JoarFor most online shops in Bangladesh, cash on delivery is not optional — it is how customers want to pay. The price of that trust is the returned parcel: the customer is not home, changes their mind, or never meant to buy. You pay the courier both ways, the product is stuck for a week, and sometimes it comes back damaged.
You cannot make returns disappear, but you can make them much rarer. These are the steps that make the biggest difference, in the order we would add them.
1. Confirm every order before you ship it
A large share of returns are orders the customer barely remembers placing. A short confirmation call or message removes most of them.
- Call or message within an hour of the order, while the customer still remembers it.
- Repeat the product, size or colour, the total price including delivery, and the address.
- If you cannot reach the customer after two tries, hold the order instead of shipping it.
A one-minute call costs far less than a courier charge in both directions.
2. Check the customer's history before shipping
Couriers keep a record of how many parcels each phone number has received and returned. Before you ship, look the number up:
- Many deliveries, few returns — ship normally.
- New number — this is not a bad sign on its own. Most customers are new to you. Confirm the order and ship.
- Many returns — ask for the delivery charge in advance, or a partial advance, before you ship.
Be careful with one thing: if a lookup fails or times out, that is unknown, not zero returns. Treat it as "check again", never as a clean record.
3. Get the address right the first time
Wrong or incomplete addresses cause returns that have nothing to do with the customer. Ask for the area (thana) and district separately, not one free-text line. When you book the parcel, make sure the courier's area matches what the customer wrote — a parcel booked to the wrong zone travels further, takes longer, and is more likely to come back.
4. Make the delivery charge clear
Customers refuse parcels when the amount at the door is higher than they expected. Show the delivery charge in your first reply, in the order confirmation and on the invoice. If you offer free delivery above an amount, say so clearly.
5. Ship fast and send the tracking
The longer a parcel takes, the more time the customer has to change their mind or buy elsewhere. Book the parcel the same day when you can, and send the customer the tracking link. When the rider calls, they are expecting it.
6. Follow up on parcels that are on hold
When a courier marks a parcel as "on hold" or "customer not reachable", call the customer yourself the same day. Often the problem is a wrong number digit or a different delivery time — something a two-minute call fixes before the parcel is sent back.
Measure it
Write down your return rate every week: returned parcels divided by shipped parcels. Add one step at a time and watch the number. Most shops see the biggest drop from confirmation calls alone, and the rest from checking history and fixing addresses.
If you want these steps to happen automatically — confirmation calls, history checks before booking, and courier booking from the chat — that is exactly what our order and courier tools do. See how it works or message us.