Glossary · marketplace
What is Failed delivery (COD refusal)?
A failed delivery is an order that does not reach a paying customer: the buyer refuses the parcel at the door, cannot be reached, gives a wrong address, or cancels after dispatch. With cash on delivery, the seller has already paid for packing and often for shipping both ways, and the stock is tied up in transit for days. Failed deliveries are among the largest hidden costs in Pakistani e-commerce. They are reduced by confirming orders before dispatch (a call or WhatsApp message), flagging repeat refusers, asking for a small advance on high-value orders, describing products honestly, and shipping quickly before the buyer changes their mind.
What does Failed delivery (COD refusal) mean for a business in Pakistan?
COD remains the default for many Pakistani online shoppers, and impulse orders placed late at night are common, so refusals are a fact of life rather than a rare event. Sellers on their own websites can require WhatsApp confirmation; on marketplaces, the platform's own rules apply.
A worked example
A hypothetical Shopify store in Rawalpindi ships 400 COD orders in a month and 70 come back. Each return costs it around PKR 350 in two-way courier fees and packing — PKR 24,500 lost. After adding a WhatsApp confirmation template sent before dispatch, unconfirmed orders are held, and fewer parcels return.
Terms that go with this one
These come up in the same conversations and are worth reading together.
- Conversions APICAPIThe Conversions API, usually called CAPI, sends conversion events to Meta straight from your server or a connected platform, rather than relying only…
- Template messagetemplate messageA template message is a pre-written WhatsApp message that Meta has approved for a business to send through the WhatsApp Business Platform, mainly to…
- Seller ratingseller ratingOn Daraz and similar marketplaces, the seller rating is the public score that shows how a store has treated its buyers, built from customer feedback…
- Conversion rateconversion rateConversion rate is the share of people who completed the action, out of the people who had a real chance to complete it, written as a percentage. The…
- Offline conversionoffline conversionAn offline conversion is a sale or result that happens away from the website — in a showroom, over the phone, on WhatsApp or at delivery — and is…
Failed delivery (COD refusal) — quick answers
What does Failed delivery (COD refusal) mean?
A failed delivery is an order that does not reach a paying customer: the buyer refuses the parcel at the door, cannot be reached, gives a wrong address, or cancels after dispatch. With cash on delivery, the seller has already paid for packing and often for shipping both ways, and the stock is tied up in transit for days.
Failed delivery (COD refusal) ko Urdu mein kya kehte hain?
ناکام ڈیلیوری — though in practice almost everyone in Pakistan says "parcel wapas aa gaya". COD remains the default for many Pakistani online shoppers, and impulse orders placed late at night are common, so refusals are a fact of life rather than a rare event.
Why does Failed delivery (COD refusal) matter for a business in Pakistan?
COD remains the default for many Pakistani online shoppers, and impulse orders placed late at night are common, so refusals are a fact of life rather than a rare event. Sellers on their own websites can require WhatsApp confirmation; on marketplaces, the platform's own rules apply.
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