Your clients want to track their containers. They're used to tracking everything — Amazon packages, Uber rides, pizza deliveries. When they can't track their ocean freight shipment worth fifty times more than all of those combined, it feels wrong.
The big forwarders solve this with custom-built tracking portals. If you're a small or mid-sized forwarder, building a tracking portal from scratch isn't realistic — it requires carrier API integrations, a development team, and ongoing maintenance. But there's a solution that takes minutes instead of months.
The Widget Concept
Shipzy's embedded tracking widget is a small piece of code you add to your website. It creates a tracking interface where your clients can enter a container number or bill of lading and see real-time status data pulled from five major carrier APIs: MSC, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming, and ZIM.
The widget lives on your domain, looks like part of your website, and provides the same carrier data that enterprise tracking platforms deliver. Your clients never need to visit a carrier's website or a third-party platform — they track everything from your site.
What Your Clients See
When a client enters their container number, the widget displays the current status and location, departure and arrival ports with timestamps, vessel name and voyage number, transshipment details if applicable, estimated arrival time, and milestone history (gate-in, loaded, departed, arrived, discharged).
The data comes from the same carrier API integrations that power Shipzy's main tracking platform. It's the same data quality — just presented within your website's frame.
Setup in Under Five Minutes
The implementation is deliberately simple. From your Shipzy forwarder dashboard, navigate to the Marketing Tools section. You'll find the embed code — a snippet of HTML and JavaScript. Copy it, paste it into your website wherever you want the tracking interface to appear, and you're done.
No server configuration. No API key management. No carrier agreements. The complexity of maintaining five carrier API integrations is abstracted away. You provide the tracking interface; Shipzy provides the data pipeline.
The Business Case
Adding tracking to your website delivers value on multiple levels.
Client retention. Visibility is one of the top reasons shippers evaluate forwarders. Providing self-service tracking removes a major friction point and gives clients a reason to stay. Every status check they perform on your website reinforces your value proposition.
Reduced support load. "Where is my container?" is the most common question forwarders receive. When clients can answer that question themselves through your website, your team spends less time on status inquiries and more time on value-added work.
Professional differentiation. Most small and mid-sized forwarder websites are essentially online brochures — company info, services list, contact form. Adding live tracking functionality immediately differentiates your site from competitors who offer the same static experience.
SEO benefit. The widget creates a backlink to your Shipzy profile, which strengthens your presence on both platforms. More importantly, a website with functional tools (not just content) tends to get more engagement, longer visit durations, and better search ranking signals.
Lead generation. When someone uses your tracking widget, they see your brand alongside the tracking data. If a non-client stumbles onto your site through a search and uses the tracker, they've now experienced your service before ever contacting you.
What You Need
To use the embedded tracking widget, you need a Shipzy forwarder account (any tier) and a website where you can paste HTML code. That's it. If your website runs on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or any platform that allows custom HTML blocks, you can add the widget.
If you don't have a website, this is a good reason to build one. A simple one-page site with your company information, service overview, and embedded tracking widget costs very little to set up and provides a professional digital presence that puts you ahead of forwarders still operating exclusively through email and phone.
Getting Started
Log into your Shipzy forwarder dashboard, find the Marketing Tools tab, copy the embed code, and paste it into your website. In under five minutes, you'll offer the same tracking capability that your largest competitors spent millions building.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to set up the tracking widget? Under five minutes. Copy the HTML snippet from your Shipzy forwarder dashboard, paste it into your website, and it's live. Works with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and any platform supporting custom HTML.
Which carriers does the widget track? MSC (19.9% global TEU), Maersk (17.0%), CMA CGM Group — CMA CGM, APL, ANL and CNC — (12.8%), Hapag-Lloyd (7.2%), ONE (6.4%), Yang Ming (2.5%), and ZIM (1.7%) — totaling over 65% of global capacity through a single embed.
Does the widget have a cost beyond my Shipzy membership? No. The embedded tracking widget is included with any Shipzy forwarder membership tier (€49-149/month). No additional fees.
Will new carrier integrations update automatically? Yes. When Shipzy adds a carrier (COSCO, Evergreen and HMM are on the roadmap), the widget's coverage expands automatically — no code changes needed on your website.
Set up your widget at shipzy.ai.
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