WooCommerce gives you exactly one status for a shipped order: Completed. The moment you print a label, the order jumps from Processing to Completed, and the customer receives an email telling them their order is “complete” while the parcel is still sitting on your packing bench. Split an order across two boxes and it gets worse, because there is no status for “half of this has left the building.”
One status cannot describe a fulfilment process with several stages.
AST PRO, our WooCommerce shipment tracking plugin, adds the order statuses WooCommerce is missing: Partially Shipped, Shipped, and Delivered. Each gets its own colour, its own label, and its own customer email, and you switch them on from a single settings panel instead of writing code.
This guide walks through enabling and customising each status, then putting them to work in your daily fulfilment flow.
How to set up custom order statuses in AST PRO
1. Open the Order Statuses panel
Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Settings → Order Statuses & Notifications. Every status you can enable lives here, one row per status, with a live preview of how the label will look in your orders list and emails.
2. Rename “Completed” to “Shipped”
The first toggle rewrites the Completed status label to Shipped across your order screens and customer emails. This is on by default, and for most stores it is the single biggest clarity win: “Completed” means nothing to a customer waiting on a parcel, while “Shipped” tells them exactly what happened. If your store uses Completed for something else (digital goods, services), leave this off and use step 4 instead.
3. Enable Partially Shipped
Partially Shipped is on by default and covers orders that leave in more than one shipment. When you add tracking for some items but not all, the order moves to this status and the customer receives a Partially Shipped email listing what has gone out. The order stays visible in your Fulfillment Dashboard until the remaining items ship.
4. Add a separate Shipped status (optional)
If you kept Completed as Completed in step 2, toggle on the standalone Shipped status. AST PRO registers it as a new WooCommerce status that sits right after Completed in every status dropdown, includes it in WooCommerce reports, and adds a Mark as Shipped action button to orders in Pending, On Hold, or Processing. You get a clean Processing to Shipped to Completed sequence without touching the meaning of Completed.
5. Turn on Delivered
Delivered closes the loop. Once enabled, you get a Mark as Delivered action on completed orders, a Change status to Delivered bulk action in the orders list, and Delivered orders are counted as paid in reports and eligible for the Order Again button. If you connect TrackShip, this status can be set automatically when the carrier confirms delivery, so you never mark it by hand.
6. Pick a colour and theme for each status
Every status row has a colour picker and a Light or Dark theme selector for the label text. The preview pill updates as you change it, so you see the exact badge your team will scan for in the orders list. Use distinct colours: a blue Partially Shipped, a green Shipped, and a grey Delivered are far easier to read at a glance than three shades of the same colour.
7. Decide which statuses send a customer email
Partially Shipped and Shipped each have a Send Email checkbox in the same row. Tick it and the customer is notified when the order enters that status; untick it and the change is silent. The gear icon opens the Email Customizer to edit the template, and the Preview Email button shows the result before you save.
8. Put the statuses to work when you add tracking
When you add a tracking number, the Mark order as option lets you choose Shipped or Partially Shipped in the same step, so the status change and the customer email fire together. For batches, use the bulk actions in the orders list: select the orders and choose Change status to Partially Shipped or Change status to Delivered. Tracking imported by CSV, FTP, or the REST API follows the same rules automatically.
Which status to use when
| Status | When the order gets it |
|---|---|
| Processing | Paid, nothing shipped yet |
| Partially Shipped | Some items shipped, some still waiting |
| Shipped | Every item is with the carrier |
| Delivered | Carrier confirmed delivery |
| Completed | Order fully closed (if kept separate from Shipped) |
Frequently asked questions about WooCommerce custom order statuses
Can I create custom order statuses in WooCommerce without code?
Not with core, which offers a fixed set of statuses and no UI to add more. Registering a new status normally means custom PHP. A plugin like AST PRO adds ready-made statuses (Partially Shipped, Shipped, Delivered) with their own colours, labels, and emails from a settings panel, so you get a real fulfilment pipeline without writing or maintaining code.
Why does WooCommerce mark orders “Completed” when they ship?
Because core treats Completed as the catch-all end state, it fires when you finish an order, which for physical goods usually means when you ship it. That is why customers get a “your order is complete” email while the parcel is still in transit. Renaming Completed to Shipped, or adding a separate Shipped status, fixes the mismatch between what the email says and what actually happened.
What is the difference between renaming Completed and adding a new Shipped status?
Renaming relabels the existing Completed status to “Shipped” everywhere, which is simplest if you do not otherwise use Completed. Adding a separate Shipped status keeps Completed intact and inserts Shipped as its own step, giving you a Processing to Shipped to Completed sequence. Stores selling digital goods or services usually keep Completed and add Shipped; pure physical-goods stores often just rename.
Can custom order statuses trigger customer emails?
Yes. Partially Shipped and Shipped each have their own customer email you can switch on or off per status, with a customisable template. So when an order enters a status the customer gets the matching notification automatically, or stays silent if you prefer. This is what lets the status pipeline double as your customer communication flow.
Can the Delivered status be set automatically?
Yes, if you connect TrackShip. It monitors the carrier and sets the order to Delivered when delivery is confirmed, so you never mark it by hand. Without TrackShip you can still set Delivered manually with a per-order action or a bulk action in the orders list, but the automatic route removes the last manual step in the pipeline.
Conclusion
Custom order statuses turn your orders list from a two-state board into a real fulfilment pipeline that both your team and your customers can read. AST PRO gives you Partially Shipped, Shipped, and Delivered with colours, emails, and bulk actions built in, so the setup takes minutes rather than a developer’s afternoon.
🚚 Ready to give your WooCommerce orders statuses that actually mean something?
Enable Partially Shipped, Shipped, and Delivered with their own colours and customer emails, and stop telling customers their order is “complete” before it leaves the warehouse.
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