How to reduce RTO on COD orders in India: 6 fixes that work

1. Check the address before you ship

Flag incomplete addresses, mismatched pincodes and missing landmarks at the order stage. A quick WhatsApp confirmation for flagged orders costs less than a failed delivery. Prozo’s Address Scoring Module grades every D2C address before dispatch and corrects, verifies or moves a weak one to prepaid.

2. Confirm high-risk COD orders

First-time buyers, very high order values and repeat cancellers deserve a confirmation message before dispatch. Unconfirmed orders can wait or be cancelled.

3. Act on every NDR within hours, not days

When a courier marks a delivery failed, call or message the buyer in their own language, fix the issue and reattempt. Most saveable orders are lost because no one follows up. Prozo flags each NDR within minutes, confirms address and time on WhatsApp, calls the buyer in the regional language and makes 3 attempts before any RTO.

4. Choose the courier by pincode, not by habit

Courier performance varies a lot by area. Route each order to the partner with the best delivery record and RTO rate at that pincode, not just the cheapest one. Prozo’s AI-PACE engine avoids risky courier partners for COD and high-value orders.

5. Nudge buyers towards prepaid

A small prepaid discount or faster dispatch for prepaid orders shifts the mix away from COD.

6. Fix returns at the source

Trace every return to its cause. Repeat offenders, weak pincodes and problem SKUs show up quickly once each RTO has a recorded reason. Prozo’s Returns Reduction Module does this for every return and fixes the cause at source.