Shipment statuses explained

Every shipment in Parcel Track moves through a lifecycle of statuses. These statuses appear on your branded tracking page, in the Orders section of the app, and in your analytics reports. Understanding what each one means helps you answer customer questions quickly and spot problems before they become support tickets.

The eight shipment statuses

Status	What it means	Typical duration
Pending	The order is fulfilled but no carrier information is available yet, or the shipment has not synced from Shopify.	A few minutes to 24 hours
Info Received	The carrier has received the shipping manifest from the merchant but has not physically scanned the package.	1–2 business days
In Transit	The package has been scanned and is moving through the carrier’s network.	2–10 business days (domestic), up to 3–4 weeks (international)
Out for Delivery	The package is on a delivery vehicle and should arrive the same day.	A few hours
Delivered	The carrier has confirmed delivery to the destination address.	Final status
Failed Attempt	The carrier attempted delivery but could not complete it (nobody home, access issue).	Usually retried within 1–2 business days
Exception	Something unexpected interrupted delivery: customs, damage, return-to-sender, or an address issue.	Varies — see sub-statuses below
Expired	The carrier has published no tracking updates for 30 or more days.	Final status unless the carrier resumes updates

Note: Parcel Track normalizes statuses across 1,000+ carriers, so a customer sees the same clear status labels whether the package ships with USPS, DHL, Yanwen, or a regional last-mile courier.

How a shipment typically progresses

1. Pending — the fulfillment syncs from Shopify and Parcel Track detects the carrier.
2. Info Received — the carrier acknowledges the shipment in its system.
3. In Transit — the first physical scan happens and the package starts moving.
4. Out for Delivery — the package reaches the local delivery hub.
5. Delivered — the journey ends.

Failed Attempt, Exception, and Expired are branch statuses: a shipment can enter them at almost any point after Info Received.

Exception sub-statuses

Exceptions are the statuses most likely to generate customer inquiries, so Parcel Track breaks them into sub-statuses to tell you exactly what went wrong:

Sub-status	Meaning	Suggested action
Customs hold	The package is held at import or export customs.	Confirm duties/taxes are paid; provide invoices if the carrier requests them
Delivery refused	The recipient declined the package.	Contact the customer to confirm intent before it returns to sender
Return to sender	The package is on its way back to the origin.	Decide whether to reship or refund
Damaged	The carrier reported damage in transit.	Open a claim with the carrier and offer the customer a replacement
Address issue	The address is incomplete or undeliverable.	Verify the address with the customer and update it with the carrier

You can monitor exception trends across all shipments in Exceptions analytics.

How statuses drive notifications

Each status change can trigger an automatic email to your customer. For example, you can notify customers when a shipment moves to In Transit, warn them about a Failed Attempt so they can arrange redelivery, or proactively explain an Exception before they email you.

Notification triggers are configured per status under Apps → Parcel Track → Notifications. See How notifications work for the full setup guide, and Customize notifications to edit the email content for each status.

Tip: Enable notifications for Failed Attempt and Exception first. These two statuses account for the majority of “where is my order?” tickets, and a proactive email usually prevents the ticket entirely.

Where to see statuses

• Tracking page — customers see the current status and full timeline at yourstore.com/apps/parcel-track.
• Orders section — filter your entire order list by status, carrier, or date range, and export the results to CSV.
• Analytics — status distribution and transit performance live under Shipments analytics.

If a shipment sits in Pending longer than expected, see Why are my orders stuck in Pending?