Confirm COD orders before they ship

A Cash on Delivery (COD) order that the customer did not really want comes back: the courier tries to deliver it, nobody pays, and the parcel returns to you (a "return to origin", or RTO). You pay shipping both ways. RTO Protection asks the customer to confirm every COD order on WhatsApp before you ship it.

The RTO Protection module must be switched on in Modules. While it is off nothing is sent, no order is held, and the menu entry, the page and the order card are hidden.

How customers confirm

1. A customer places an order and chooses Cash on Delivery.
2. Within a minute they get a WhatsApp message: "Hi Asha, thank you for your order 100245 at Your Store. You chose Cash on Delivery for ₹1,499.00. Please confirm the order so we can ship it, or cancel it if you no longer need it." It has two buttons, Confirm order and Cancel order.
3. Confirm order: the order is confirmed and can ship. The customer gets your reply ("Thank you, your order is confirmed. We will ship it soon.").
4. Cancel order: the order is cancelled, the same way as cancelling it yourself. The stock goes back, your team is alerted as for any cancelled order, and the customer gets your cancellation reply.

Only the first answer counts: tapping again, or tapping the other button later, changes nothing. Only the number the message went to can answer.

Orders placed after you switch the module on are asked. Orders collected from a pickup point and counter (POS) sales are not asked: there is no delivery to protect.

Held from shipping until confirmed

While the customer has not answered, the order is held:

• Ship with a courier (ShipMaxx, Shiprocket, Delhivery, Velocity) on the order page and Bulk ship from a courier queue refuse it with "This Cash on Delivery order is waiting for the customer to confirm it."
• Auto-ship skips it.
• Delivery riders can't be given it.

The order page shows Waiting for COD confirmation next to the order status. Recording a shipment by hand (Add shipment) is still possible: it books no courier.

When the customer can't be asked, or doesn't answer

The order goes to the Needs a call list, still held, when:

• WhatsApp is not set up for your store, or the confirmation template is not approved yet (see Set up the WhatsApp confirmation);
• the order has no mobile number;
• the customer turned off WhatsApp messages from your store (they replied STOP);
• the message could not be sent;
• the customer did not answer within the time to confirm (24 hours unless you change it). You can choose to cancel such orders instead.

Your team gets a COD order needs a call alert in the CartWhizz Admin app, once per order. Call the customer, then open the order and choose Confirm order or Cancel order.

The COD confirmations page

Open Sales → COD confirmations.

• Needs a call, Waiting for the customer, Answered on WhatsApp (how many of the customers asked answered) and Cancelled for the dates you choose. Choose a tile to list those orders.
• The list opens on Needs a call when there is anyone to call. Each row shows why the order needs a call, or how long the customer has left to answer. Open an order number to see the order.

On the order

The COD confirmation card on the order page shows where the confirmation stands, and, while the order is held, Confirm order and Cancel order (with the Manage orders permission). Cancel order asks you first. Every answer is added to the order's staff notes.

Settings

On Sales → COD confirmations, under Settings:

Changing these needs the Manage orders or Manage settings permission. Viewing the page needs View orders. The same settings are under Modules → RTO Protection → Configure.