Reducing RTO
Do partial deposits or prepayments reduce RTO?
Direct answer
Yes, dramatically, on the orders where you use them. A customer who has paid even a small deposit almost never refuses delivery, because walking away now costs them real money. Use deposits selectively: high-value orders, custom items, remote delivery zones, and customers with a refusal history.
Why deposits work
RTO exists because COD costs the customer nothing to abandon. A deposit, even 10-20% of the order, flips the psychology: the customer now has skin in the game, and the doorstep refusal that was free yesterday costs them their deposit today.
Where deposits earn their keep
- High-value orders, where one RTO burns serious margin.
- Custom or made-to-order items you cannot resell easily.
- Remote delivery zones, where round-trip freight is most expensive.
- Repeat refusers, as a condition for serving them again.
- Pre-orders and imports with long lead times, where minds have weeks to change.
Where they hurt
Demanding deposits from every first-time customer kills the trust advantage that makes COD convert in the first place. Blanket deposits are for stores with extreme fraud problems, not as a default policy.
How to collect them smoothly
Send a payment link inside the confirmation conversation on WhatsApp, right after the customer says yes. That timing feels natural: they just committed, and the link is one tap away. ReplAi can hold the order until the deposit clears and confirm it in the same chat automatically.
Last updated 2026-07-09