Like someone said earlier, " this happens to be a good problem"
I’m beginning to think of taking data engineering as an interest.
Meanwhile, the solution of your problem lies within the volume of data you have already - if only you can study them and pull out a chunk of solution out of them.
Also while POD may be a ‘no no’, the truth is I would prefer as a buyer to see physically what I am buying before I buy…your big data holds this information… Please biko start studying them…so you know how to separate the wheat from the chaff…
I’m interested in looking at the raw data too if you don’t mind.
Have you tried charging a “non-refundable” shipping fee? That should get rid of the time wasters. Non-refundable in quote asin shipping fee refunds is open to only those with genuine reasons e.g the package arrived damage or the wrong item was shipped etc
Pay on Delivery … I agree it needs to go as it hurts everyone in the value chain (except the customer) … but it would only die slowly … it was created to meet a need in Nigeria at a time … and besides prior to technology … we also did business this way in Africa …
Could you / Have you tried this:
Call the customer and ask a set of predefined questions before proceeding to fulfil the order. I assume this would have to be a process across your various states.
i.e
How will you pay for the Order ? Cash, Transfer, POS
Which Bank Card will you be using? (pretend you have POS for multiple banks)?
Do you require us to bring “change” along? i.e if order is 16,700 … 300 naira is required.
What time frame should we come?
If you are not home, who will we meet? What is his name?
Can we drop it for your security man? Can you give him our money?
I imagine this should be a formal process within your organisation that can be optimised as necessary.
You would add more questions over time, and would drop some ineffective questions.
Also over time, you would be able to add the preferred response for “unserious buyers” (your word not mine). If it works, train the organisation on this technique and may be also come teach us what you learn.
It would cost your about 3 minutes per sale on the phone (50naira) - half a litre - but would save you a lot more in wasted delivery time.
You need Pay on Delivery for now until its eventual death in say 5 years from now …
My brother, I really feel your pain. To know that you are being owed such humongous amount is disturbing.
Pay on delivery was thought to be a saviour in a highly trust deficient country like Nigeria, but it seems its pundits were wrong. From day one, I have never believed in it. This does not mean I am more intelligent, but with the benefit of hindsight and watching trends, it was a bad idea for the kind of society we are in.
I will advise you quite pay on delivery and perhaps streamline your operations to Lagos only. You can have your own logistics service.
In my opinion, payment on delivery should stop. But consumer protection council should step in to provide assurance to customers who order online and pay before delivery
If the banks can create an api where online stores can tap into. I do believe that any one buying online already makes use of a bank mobile app. If on purchase instead of POD, people select their banks and are given unique links that would open their bank apps from which they would pay for their order but the payment to the online store would be stalled for a while until the order is confirmed by the buyer then his/her bank can now permit the payment to the online store.
Like the payment would be stalled for a while and wen the buyer is satisfied with the product delivered by the delivery man, in the presence of the delivery man, he confirms the order and the bank goes ahead with the transfer of the money to Konga or Jumia. This is basically putting the trust in the hands of the buyer himself. So the buyers basically don’t have to trust Konga or Jumia, They just have to trust their bank to promote their interest. If they don’t like the product delivered, they cancel it and their bank returns their money within minutes,
Yeah! It is still POD but with time the customer would tend to prefer the real thing. This is actually a first step towards building trust with the customers.
POD sucks, as a customer i have never tried it, and wont, even though i have gotten stuffs from konga and jumia before .but then i only bought electronics mostly phones . a colleague of mine bought an hand bag that looked so cool online but ended up being a knock off -zero quality bag.
but then i think customers select POD to check out the product before buying.
if i am not sure i will get good product delivered i just wont bother making an order- its just inconsiderate.
Suggestions:
kill POD ,you wont miss it.
2)have a refund policy clearly communicated
your product description should let me know what i am getting, real pictures not “photoshoped”
4)if you already use social media for engaging your customers then new customers know you are not a scam from the interactions and genuie customer feedback on your social media accounts
www.simplepay.ng as something similar for social media/ offline merchants. they have something like escrow account . the merchnat only gets paid if the customer confirms delivery .
“The high rate of order cancellation is sad really but I tell you most times, its the fault of the eCommerce platform and I tell you from experience I’ve had locally and internationally maybe it would help. I shop frequently on Amazon and other foreign sites. During the course of my searching for w…” @bigtt76 above gave a very well thought out response - from the customer point of view- and I believe that POD can not be done away with in our clime without addressing these issues. It is a “demand and supply” thing. Like him, many individuals would rather not buy when 1 can’t be sure of the product quality and/or size.