Why is the tracking email sent to the customer including placeholders?

Question:

Once we input the the tracking information our generated email is not populating properly. I have attached the email received that a customer forwarded me.

Answer:

The tracking email is only sent with the proper substitutions when it is sent in one of the following ways:

1. An order placed with a distributor has tracking information added by the distributor.
2. You create a label with EasyPost.
3. You click the "Send Email" icon on the Orders Dashboard.

This does NOT include having the email sent automatically when an order is set to a certain status.  The reason for this is that an order can include any number of shipments. The system has no way to know which shipment(s) should be used for the tracking number based on a changed order status.

Here is what you need to do:

1. In Orders > Settings > Order Status, remove the emails assigned to the status "Order shipped" and "In store pickup" (it will have the same issue if you have any placeholders in the email).
2. When you create a shipment for an order, if you are not using EasyPost, enter the tracking number and carrier for the shipment, and then click the mail icon in the shipment row for that shipment (second screenshot). This will send the email with the correct substitutions.

See also: Why are customers seeing text like %amount% in emails?