How to automate WooCommerce order status updates with AST PRO

Your warehouse ships 80 orders. Someone then opens WooCommerce, selects them in batches, flips them to Completed, and hopes nobody got missed. Meanwhile three customers email asking where their parcel is, because “Completed” told them nothing about whether it actually left the building.

It doesn’t have to work that way.

AST PRO: Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce turns order status into something your fulfilment data controls, not your staff. Tracking numbers arrive from your shipping platform, the status changes on its own, and the right email goes out at the right moment.

This guide covers how to set up automated status changes in AST PRO, from custom fulfilment statuses through to hands-off tracking imports.

8 steps to automate order status updates

1. Enable the fulfilment order statuses
Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Order Statuses & Notifications and switch on the statuses you need: Partially Shipped, Shipped, Delivered, and Updated Tracking. These sit alongside WooCommerce’s defaults and give each stage of fulfilment its own state, so “Completed” stops doing four jobs at once.

2. Map each status to its customer notification
Every fulfilment status has its own email template. Partially Shipped covers orders split into multiple shipments, Shipped confirms the package is with the carrier, Delivered confirms the customer received it, and Updated Tracking fires when tracking details change. Use the Preview Email button to check each one before you go live.

3. Turn on AutoComplete orders when they are Shipped
If you don’t want a separate Shipped state hanging around in your order list, enable this option and orders move straight to Completed once tracking is added. It’s the simplest automation in the plugin and it removes the daily bulk-edit ritual entirely.

4. Rename Completed to Shipped if you prefer fewer statuses
Some stores don’t want extra statuses at all, they just want the existing one to be honest. AST PRO can rewrite the Completed label to Shipped across emails and order screens, so customers read a word that matches what actually happened.

5. Feed tracking in through the Shipment Tracking API
Under the Shipment Tracking API section you can generate REST access tokens, configure webhooks, and set the date format your external systems send. Your 3PL, WMS, or fulfilment app posts tracking numbers directly into the order, and the status change follows automatically. There’s also a separate option to auto-complete orders that come from the API, so API-fulfilled orders can behave differently to manually fulfilled ones.

6. Connect your shipping platform integration
If you print labels in ShipStation, Shippo, Sendcloud, ShippyPro, Shiptheory, Pirate Ship, Stamps.com, or Royal Mail Click & Drop, enable the matching integration instead of building anything custom. Tracking syncs the moment the label is created, which means the status change happens before your team has even closed the tab.

7. Set up automated CSV import for warehouse drops
For fulfilment partners who deliver tracking as files rather than API calls, enable CSV Auto-Import and point AST PRO at the remote folder. Set the Import Polling Frequency so the plugin checks on a schedule, pick your CSV date format, and switch on Delete After Import to keep the directory clean. Files land, orders update, nobody logs in.

8. Choose which statuses appear in the fulfilment dashboard
The Fulfillment Order Statuses setting controls which orders show up in the dashboard your team works from each morning. Set it to the statuses that still need action, and unshipped orders stop hiding behind hundreds of completed ones.

What changes once automation is on

Trigger	Automatic result
Tracking added manually	Status moves to Shipped
Tracking posted via API	Order auto-completed
Label printed in ShipStation	Tracking synced, status updated
CSV dropped by your 3PL	Orders imported on schedule
Only some items shipped	Status set to Partially Shipped
Tracking number corrected	Updated Tracking email sent
Carrier confirms delivery	Status moves to Delivered

Fewer clicks, fewer WISMO tickets

Manual status updates don’t scale, and they quietly cost you support time every single day. With AST PRO, the tracking data does the work: statuses change themselves, customers get told at each stage, and your team spends its mornings on orders that actually need attention.