share of parcels delivered on the day the customer received the “out for delivery” message;
• the refusal rate of delayed parcels, depending on whether the delay was announced;
• the time between an incident at the carrier and your message to the customer.

Start small: the two messages that pay back most are “your parcel is on its way” and “the courier is coming today”. Then add the delay message, then the thank-you after delivery. A customer who is told about every step that matters picks up when the courier calls, and has the money ready.