The COD playbook: reducing return-to-origin (RTO)

Cash on delivery wins trust but bleeds margin through return-to-origin — orders that ship, fail to deliver, and come back. Here's how to cut it.

Confirm before you ship

A WhatsApp "reply to confirm" step removes impulse and fake orders before they cost you shipping both ways.

Score risk

Flag high-risk orders (new number, remote area, repeat RTO) for a human call before dispatch.

Fix the address

Most failed deliveries are bad addresses. Capture a landmark and a second phone number at checkout.

Communicate the dispatch

"Out for delivery, courier will call from X" reduces no-answer failures.

Track the rate

Watch RTO % by product, region, and courier. Drop couriers and regions that consistently fail.

> Every 1% of RTO you remove drops straight to the bottom line — it's pure recovered margin, not new revenue you had to buy.