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How do I confirm COD orders with customers before shipping?

  • Updated

Introduction

This article explains how to use the COD Order Confirmation feature on WhatsApp to verify customer intent before shipping orders. This is important for sellers as Cash on Delivery (COD) orders often result in higher return rates due to low purchase intent or fake orders. By confirming orders via WhatsApp, you can reduce RTO (Return-to-Origin), save logistics costs, and prioritize genuine customers. For customers, this adds a quick step to confirm or cancel their order, ensuring better order accuracy and communication.

How it works

When a customer places a COD order, the system automatically sends a WhatsApp message asking them to confirm or cancel the order.

Flow:

  1. Customer places a COD order on your store
  2. A WhatsApp message is sent automatically (based on your configuration)
  3. Customer responds:
    • Confirm Order
    • Cancel Order
    • No response
  4. The response is recorded in Smartbiz OMS
  5. You can decide whether to proceed with fulfillment

How to set it up

Follow these steps to enable COD Order Confirmation:

  1. Open your SmartBiz Desktop App
  2. Go to Growth → Marketing Automation from the left-hand menu

  3. Select Order Alerts

  4. Click on COD Order Re-confirmation

  5. Choose when the message should be sent:
    • Set Delay: Send immediately or after a delay (15 mins, 2 hrs, up to 24 hrs)
    • Schedule Broadcast: Send at a fixed time (e.g., 6 PM daily to all recent orders)

  6. By default, the “Do not send ‘Order Placed’ message” toggle is ON

    • This ensures  “Order Placed” message for COD orders is not sent and this COD order confirmation is sent instead.

    Note: Prepaid orders will still receive the standard order confirmation message

  7. Select a WhatsApp message template (choose from 4 options)

  8. Click Save Changes and activate the alert

How to check customer response

You can track how customers respond to the confirmation message:

  1. Go to the Order Management section in Smartbiz
  2. Check the status next to each order:
    • Confirmed
    • Cancelled
    • No response
      (Displayed with a WhatsApp icon)

  3. For detailed insights:

    • Go to Campaign Analytics
    • Click on COD Order Re-confirmation
    • Select View Customers to see response data

FAQs

1. Will prepaid orders also receive this confirmation message?
No, this feature is only applicable to COD orders. Prepaid orders will continue to receive the standard “Order Placed” message.

2. What happens if a customer does not respond?
The order will be marked as “Pending” and you can decide whether to proceed with shipping or not.

3. Can I customize when the message is sent?
Yes, you can either set a delay or schedule messages at a fixed time of the day.

4. Can I change the WhatsApp message content?
You can select from available templates, depending on your preference.