RTO, also known as “return to origin”, is a common term in the eCommerce sector. When a buyer wants to return or cancel the order placed from an online marketplace or eCommerce website, the package is sent back to the seller, at its original location. Such a consignment is called an RTO shipment.

 

Reducing the Return To Origin is quite important for your business as it can eat up your profit margin and also make you lose out on business. Several reasons can lead to high RTO such as poor quality products, wrong product delivery, damaged products, wrong address information, delayed delivery, and so on. Whatever might be the reason behind sending a package back, it’s only going to cause extra expenditure for your business. So, no matter how many orders you receive in a day, you must keep a check on your RTO percentage.

 

 

Key Reasons For High RTO

Several studies show that 1 in every 3 orders are returned to their original location due to various reasons. Let’s look at the key reasons below.

  • The quality of your products is not up to the mark
  • Products delivered don’t match the image or description mentioned on the website
  • Address (lane address, pin code, etc.) filled by your customer is incorrect
  • The wrong product is delivered to the customer
  • The customer receives a product that’s been damaged in the transit
  • Delivery is delayed by your carrier partner
  • Unforeseen charges levied on a shipment
  • Lack of visibility into shipment tracking

 

Keeping all the above reasons in mind, let’s check out the ways you can minimize the RTO percentage and increase the profit margin.

 

 

Ways To Tackle The RTO Issue

 

RTO levies a significant cost burden on eCommerce sellers. The issue can be mainly tackled in the below-cited three levels.

 

Marketing

At the marketing level, RTO can be tackled before even receiving the orders. You can do it by targeting the audience in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, based on their purchasing capacity, and running discounts on prepaid orders.

 

 

Operational

Operations begin once an order is received by you. For example, you ought to check the customers’ delivery information including their address and pin code and make an order confirmation call in case of COD orders to qualify them before dispatch.

 

 

Shipping

Shipping is handled after a product is dispatched from your warehouse to the customer’s location. At this stage, you should provide your customers real-time tracking facility. Further, you should also be able to provide the contact number of the delivery person on the day a product is expected to be out for delivery. It not only keeps your customers informed about the transit stage of the package but also lets them plan in case they’re not available to receive the order on a particular day.

 

Further, some customers tend to cancel their orders because the delivery is delayed at your carrier partner’s end, especially during the peak/festive season. Therefore, to enhance your customers’ delivery experience, you should partner with a reliable logistics partner.

 

 

 

 

How To Reduce RTO In Ecommerce?

 

Optimize Product Descriptions

A product description can help set the right expectations with your customer. Keep your products’ descriptions as close to reality as possible as it can cut down your return worries by half.

 

 

Tracking

Order tracking facility plays a significant role in ensuring customer satisfaction and bringing down their anxiety as they order something from an unpopular website. Besides that, providing shipment status regularly also reduces the chances of returns and cancellations.

 

 

Checkout Process

Payments can decide how a customer sees your online store. An unsafe payment experience is a big deal-breaker for anyone. So, you should associate with a logistics service provider that has partnered with trusted payment gateways. A safe payment method will surely help in reducing the number of return orders.

 

 

Packaging

Ensuring safe packaging helps in reducing the RTO orders. If you’re getting a lot of returned orders due to damaged products, it may be time to review your packaging management. Always ensure tamper-proof packaging, particularly if you sell fragile and perishable items. Solid packaging can help you immensely in bringing down the return orders due to poor packaging.

 

 

Customer Service

Indian buyers are not buying poor customer service anymore. You need to ensure superior overall customer service to enhance your customers’ shopping experience from your online store. You can also establish a feedback system to deal with customer grievances at the earliest and improve your experience with your brand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s The Ultimate Solution?

Whether you face high return to origin issues or not, in the end, it all comes down to delivering a good customer experience. The best solution is to partner with a logistics service provider that can give you 360 degree logistics solutions as it will help you deliver the products safely, on time, and in the fastest time. NimbusPost, a tech-enabled shipping aggregator offers you 27+ courier options that let you deliver across 29000+ pin codes across the country, and in international locations too. By partnering with the automated shipping platform that offers great control over your Return to origin with its advanced NDR panel, you can expect a nearly 30% reduction in RTO orders and smooth order fulfillment.

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