Ask whether Shopify handles order tracking natively and you'll get two confident, opposite answers: "yes, just paste the tracking number" and "no, you need an app." Both are half right, because Shopify's tracking behaviour is governed by two different carrier lists that do two different things.

A carrier on the first list gets you a clickable tracking link. A carrier on both lists gets your customer two additional emails. Miss the distinction and you'll spend a week debugging why "Delivered" never sends.

Below: what each list actually controls, which carriers sit where, and how four order tracking apps compare — including one that quietly changed its name. Research date: September 1, 2026.

The short version

Shipping with a major Western carrier and just need a working link? Native is enough. Paste the tracking number and customers can follow it on the order status page and in the Shop app.

Expecting native "Out for delivery" and "Delivered" emails? Check the second list first. Whole countries are missing from it, Japan among them.

Want a tracking page on your own domain, or one dashboard across carriers? That's app territory.

Metering is not comparable across these apps. Two count orders, two count shipments. If you split-ship, "200/month" means two very different things.

One app in every existing roundup has been renamed. ParcelPanel is now CWILL Order Tracking.

Shopify's two carrier lists

List one: carriers that get an auto-built tracking URL

The FulfillmentTrackingInfo object in the GraphQL Admin API documents a list of "supported tracking companies." Pass one of those names in the company field and Shopify builds the tracking URL from the tracking number, making it clickable in the admin and in customer emails.

The list splits into carriers shown to shops in any country and carriers shown only in specific countries. The global section includes Japan Post (EN), Japan Post (JA), Sagawa (EN), Sagawa (JA), Yamato (EN), and Yamato (JA) — English and Japanese registered as separate entries. Japan-specific additions include エコ配, 西濃運輸, 西濃スーパーエキスプレス, 福山通運, 日本通運, 名鉄運輸, and 第一貨物.

So for link generation, the major Japanese carriers are natively supported. "Shopify doesn't support Japanese carriers" is not accurate on this point.

List two: carriers whose status Shopify updates for you

The same documentation continues: for the tracking companies listed on the Shipping Carriers help page, Shopify will automatically update the fulfillment's shipment_status field during fulfillment.

Follow that link and you get the table of countries where you can buy labels through Shopify's carrier accounts: the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Japan is not in that table. Neither is most of the world.

Why the difference shows up in your customers' inboxes

Shopify has four shipping-related customer notifications:

Notification	Fires when
Shipping confirmation	You fulfill the order
Shipping update	You add or edit tracking on a fulfilled order
Out for delivery	A tracking event with that status is received
Delivered	A tracking event with that status is received

The top two are triggered by your action. They fire regardless of carrier.

The bottom two are not. The Help Center is explicit: these are sent "when a tracking event with the corresponding status is received from the carrier or fulfillment app," and "tracking event sources, accuracy, and timing vary by carrier."

If your carrier isn't on list two, Shopify has no channel through which to receive those events. Something else has to supply them — a fulfillment app or a tracking app. That is precisely why Shopify's own "Shipping in Japan" guide frames third-party apps as the way to "track order status automatically."

One more edge case: Out for delivery and Delivered are not available for local delivery orders at all. Local delivery uses a separate confirmation email sent when you mark the order delivered.

What customers get natively

Customers reach the order status page three ways: signing into their customer account, clicking the tracking link in the shipping confirmation email, or entering their order confirmation number and verifying by email or phone.

In the Shop app they get order status updates, push notifications for shipping milestones, live map tracking, and estimated delivery dates — labelled Predicted by Shop when Shop's estimate differs from the carrier's.

Worth knowing before you design your post-purchase experience: Shop app tracking and order status notifications cannot be deactivated or edited by merchants. Only the customer can turn them off, in their own Shop app settings. If you're planning tightly controlled branded comms, you're layering on top of messages you don't control.

When an app earns its place

A tracking app starts paying for itself when you want a branded tracking page on your own domain, a single dashboard across carriers, exception detection before the support ticket lands, estimated delivery dates on product and checkout pages, revenue from tracking-page traffic — or delivery-status notifications for carriers Shopify doesn't poll.

If your order volume is low and a clickable link already keeps customers calm, there's no strong argument for adding one.

Four order tracking apps compared

Verified on the Shopify App Store on September 1, 2026. All prices in USD; pricing changes frequently.

	CWILL Order Tracking	17TRACK Order Tracking	Track123 Order Tracking	AfterShip Order Tracking
Developer	CWILL INC	17TRACK	Track123	AfterShip
Rating (reviews)	5.0 (~2,900)	4.9 (~3,950)	4.9 (~1,600)	4.7 (~1,300)
Built for Shopify	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free tier	20 orders/mo	50 shipments/mo	50 orders/mo	50 shipments/mo (free to install)
Metering unit	Orders	Shipments	Orders	Shipments
Entry paid plan	$11/mo (200)	$9/mo (200)	$9/mo (300)	$11/mo (100)
Mid plan	$59/mo (2,000)	$49/mo (1,000)	$49/mo (2,000)	$70/mo (500)
Overage	$0.05/unit	Not listed	$0.05/unit	$0.08–$0.12/unit
Carriers (claimed)	1,600+	3,300+	Not stated	1,100+
Japanese admin UI	Yes	Yes	No	No
Shopify Flow	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Launched	2019	2021	2022	2012

Reading the table

The rename matters. The app long known as ParcelPanel now lists as CWILL Order Tracking; the listing itself says "Formerly ParcelPanel & ParcelWILL." Almost every roundup still published uses the old name. The URL slug is still parcelpanel, which is the reliable way to find it.

The metering unit is the most expensive detail in this table. CWILL and Track123 count orders. 17TRACK and AfterShip count shipments. Split one order into two parcels and the shipment-metered apps consume twice the quota. If you fulfil from multiple locations, this is not a rounding error — it's a doubling. If you ship one parcel per order, it doesn't matter at all.

Free tiers aren't equivalent either. 17TRACK's free plan carries 50 shipments plus 3,300+ carriers and a branded tracking page. CWILL's is smaller at 20 orders but includes the branded page, real-time sync, and customer accounts support. Track123 gives 50 orders plus order-status-page and customer-account widgets. AfterShip is free-to-install with 50 shipments and a free first import of up to 500.

Only two ship a Japanese admin. CWILL and 17TRACK list Japanese among supported languages; Track123 and AfterShip do not. Note the distinction that trips people up: admin UI language and customer-facing tracking page language are separate things. All four offer multilingual or auto-translated tracking pages, so you can serve a Japanese tracking page without a Japanese admin. The admin language only affects your own team.

CWILL Order Tracking

The former ParcelPanel. Japanese admin, order-based metering, and a free tier that already includes the branded tracking page. Paid tiers run $11/mo (200 orders), $59/mo (2,000), and $479/mo (25,000), with $0.05 per extra unit. Removing CWILL branding, plus API and webhooks, unlocks at the $59 tier.

Rated 5.0, with 97% five-star. A recent review describes a carrier mapping error on a delayed order, resolved quickly by support — a useful reminder that carrier mapping is the failure mode to watch in this category.

Good fit: small-to-mid stores that ship one parcel per order and want a Japanese admin.

17TRACK Order Tracking

The widest claimed carrier coverage of the four at 3,300+, a Japanese admin, a comparatively generous 50-shipment free tier, and the lowest entry price at $9/mo.

One constraint to check before committing. An August 2026 review reports that order data syncs only for the past 180 days, breaking self-service returns and warranty claims after that window. The developer replied publicly, explaining that the 180-day retention reflects "an overall assessment of system performance and data management efficiency," that returns have migrated to a separate system (17RETURNS) supporting orders from the last three years, and that a configurable sync window is on the roadmap. That's a single review and its reply, not a general verdict — but if you offer a one-year warranty, verify the current behaviour first.

Good fit: cross-border stores prioritising carrier breadth, or anyone optimising for cost.

Track123 Order Tracking

Order-based metering with the most generous entry tier per dollar: $9/mo for 300 orders. Differentiators listed include Apple Wallet tracking, AI product recommendations, and map-based tracking pages. The free tier includes both the order status page widget and the customer account orders page widget.

Japanese is not among the listed languages.

Good fit: English-operating stores with low split-shipment rates.

AfterShip Order Tracking

Launched 2012, the oldest of the four, with the most explicit SaaS integration list — Klaviyo, Gorgias, Zendesk, ShipStation, Attentive. Its headline feature is AI-powered estimated delivery dates surfaced on product and checkout pages.

It also carries the lowest rating of the four at 4.7, with 6% one-star (77 reviews). A June 2026 review notes that using Royal Mail requires the Premium or Enterprise tier, making it uneconomical for a smaller store. Its mid-tier pricing is the steepest here: $70/mo for 500 shipments, $0.12 per extra.

Good fit: mid-to-large stores where integration depth outranks per-unit cost.

Picking by situation

You may not need an app. Western carriers plus a clickable link is a complete solution. Even on Japanese carriers, shipping confirmation and the order status page work natively.

You want delivery-completion notifications on Japanese carriers. Something has to supply those tracking events. Plan for a tracking or fulfillment app from the start.

You need a Japanese admin. CWILL Order Tracking or 17TRACK. That's the whole list.

You split-ship frequently. Order-metered apps (CWILL, Track123) win, sometimes by a factor of two.

You're optimising for cost. 17TRACK's free tier or $9 plan is the floor — after you've checked the data retention window against your warranty period.

Integrations come first. AfterShip, at a meaningfully higher mid-tier price.

Before you install

• Is your carrier on the shopify.dev "supported tracking companies" list?
• Do you actually need Out for delivery and Delivered, or is shipping confirmation enough?
• Orders or shipments? Check against your real split-shipment rate.
• What does a month that overruns the free tier actually cost?
• Have you separated admin language from customer-facing page language in your requirements?
• Have you designed around Shop app notifications you cannot disable?
• Does the app's order data retention exceed your returns and warranty window?
• What happens to your tracking page URL after uninstall?

Bottom line

Four steps, in order:

1. Check your carriers against the shopify.dev tracking companies list. Japan's big three are there.
2. Check your country against the Help Center's integrated carriers table. If it's absent, native delivery-status notifications will not fire on their own.
3. Narrow requirements to three: branded page, admin language, integrations, cost.
4. Match the metering unit to your split-shipment rate, then run real orders through a free tier before paying.

Pricing and plan contents change. Verify against each App Store listing before you commit.

Sources

• Order tracking at Shopify — Shopify Help Center
• Setting up customer notifications — Shopify Help Center
• Understanding shipping carriers — Shopify Help Center
• Shipping in Japan — Shopify Help Center
• FulfillmentTrackingInfo — Shopify GraphQL Admin API
• CWILL Order Tracking — Shopify App Store
• 17TRACK Order Tracking — Shopify App Store
• Track123 Order Tracking — Shopify App Store
• AfterShip Order Tracking — Shopify App Store