A regular dose of D2C-centric resources & tools for Growing Brands, Startups & Entrepreneurs.

The D2C Guide to Decoding India's Most Profitable—and Painful—₹ Habits — Decoding the ₹ed Flags, ₹eturn Traps, and ₹eal Margin Killers.

Cash on Delive₹y is Where the Heart (and Hurt) Is

India is a paradox.
On one side: 350M+ UPI users, 90M+ credit card holders, rising BNPL penetration.
On the other: 40–70% of orders for many D2C brands still come with this instruction—Cash on Delivery!!

For Indian D2C founders, this is a ticking margin bomb.

Despite digitisation and convenience, COD remains deeply embedded in consumer behaviour, especially across Tier-2/3 cities. And it’s not just a payment mode — it’s a source of friction across product, ops, retention, and cashflow.

₹eal Data — COD vs Prepaid

Here’s a consolidated view of how COD skews critical metrics:

📌 Even if your COD conversion rate is good, the bottom line suffers.

🛒 The Full COD Journey

Below is a full flow of where COD-related issues crop up across a customer's lifecycle — and what basic interventions can be applied:

₹eal-time Optimisation — The Anti-RTO Arsenal for Indian D2C Brands

No single tool will fix COD. You need a full ₹ed flag stack:

The ₹ed Flagging Stack

Let’s dissect the 5 chronic problems Indian D2C brands face with COD — and the anatomy of each.

1️⃣ The ₹isk of Fake or Low-Intent Orders

Buyer Intent ≠ Purchase Intent

Many customers use COD not because they can’t pay — but because there’s no penalty for ordering and cancelling, an action with zero commitment.

Common Triggers:

• Midnight browsing, impulse orders

• First-time shoppers in high-RTO pin codes

• High-return shoppers ordering across brands with different phone numbers

Result: An apparel brand used this layered buyer profiling to reduce COD returns by 31% within 90 days.

2️⃣ The ₹ecurring Cart Risk That’s Ignored

Most COD checks are at order-level — not cart-level.

Real-World Scenarios:

• ₹99 earrings + fragile glass = high chance of return + breakage

• Entire cart with only discounted SKUs = buyer regret probability ↑

• Combining COD with non-resellable items = logistics cost that can't be recovered

3️⃣ The ₹isk During Sale Events

Flash sales and festive drops draw in “₹ gamers” — buyers who intend only to exploit the deal.

Anti-loss Strategies During Campaigns:

• Tag products as “Sale-only” → COD Disabled

• Limit COD quantity per user/device

• Auto-flag 2+ orders from same IP in 24 hours

• Use WhatsApp CTWA (Click-to-WhatsApp Ads) to route high-intent buyers to conditional COD flows

• Make Partial-COD at least, a mandatory during sale period - to recoup logistic costs (if cancelled)

4️⃣ ₹ecovery Flows Are Weak (or Missing 🤷‍♀️)

Even post-order, there are 3+ points where a brand can intervene — but most don’t.

Recovery Ladder:

Result: D2C footwear brand recovered ₹3.2L/month by pushing exchange-first nudges via WhatsApp.

5️⃣ Invisible ₹ Leaks in Analytics

Most brands only track:

“How many COD orders came?” or “What’s our RTO?”

That’s not enough.

✅ COD is not the enemy — Poor COD management is.
✅ Most COD losses are preventable — if your stack has rules, logic, and recovery built-in.
✅ Managing COD means managing intent, risk, cost, and recovery.

Next Steps:

🔍 Let Pragma run a audit on your brand:

See where you’re leaking ₹, which SKUs are hurting most, and how to plug losses with data from 1000+ Indian D2Cs.

That’s the end of our talk on “AMA₹ING India & The ₹isk Factor.”...

☕ See you on the next coffee date!

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