Partial Shipments and Split Orders in WooCommerce

A customer orders five items. Three are in your warehouse and one is coming from a supplier next week. You ship what you have, but WooCommerce only gives you one tracking field and one “Completed” status, so the customer either gets marked complete before everything arrives or sits in the dark wondering where half their order went. Support tickets pile up. Trust erodes.

WooCommerce core was not built for orders that ship in pieces. You need a real status for it, more than one tracking number, and a way to tie each number to the right items.

Advanced Shipment Tracking Pro (AST PRO), our WooCommerce shipment tracking plugin, adds a dedicated “Partially Shipped” order status, lets you attach multiple tracking numbers to a single order, and can assign tracking to specific line items so customers see exactly what shipped and what is still on the way.

This guide shows you how to set up and run partial shipments and split orders in AST PRO from start to finish.

How to set up partial shipments in WooCommerce

1. Enable the Partially Shipped order status
   Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Settings and turn on the Partially Shipped status. This registers a new order status alongside WooCommerce defaults, with its own colour label so you can spot split orders at a glance in the orders list.
2. Turn on multiple tracking numbers
   In the same settings area, enable multiple tracking. This removes WooCommerce’s one-tracking-number limit and lets you add several shipments to a single order, each with its own carrier and tracking code.
3. Enable Tracking Per Item
   Open any order, find the Shipment Tracking box, and tick the Tracking Per Item checkbox. This swaps the basic tracking form for a product table where you assign tracking numbers to specific line items in the order.
4. Ship your first batch
   Add a tracking number and select only the items that are physically going out in this shipment. AST PRO records which products were covered and leaves the rest flagged as unshipped.
5. Set the order to Partially Shipped
   Mark the order as Partially Shipped. The status sticks even though items remain outstanding, so the order stays open and the customer is not told the order is complete prematurely.
6. Send the partial shipped email
   AST PRO triggers the Partially Shipped order email, which lists the shipped items, their tracking, and (optionally) the items still on the way. You control the heading, content, product images, and whether unshipped items appear.
7. Ship the remaining items
   When the rest of the stock arrives, add a second tracking number against the outstanding line items. Once every item is covered, move the order to Completed and the customer gets the final shipment notification.

What controls each part of a split order

Feature / setting	What it controls
Partially Shipped status	Keeps split orders open and visible
Multiple tracking	Several carriers and numbers per order
Tracking Per Item	Maps tracking to specific products
Unshipped items in email	Shows what is still coming
Partial shipped email	Notifies the customer per shipment
Status label colour	Spots split orders in the list

What the customer sees

Because tracking is mapped per item, the partial shipped email and tracking widget show a clean split: products that have shipped with live tracking, and products still being prepared. The customer never has to guess, and you cut the “where is the rest of my order” tickets that split fulfilment usually creates.

Splitting orders across warehouses usually means importing tracking in batches — see bulk importing tracking numbers by CSV — and automating order status updates keeps a partially shipped order in the right state.

Frequently asked questions about WooCommerce partial shipments

Can WooCommerce handle partial shipments on its own?
Not properly. WooCommerce core gives you one tracking field and a single Completed status, so an order that ships in two batches either gets marked complete too early or leaves the customer with no tracking for the rest. Handling it as a real workflow needs a Partially Shipped status, multiple tracking numbers, and per-item assignment, which is what AST PRO adds.

What is the difference between a partial shipment and a split order?
They describe the same situation from two angles. A split order is one order fulfilled in more than one package, often because stock or suppliers differ. A partial shipment is each of those individual dispatches. The workflow is the same: ship what you have, notify the customer with tracking for those items, then ship and notify the rest.

Can I add more than one tracking number to a single WooCommerce order?
Yes, once multiple tracking is enabled. AST PRO removes the core one-number limit so you can attach several shipments to one order, each with its own carrier and tracking code, and optionally tie each to specific line items.

Will the customer know which items have shipped and which have not?
Yes. With Tracking Per Item enabled, the partial shipped email and the tracking widget show shipped products with live tracking separately from the items still being prepared, so the customer can see the exact state of their order without contacting support.

Does marking an order Partially Shipped stop the Completed email from sending early?
Yes. The Partially Shipped status keeps the order open instead of closing it, so the final Completed notification only sends once every item has tracking. That is what prevents the “your order is complete” email from going out while half the order is still in your warehouse.