Cash on delivery (COD)
Cash on delivery, or COD, is a payment method where an Indian shopper orders online but pays in cash to the courier at the doorstep when the package arrives. The store ships first and collects later. It is the most trusted checkout option for first-time buyers in India, especially outside metros.
Cash on delivery, or COD, is a payment method where an Indian shopper orders online but pays in cash to the courier at the doorstep when the package arrives. The store ships first and collects later. It is the most trusted checkout option for first-time buyers in India, especially outside metros.
With COD, the shopper places an order online and pays the delivery agent in cash when the parcel arrives at their door. The store fronts the cost of picking, packing, and shipping the order before any money changes hands. Funds are collected by the courier and remitted back to the brand, usually a week or two later.
COD remains the default in India because many shoppers still do not trust paying upfront on a site they have not used before. It is especially common in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, in categories like apparel, jewellery, and home, and for first-time buyers of a brand.
The trade-off is real. COD brings volume but also higher return-to-origin (RTO) rates, locked-up working capital, and reconciliation work. Most Indian brands use it as an entry point and then nudge repeat buyers toward prepaid through small discounts or free shipping on prepaid orders.
On beyondRegular
When a shopper watches a beyondRegular shoppable video and taps a hotspot, they go to your store's normal product page and checkout. That means your existing COD setup keeps working as it is. The widget does not handle payments itself, so whatever you offer through Shopify, Razorpay, or your own gateway, including COD with its usual pincode rules and order limits, simply carries over. The video does the discovery, your store does the checkout.
Common questions
Why do Indian shoppers still prefer COD?
Trust is the main reason. Many buyers, especially in smaller cities or buying from a brand for the first time, want to see and feel the product before parting with money. UPI and cards are widely used, but COD removes the fear of paying for an order that never shows up or arrives broken. For a new D2C brand, offering COD is often the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.
How do I reduce RTO losses on COD orders?
A few tactics work well. Confirm the order over WhatsApp or IVR before dispatch so fake addresses drop out. Offer a small prepaid discount, free shipping on prepaid, or a coupon on the next order to shift buyers from COD to UPI. Use your courier's address quality score to block risky pincodes. Finally, keep COD limits sensible on high value SKUs.
Related resources
Return rate (RTO)
Return rate is the share of orders sent back instead of kept, usually shown as returns divided by total orders, times 100. In India it splits into RTO, return to origin, where a parcel never reaches the buyer and comes back, and post-delivery returns, where a delivered item is sent back.
Cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds products to their cart but leaves before completing the purchase. The cart abandonment rate measures how often this happens: carts not converted to orders, divided by carts created, times 100. It marks lost intent between adding to cart and paying.