
One of my e-commerce clients faces an average return of 40%
What he sells: Therapeutic Green tea in different flavours
Looking for solutions which can reduce the COD returns


Gowardhan Doddi
That indicates her marketing messaging and promotional stuff is not aligned with what he is delivering
Akansha Dalmia
that isn’t the case! Please don’t comment without knowing about the product. Thanks
Gowardhan Doddi
haha dont get offended, with whatever details you gave, whatever I mentioned is possible.
Akansha Dalmia
I know that but as I said, it’s a therapeutic tea.. We have sleep tea, colon detox tea etc which means chai peete hi neend nai ayegi but dhere dhere aajygi.. it takes time and people also be like “chai se neend udti hai” but we are selling green tea and not oolong or black tea
Shivam Malhotra
just a suggestion - never fall in love with your product because its the market which will decide whethers its good or not.If its not selling then probably you need to go back and look at the communication or the product itself.Take care🙂
Ruchir Pahuja
Your inputs are correct but you missed an important point - she mentioned COD returns which means the customer is not returning after they’ve seen/used the product..
Maadhav Saxena
Exclude the pincodes which have highest returns, call and verify the details of the orders when placed on the site.
Akansha Dalmia
thanks. Should help
Subham Bapna
1. How fast does he deliver? A product like this needs instant delivery before the customer changes his mind.
2. Is the product similar to the way it was promoted?
3. Do you think the delivery execs or delivery partners have something to do with it? (Like for instance, I used to get returns because the delivery partner I chose back weren't professional.)
4. Does the product offer value for the money? Also, is it easily available in the local market at any store?
5. Are you sure that those fake orders aren't by your competitors (just to increase your spend.) Find out the IP addresses and technical details of all the cancelled orders.:)
Achintya Surya
Call and confirm before dispatching cod orders. If possible completely discontinue cod orders. Add sampling tea bag to each dispatch. If the customer dislikes it and uses just that tea bag while leaving the rest intact then issue full refund on the return
Arokya Inian
Why do they return?
Sahil Juneja
Indian ecomm ka yehi scene hai
Akansha Dalmia
My client says the same thing... Poor ethical responsibility
Arokya Inian
Ask for reasons while returning. Whats the top reason?
Sahil Juneja
Humne order nahi kiya.
Galti se ho gaya
Hum to aise hi kuch try kar rhe the.
Bachho ne kar diya hoga.
Sorry we don't want it bla bla
Akansha Dalmia
plus ours is a health based product so you know for detox etc so, the customers suddenly be like - ehh yeh nai chaiye kuch aur samjha tha🤷🏻♀️
Shivam Malhotra
you already know the issue if most customers are saying this.You need to change your communication and educate potential customers about what the product is.
Akansha Dalmia
So, like the post says this is my clients product, then I shouldn’t be attached either right? I can help but with limitations
Shivam Malhotra
it meant whatever youre selling,dont be attached to it.Many good products don't sell in the market and if every company starts defending the product it wont change much.The only thing is that market is unwilling to accept it and you should find out why.
I think its the lack of customer education which is resulting in such high returns.
Akansha Dalmia
The product with minor tweaks is doing pretty good in USA and Canada market but in India it’s not working. It’s not about attachment, but I used the product and it’s really helpful if someone’s looking for healthy products. So honestly it’s not the quality but I think customer education is something that we are working through copy writing
Shivam Malhotra
I never said its quality.First look at the communication and then product is what I said.
Plus you yourself said that people say 'Ye nahi chahiye tha' which means lack of proper communication/consumer education.
Gaurav Hasija
1. Use whatsapp api for a notification and an embeded url to be clicked, showing all info filled in previous step to reconfirm.
2. Use a whatsapp bot to reconfirm.
This metric can be used for retargeting too
Mayur Kulkarni
Any good providers of whatsapp API? Last I checked it wasn't officially open for all.
Gaurav Hasija
many are there now, twillio,messagebird, yellow messenger, dove soft
Raghu Nandan Choudhary
Have you done any analysis what's causing the return 40% is a huge number do some basic RCA and filter out using a Pareto principle,
Take consumer feedback about the product
Is shipment is an issue , products are being undelivered etc ?
Tarun Kumar
Apart from what people suggested, you can push the online payment orders. The one way will be charging the COD option.If Facebook ads is the primary source of revenue.Make Lookalike audience for delivered orders as well as online payment customers. Ihave many clients where 70-80% orders are prepaid.It takes time, but it can be achieved in some months time by pushing the prepaid. you can also do aggressive BOF campaigns to reinforce the branding and push some discount on prepaid orders. 40% return is significant and getting majority of customers for prepaid orders is the way to go. The LTV value of customers is good in these niches so focus on existing customers as well.Those are the easy ones to target for online payment for repeat orders.
Varun Joshi
agreeing with many of the above comments,
a communication with the customer before delivery can be a key solution to your problem,
you can inform the customer at the time of order placement that someone from the CSE team will call for confirmation or feedback
what i can think of is
Nominal Charges on Returns considering the market (India) your customer is from. (5/10% of invoice amt)
Siddartha Khetan
To me 40% return is an indicator for optimising ur funnel.
Check the messaging, collect data like if from why're they returning.
Then analyse is there a gap between what you say nd what delivered.
Maybe a discount on online payment could help.
You need to collect data, analyze and keep on trying various things till 40% becomes less than 20%.
Once again optimization at all level is the key
Akansha Dalmia
Thanks - we are starting the data collection and analysis
Subro Dey
In my experience in the tea segment 40% return is too high. Shouldn't be more than 15.. Whats the ad target? You need to check if your targeting is proper and suspend cod temporarily.
Akansha Dalmia
No Fb ads... Only organic traffic
Milan Shedu
Thirdwatch from Razorpay lets you flag risky transactions, impulse purchases, fake addresses, fight COD fraud and reduce RTO losses by upto 30%. There's also a 1 month trial to experience the platform at 0 cost with one click plugin install for top e-commerce platforms
https://razorpay.com/thirdwatch/
Arushi Sachdeva
So I have a shopify store - Dohful Cookies (dohful.com). The reason I'm mentioning is because when I was starting I took a conscious decision of not having COD even if that meant loosing a few customers. Because as you may see on the website out cookies are upwards of Rs. 299 for a pack of 4 cookies. So obviously not everyone is a customer. So we thought anyone who's ready to spend on cookies is probably well versed with online shopping, usage of credit cards etc. And is comfortable taking a risk of Rs. 300 - Rs. 500. Such a customer is looking for the most genuine and amazing cookie experience and not COD. That's why we don't have COD. And truthfully speaking we've never lost any genuine customer to this. So yes, what I'm trying to say is that maybe your client if dealing in lifestyle products should clearly identify their customers and whether COD even classifies as a value proposition for their customers.
most active community
and interact with 20k+
like-minded entrepreneurs
