Why do online retailers send you an email that a product was “shipped”, when the status is just label created or carrier awating package etc.
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I see a couple of reasons.
First, it notifies me that my order really has been completed, and I no longer worry about that.
The notice goes out to me as soon as a tracking number is assigned, and therefore the package is considered being in the system, and fulfilled.
Now the shipper can bill my credit card. That’s the important part.
I’m an online retailer. It’s basically automatic through the shipping platforms we use. Totally understand the frustration that it’s not “shipped” but you’ll often get an “on the way” email too.
When the retailer completes packing your goods and labeling the package, they will put it on a pallet or in a bin for the transportation company to collect. There often isn’t an interaction after that by the retailer, except as any feedback from the transportation company as they move it through their system.
For example, your Amazon purchase is “shipped” when the UPS label is attached, and it’s put with the other UPS packages. UPS should accept the package, individually or in a trusted information transaction, with the others, and may provide Amazon with the information for Amazon to forward to you as it goes through their system to your destination.
This is often why online retailers provide the tracking number and stop there, forcing you to check with the transportation company.
Because people frequently don’t bother configuring the shopping platform when it doesn’t matter much
For context, I work in the industry.
I used to think “shipped” means “the carrier has the package,” but that’s not exactly true. Generally, it means that the order has been processed, boxed, and made ready for the carrier to pick up the package.
The carriers are the people who actually move the package from A to B, and they generally do not create the labels for the box. That’s usually done to their standards, but by the company who’s actually sending the product to you. “Shipping” is usually the process of packing (boxing) the order and generating this label, plus whatever other stuff the individual company needs to happen (updating inventory systems, etc).
When you get the “label created” or “carrier awaiting package” messages, that means that your order is boxed up and is waiting either for the shipper to drop the package off with the carrier, or the shipper is waiting for the carrier to come pick the package up. Some businesses will get the packages to the carrier every day; others have lower volume, so get packages to the carrier less frequently.
Because it’s now awaiting pick up by whoever shipping it.
If they waited to send the email until the actual shipper picked up the packages for that day or week then that would be a manual process.
The emails generated automatically when the labels printed for the box and send you the email with the tracking information and updates their system that the product has been fulfilled.
Some places only pick up once a week some places pick up daily it just depends on who the shipper is and how many packages that specific shipper is shipping through that company.
But essentially and there’s automated system once the label has been created the package is shipped it’s moved on to the next part of the process.
Companies that do this piss me off. They love to advertise stuff like “ships same day!” Then it just says “label created” for like 5 days before it actually enters the system. I personally put the cause on amazon, they made it so nobody can compete with their same day shipping so everybody just lies now. I’d much rather buy from an honest seller than one that does this crap. Sometimes you’re looking for fast shipping for a reason. It’s particularly shitty when you pay extra for fast shipping and the mail carrier holds up their end of the deal but you still don’t get your stuff in time because the seller doesnt drop it off for a week.
because once they package it and create the label it has moved from the processing (or fulfillment or whatever you wanna call it) to shipping stage. They’ve put it in their outgoing “bin” and for all intents and purposes it has been shipped from their POV. Really no different than if I drop a package off at FedEx and it sits in their sorting process for a day or two before it actually starts moving to you.
to simplify. It has been shipped, in that the process of getting it from them to you has officially begun.
Because the label being created is the system interface they have on their end. If you wanted notification of when it was actually picked up and moving, the business interface would require UPS or FedEx etc to interface directly with their system and your order. Now imagine UPS / FedEx have to do that with every business that ships. Integration to hundreds or thousands of different ordering systems would be very expensive and difficult to maintain
The main reason is that they are autogenerated when you print the shipping label through your shipping software. When the carrier picks it up they just scan it into their system which is not connected to the retailers shipping system. To send you an email when the carrier picks it up would require manually sending out emails. Amazon maybe able to do something like that automatically but most small businesses won’t have the desire/need/resources to do it.
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