COD Fundamentals
What is a normal RTO rate for COD orders?
Direct answer
In COD-heavy markets like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, unmanaged COD orders commonly come back at rates of 25-35%. Stores that confirm every order before shipping and keep customers informed during delivery routinely cut that to the low teens. Anything above 30% means you are shipping unconfirmed orders.
Where stores typically sit
| Situation | Typical RTO on COD orders |
|---|---|
| No confirmation, no delivery updates | 25-35% |
| Manual phone confirmation | high teens to mid 20s |
| Automated confirmation plus delivery updates | low teens |
These are ranges commonly reported across COD-heavy markets, and they match what we see with ReplAi merchants. One example: Blaze, a ReplAi client, ran at 30% RTO before automating confirmation and cut it to 15%.
How to read your own number
- Under 15%: healthy for a COD store. Keep doing what you are doing.
- 15-25%: real money is leaking. Tighten confirmation timing and follow-ups.
- Over 25%: you are effectively shipping blind. Confirm every order before it leaves, and stop shipping orders nobody answered for.
Your product category matters too. Impulse-priced fashion sees more refusals than considered purchases like electronics, so compare yourself against your own baseline month over month, not just the market range.
Last updated 2026-07-09