Cut cash-on-delivery returns before they ship

Cash on delivery is how a lot of people feel safe buying from a shop they found on Instagram. Offering it is often the right call. The cost is the parcel that comes back.

A refused cash-on-delivery parcel — a return to origin, or RTO, as your courier calls it — loses you money three ways. You pay to send it out. You usually pay again for the trip back. And your stock sits in transit for days, sometimes coming back damaged. You earn nothing for any of it.

The good news is that many refusals have a cause you can spot before the parcel leaves you: an order placed on a whim, an address the courier can’t find, a phone nobody answers, a long wait, or a product that wasn’t what she pictured. Each move below closes one of those gaps.

Confirm every order in the chat before you pack it

Never pack a cash-on-delivery order that hasn’t been confirmed. Send her the whole order back — the item, the total, the address and the amount to keep ready — and ask her to confirm it. Saying yes to a total she has seen in writing is what turns a passing impulse into an order.

If there’s no reply, send one reminder later the same day. If there’s still nothing, hold the order and tell her it’s waiting for her — don’t ship it and hope.

Copy this: “Hi Rohit — just checking you’d still like the Buds Pro (₹2,499, cash on delivery). Reply here to confirm and I’ll ship it today. If anything’s changed, no problem at all.”

With insideDM, once you approve a cash-on-delivery order, your customer gets it back in the chat to confirm, and it only counts as confirmed when she does — see Cash on delivery.

Check the address while she’s still talking to you

A courier can’t deliver to “near the temple, Kothrud”. The best moment to fix an address is during the chat, while she’s on her phone and answering you. Ask for:

• house or flat number, building and street
• area and a landmark
• city and the six-digit pincode
• a phone number the courier can reach — and whether it’s the one she’s chatting from

Read it all back in your confirmation message. Check that your courier delivers to that pincode and offers cash on delivery there — not every pincode does. If the pincode and the city don’t match, ask; it’s usually a typo, and far cheaper to fix now than at the door.

Some things deserve a second look: an address with no house number, a different name and phone number on each order, or someone happy to confirm the order but not the address.

Make paying upfront the easier choice

You don’t have to drop cash on delivery to cut returns. Make paying now more attractive, and let her choose:

• a small saving, or free delivery, for paying now
• a small cash-on-delivery charge that covers part of your risk
• for larger orders, a small part-payment upfront to confirm the order, with the rest on delivery

Put it as an offer, not a warning. A suspicious tone loses good customers along with the risky ones.

Copy this: “You can pay ₹2,499 on delivery, or pay now by UPI and I’ll take ₹100 off — ₹2,399. Whichever you prefer!”

Make the offer the same for everyone, and make sure the payment link charges the price you said.

Set the right expectations before she orders

Some refusals are really “this isn’t what I thought it was”. Close that gap in the chat, before the order:

• Send real photos or a short video, not only the polished shoot.
• Answer fit, size, colour and material questions directly.
• Say what’s in the box, and what isn’t.
• Give an honest delivery estimate for her pincode.

A customer who asked “is the Sand one more beige or more grey?” and got a straight answer knows what’s arriving. She has no reason to turn the courier away.

Ship fast, and tell her it’s coming

Every day between order and delivery is a day for her to change her mind, buy elsewhere or forget she ordered. Ship confirmed cash-on-delivery orders as soon as you can, and keep her in the loop:

1. When it ships: what’s coming, when to expect it, the tracking link and the amount to keep ready.
2. On the day: that it’s out for delivery, and to keep her phone close.

If the courier can’t deliver, act the same day. A failed attempt is often your last chance before the parcel turns back. Message her, find out what happened — wrong address, not at home, phone switched off — and arrange the next attempt with your courier.

When you mark an order dispatched in insideDM, your customer gets the message in her chat, and a linked Shiprocket shipment shows its courier status beside the order — see Shipping and order updates.

Know when to say no to cash on delivery

Cash on delivery doesn’t have to be on offer for everything. Ask for payment upfront when:

• the item is made to order or personalised — nobody else can buy it if it comes back
• the order is much larger than usual for your shop — ask for a part-payment at least
• the customer has turned a parcel away before — keep a note on their chat, so whoever answers next knows
• the address can’t be completed

Copy this: “For personalised orders we take payment upfront, since we make each one just for you. Here’s your link for ₹[amount] — I’ll start on it as soon as it’s through.”

The short version

• Confirm every cash-on-delivery order in the chat — total, address, amount to keep ready — before you pack it.
• Fix the address during the chat: house number, landmark, pincode, and a phone the courier can reach.
• Make paying upfront the easier choice with a small saving, offered without suspicion.
• Ship fast, message when it ships and on the day, and act the same day on a failed attempt.
• Ask for payment upfront on personalised items, much larger orders and customers who have refused before.