The e-commerce sector in India has experienced some massive growth in the last 2 decades, with more and more industries turning to the Internet to expand or even create their businesses.
For E-tailers and other industries that engage in the sale of goods, e-Commerce has created an avenue for prepaid payments to be made when customers purchase goods, so the entire process of delivery is quick and convenient. However, numerous Indians still maintain a preference for COD (Cash-on-Delivery) for a variety of reasons.
While this makes offering COD options for payment a boon in terms of building customer loyalty, it can be a bane on the overall delivery success rate for any given e-commerce business.
The good news is that the difficulties of allowing cash on delivery are not wholly unsolvable, thanks to processes like COD Reconciliation and proper returns management in case of failed deliveries.
Picking a courier partner that is equipped to handle such orders is a part of the solution. In this article, we’ll break down the pros and cons of COD (cash on delivery) and what you as a business owner can do to reconcile those cons.
Pro Tip : No matter how many COD courier services you use, your shipping policy must include whether you offer cash on delivery or not. Don't have a shipping policy yet? Download our free shipping policy template for your business today!
In order to offer cash-on-delivery options on your e-commerce platform, you require courier partners that are equipped to handle COD deliveries for the areas and pin codes you service.
This can be affected by the courier partner’s delivery mechanism, the level of training provided to their staff, and even smaller factors like their chosen means of transportation and the insurance they provide for deliveries.
For example, a company that does not fulfill the in-transit safety requirements for parcels being shipped may be less likely to offer COD or to provide successful COD reconciliation. It is a system to balance the books in case of both completed and failed COD orders.
BlueDart provides its services to over 35,000 locations inside and outside the country. Their time-bound services enable efficient and trustworthy delivery, further enabled by the frequent clearances they undergo.
Their rates are pre-determined based on the weight of the cargo. The Blue Dart API handles larger and high-value orders, and has a clear system in place for COD orders. Orders are not completed until the payment has been handed over from the consignee to the e-commerce partner.
FedEx offers extremely reliable and convenient delivery for 6,000+ pin codes. However, their cash-on-delivery (COD) courier services are only offered if an e-Commerce business falls under certain categories.
The numerous terms and conditions for the service can make it difficult, but if a business has more prepaid orders, FedEx is one of the top courier companies to partner with. Once you have the FedEx API integration, you only need to create a FedEx account to enable cash on delivery orders for all land, sea and air freights.
Delhivery is a leading courier partner that ships to over 13,000 pin codes across 175 cities. While their cash-on-delivery courier services are slightly slower than the average delivery, Delhivery provides services and the assurance that your product will reach safely and undamaged, thereby reducing the likelihood of failed delivery.
Ecommerce clients looking for comprehensive shipping, tracking and delivery services only need to give their developers access to the Delhivery API documentation for fast integration.
DTDC is one of the most well-known courier services, despite the fact that they cater to a smaller range of delivery. They offer the most cost-effective prices, with the aid of a well-connected network of 12,000 offices across the country.
They take a little longer to deliver packages but the DTDC API integration can help you reach customers even in the most remote last-mile destinations. COD is offered only for specified pin codes, though, and a limited number at that.
Gati is another courier company that is highly ranked in India, providing its services across over 5,000 pin codes. GATI uses a highly advanced fleet of well-trained professionals to ensure speedy and efficient delivery, major benefits for any courier partner offering cash-on-delivery courier services, along with their useful Customer Support team. They charge additional fees for orders that require cash to be handled.
XpressBees is one of the top logistics providers in India and specializes in SDD (Same-Day-Delivery) and NDD (Next-Day-Delivery).
XpressBees also offers cash-on-delivery services and have a well-managed return and reverse logistics system, making them an excellent option if you receive a number of cash on delivery orders.
An expert in end-to-end logistics, Ecom Express, caters to 27,000+ pin codes in over 2500 different cities across India. As the name suggests, they provide express delivery as well as reverse logistics services.
They also offer 72-hour pick up and delivery services along with doorstep quality checks which can reduce the number of cancelled COD orders.
Shadowfax is one of India’s leading third-party logistics service providers company and caters to a little over 7000 pin codes. They maintain a network of over 150,000 delivery partners.
ShadowFax offers doorstep delivery for a variety of different industries, which can be paid in either cash or UPI payments, taking cash on delivery to the ultimate level. With over 500,000 orders a day, Shadowfax is highly equipped to streamline the whole process of COD reconciliation.
E-Kart is a logistics partner run by Instakart and owned by Flipkart. They carry out approximately 1.5 million shipments a month to nearly 4,000 pin codes across the country.
The Ekart Logistics API offers both single-day and same-day delivery for certain locations. Having begun providing courier services in 2009 originally with Flipkart, they have had nearly a decade of experience in handling COD orders and aiding the eCommerce businesses in cash on delivery reconciliation.
India Post still remains at the head of the table in terms of shipping services that also offer cash-on-delivery options to customers. They have over 1 Lakh postal offices spread across the country, making it one of the largest and most well-connected postal networks in the world.
India Post Courier Company is able to offer COD to contractual customers for bulk orders up to Rs.50,000. By integrating with the India Post post office API eCommerce entrepreneurs can reach the widest range of customers, provide them real-time order tracking features and simplify with returns management.
COD reconciliation involves a number of things, the most important being to reconcile the payment of a COD order with the corresponding transaction in the accounting books.
The next part of cash on delivery reconciliation would be to determine what causes COD orders to be cancelled or refused at the time of delivery and if there are methods to reduce the number of such failed deliveries, either through action by you or by the courier company.
Here are a few things you can do to make offering COD a more efficient option, and increase your customer base. These are 100% tested tips and tricks using which an online business owner can finalize the right cash on delivery (COD) courier company in India.
You can tie up with a Courier or Logistics or Shipping Services Provider Company from the above-listed options. These Courier companies, like the 10 listed above, are experienced in handling Cash on delivery orders.
More information can be found about their specific services, including their cash on delivery courier services. You can determine which courier services companies in India have a well-trained staff, optimum vehicles with safety protocols in place to ensure the safety of the product at the time of delivery, and efficient reverse logistics in place.
Dealing with Non-Delivery Reports (NDR) is a huge part of the logistics of any e-commerce business, whether or not cash on delivery is offered. In the case of COD, a streamlined eCommerce NDR management system allows you to track which orders have failed to be completed in what areas and for what reasons.
This will enable you to better understand which locations you should offer COD in and whether or not the courier company you’re tied up with is performing adequately in these situations with respect to the safety of the product or timely delivery.
In case of returns, especially those related to cash on delivery orders, having a strong and highly responsive customer support team can enable orders to be completed in a timely manner.
For example, say a COD order has failed in the initial attempt due to a wrong address, effective customer support team would be able to reach out to the customer and receive the correct address so the order can be fulfilled within the next 24 hours.
This can help to reduce the overall number of failed COD orders and enhance customer satisfaction. If your goal is improving the post-purchase experience of your customers, then a shipping aggregator like ShipRocket or its competitors might be the best option for you.
An effective courier API-driven platform that integrates all of your courier partners, like ClickPost, can give you a single system for NDR management, returns management, and other important aspects of data analytics.
It will enable you to track which courier partners are performing the best and which areas other courier partners need to improve with respect to COD reconciliation, reverse logistics, and communication.
Improving your platform or finding a platform that gives you a unified view of order statuses is extremely important for maintaining the transparency of shipments. This is especially vital in the case of COD (cash on delivery) orders.
Giving your finance or accounting team clear visibility of order by order shipment statuses will allow them to quickly decipher which orders are completed but remain unpaid by the courier company, and which orders are yet to be delivered.
So, these are the top 10 best cash on delivery (COD) courier services provider companies in India which you can choose for your eCommerce business after checking all the necessary details.
Cash-On-Delivery services have been a major part of the eCommerce logistics industry for quite some time. Despite the fact that more efficient payment methods have been made available, COD isn’t going anywhere.
As long as consumers remain attached to it, e-commerce businesses must as well. Keeping that in mind, we hope this article will aid you in offering COD payment mechanisms and help you understand how you can optimize COD Reconciliation.
Most importantly, we hope we’ve given you a clear idea of the ideal logistics partners you can turn to ensure efficient fulfillment of cash-on delivery orders. If this article gave you some useful insights, share them!