How to cut down RTO
RTOs happen when the buyer’s address in unavailable and the product has to be shipped back to the warehouse of the seller. It is not only a hassle logistically, but also significantly increases the handling costs for processing such orders. Studies have shown that upto 30% of orders can be deemed as RTO, if the situation is not dealt in the budding stages.
Here’s how you can tackle it better:
Discourage COD(Cash On Delivery) orders as much as possible by giving users incentive to pay online and get exclusive discount coupons. If you want to keep COD, avoid charging additional fees.
Ask the user to enter as detailed an address as possible and ensure you have a setup where pincodes and phone numbers are validated before dispatch. Ideally, you should turn off COD at pin codes where there have been repeated RTOs as well.
Mention return/exchange policies clearly and mention standard delivery timelines on the product page to avoid irrelevant purchases. For eg, say a person wants the product within 3-4 days but the usual delivery timeline is 7+ days, the order will become an RTO in case he/she orders without knowing the delivery estimates.
Send the customer regular updates via SMS/E-mail after the order has been placed can be helpful. Also ensure that your logistics partners attempts re-delivery atleast once if the first time is a fail.
Keep your delivery period as short as possible and calling people to verify their addresses first can also be an option, if your RTO % is very high.
What other suggestions do you have to reduce RTO? Let me know!