Ask any seller who has tried prepaid-only checkout in India: orders drop. Cash on delivery is still how a large share of customers prefer to pay, especially first-time buyers who have not ordered from you before. The problem is not whether to offer COD — you mostly should — it is how to offer it without every fake or careless order costing you a wasted trip and a returned parcel.
Why COD still matters
A new customer who has never bought from you has no reason to trust you with money upfront. COD removes that friction, and it is often the deciding factor between a sale and an abandoned cart. For many small sellers, blocking COD blocks the sale, not the risk.
What good COD design looks like
- Confirm the order by a call or message before it ships, not just a form submit.
- Track each customer's delivery history — how many orders they actually accepted.
- Set a COD order limit per customer that starts small and grows as they build a track record of accepting deliveries, and drops back if a delivery is refused.
- Make prepaid the easier, faster option at checkout, without removing COD.
What it costs you
Every refused COD delivery costs you the forward shipping, the return shipping, and the item's time off the shelf. This is manageable if you catch risky orders early — new customers, unusually large first orders, mismatched address and phone — and manage those differently from your regular buyers. It is not manageable if every customer gets an unlimited COD limit from day one.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Does the system track delivery acceptance per customer, or treat every order the same?
- Can the COD limit grow automatically as a customer proves reliable, and drop after a refusal?
- Is there a confirmation step before an order ships, or does everything go straight to dispatch?
- Can I switch a customer to prepaid-only if they keep refusing delivery?
How we can help
Shoppyti builds this into the store itself — a COD limit that starts small per customer and grows with every delivered order, and resets if a delivery is refused, so you get the sales COD brings without carrying open-ended risk. See how Shoppyti handles orders, or talk to us to set up your store.
