COD Refusals: How a Store Can Lose Fewer Orders

A refused COD order is the store's biggest fear: the goods travel to another city and back, delivery is spent, no money collected. You cannot eliminate refusals, but cutting them from a typical 10–15% to 3–5% is realistic.

Why buyers refuse

• They cooled off while waiting. Every extra delivery day costs a few percent of buyout rate.
• Nobody reached them. The courier came, the buyer was at work, no second attempt.
• The order was a «maybe». Ordered from three stores at once.
• No cash on delivery day.

What reduces refusals

• Speed. Next-day delivery is the single strongest factor — the order has no time to cool off.
• Confirmation before dispatch. A short «shipping tomorrow, delivery 350 KGS, will you be home?» filters out accidental orders.
• A tracking link for the buyer. Seeing «courier on the way», people plan their day around the delivery. Ours goes out via WhatsApp automatically.
• The courier calls before arriving — our standard, the buyer has cash ready.
• Honest product listings — «not like the photo» refusals are fixed only by your content.

The math

At 100 orders/month with a 2000 KGS average check, the difference between 15% and 5% refusals is 10 saved sales: 20,000 KGS of revenue plus two-way delivery costs saved.

Where to start

Connect COD with Today Express: next-day delivery, automatic tracking links, courier call before handover. Terms: business page.