Apple Wallet Order Tracking : the native order-tracking experience that transforms customer engagement

In fall 2022, Apple officially introduced Order Tracking in Apple Wallet, a native feature that allows iPhone users to track their orders (home delivery or in-store pickup) directly from the Wallet app, with push notifications and real-time dynamic updates.

Why is Apple Wallet’s Order Tracking feature a real advantage for your brand and your customers?

For your brand, integrating native order tracking into Apple Wallet allows you to:

• Offer a smooth, premium post-purchase experience that instantly strengthens customer loyalty
• Provide reliable, real-time tracking information
• Drastically reduce “Where is my order?” inquiries to customer service

For your customers, there’s no more digging through emails or logging back into a website to find their order status.
Everything is centralized in Apple Wallet, item details, carrier updates, and precise pickup instructions, with push notifications triggered at every status change!

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💡It’s even possible to display a pickup QR code directly in the wallet, a feature increasingly requested by carriers.

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How does Apple Wallet Order Tracking work?

Step 1: A “.order” file is generated, containing all the necessary information:

• Order details
• Items
• Delivery / pickup information
• Order identifier
• Full branding (logo, colors, images)
• Merchant web service
• Apple Wallet Orders schema

Step 2 : The customer adds the order tracking to their wallet in three ways:

• Via Apple Pay: when paying with Apple Pay, the order can be automatically added to Wallet.
• Via the Add to Wallet button: integrated throughout the customer journey (confirmation page, tracking page, post-purchase email, etc.). Our SDK allows brands to add this experience to their e-commerce platform or OMS effortlessly.
• Via Apple Intelligence: which scans confirmation emails and suggests adding the order to Wallet. However, there seem to be limitations : the feature works well in en-US but remains difficult to activate in French.

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Step 3: Each time the order status changes, the Wallet card updates automatically and a notification is triggered to alert the user.

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👉 Note : This feature is exclusively available on iOS. Google Wallet currently offers nothing comparable.

A complex implementation

Although this feature provides multiple benefits for both brands and customers, implementing it requires:

• Creating files in Apple’s new proprietary format, signed with a #PKCS7 certificate
• A database to store device tokens and other security elements
• Communication with the APNs notification server to send order updates
• Strict compliance with Apple’s guidelines regarding file formats
• Integration of the “Track My Order” button
• Development and maintenance of a new API
• Ongoing monitoring of Apple’s updates and adjustments to the integration

All of this adds significant constraints for an already busy technical team…

The game-changing solution: The Wallet Crew

As a Wallet As A Service provider, The Wallet Crew handles the entire technical infrastructure on behalf of brands.

Concretely, we offer you:

• A simple, intuitive API to create and update orders without worrying about Apple’s technical constraints: we manage all certificate configuration directly from our backend. Brands can monitor Wallet adoption, control updates, and send push notifications easily—an essential advantage for multi-country, multi-brand, or multi-carrier environments.
• Automatic and fully compliant generation of .order files
• Complete management of notifications, device registration, certificates, and 24/7 monitoring
• Universal compatibility with major e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Magento), OMS, ERP, and even your mobile app & POS
• Rapid deployment in 24–72 hours, compared to several weeks or months of internal development

In short, the brand only needs to send order data, The Wallet Crew takes care of everything else, delivering a premium visual result with flawless Apple compliance. 👌

Conclusion

Apple Wallet Order Tracking turns order tracking, often a source of customer anxiety, into a positive and engaging interaction with the brand. To fully leverage this innovation, solid technical mastery is required. The Wallet Crew removes this barrier by enabling fast integration without building the complex infrastructure Apple demands.

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