The festive season in India is the best time for e-commerce and D2C companies to grow and develop. It is the best time for shopping, and sales volumes are expected to grow. But there is an increase in issues like delayed deliveries, order cancellations, returns, and spikes due to heavy COD demand. These issues hamper the profit, and the margin is suffered by companies.
In this blog, we have covered the methods that can help you to optimize logistics, effectively manage returns, and minimize the impact of RTO so that your brand grows in profit and the satisfaction of your customers.
Why RTOs & Returns Rise in the Festive Rush?
Festivals drive shopping activities and create opportunities for discounts and deals. With these, there is an increase in challenges, such as:
- COD orders shoot up, with failure rates as high as 25–30% in India, versus just 2–3% for prepaid.
- Buyers tend to cancel after purchase and are willing to change their minds. They may have found better deals.
- In Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, last-mile networks are overloaded, which leads to delays and an increase in failed delivery attempts.
All of these together contribute to fuel RTOs, making it difficult for brands to sustain festive growth.
Why Returns & RTOs Need Extra Attention in Festivals?
Festive discounts and COD offers attract more buying and more cancellations.
- Each undelivered parcel adds to shipping costs and affects profit.
- Failed deliveries mean more work for your team.
- Each courier problem damages customer trust and reduces repeat sales.
That’s why a tech-driven logistics system with multi-courier options becomes critical for festive success.
Why Multi-Courier Shipping is Essential in the Festive Season?
Festive demand is exciting but also unpredictable. Using only one courier creates a host of problems, such as missed pickups, delayed deliveries, and increased RTOs. Having multiple courier partners helps brands stay flexible, mitigate risks, and keep customer promises even during the heaviest demands.
Some of the many advantages of working with multiple couriers are mentioned below:
- Speed up order processing: When one courier is flooded, another can pick up the slack and ship the order.
- Less RTO & cancellations: Orders don’t get lost with a wider courier network in place to break capacity.
- Wider delivery coverage: Get access to Tier-2, Tier-3, and even faraway pin-codes with niche couriers.
- Cost effectiveness: Reviewing shipping costs as they come in and assigning orders to the least costly shipping partners.
- Increased rates of success: Assigning delivery people to different zones or delivery types based on what they do best.
- Faster delivery options: Having same-day or next-day delivery suppresses buyer drop-offs and enhances buyer loyalty.
- Growth potential: You can explore new geographies and customer bases with confidence because there is wider coverage.
Use Technology to Minimize RTOs
Handling orders during the festive season isn’t just about having people on the ground. It’s also about having the right, smart automated systems that can anticipate and deal with fulfillment challenges before they escalate into expensive RTOs.
Smart Courier Allocation
Utilize AI-powered courier selection to designate the optimal shipping partner for each order based on pricing, serviceability, and shipping turnaround. This promotes a higher first-attempt delivery rate and evens out courier workloads.
Pre-Shipment Customer Verification
Validate COD orders through WhatsApp, SMS, or IVR prior to shipment. Phone and address verification help in cutting down on impulsive purchases, lowering doorstep rejections.
Automated NDR Handling
Every failed delivery should be followed by automated consumer communication on WhatsApp notifications, IVR reminders, and retake appointment scheduling so that orders are saved instead of lost.
High-Risk Zone Identification
Identify pin codes that have a high RTO or COD rate and assign them to reliable couriers or prepaid policies. This minimizes risk and helps control company finances.
Hassle-Free Reverse Logistics
Enable easy return pickups with built-in quality checks. This prevents fraud, accelerates refunds, and keeps buyers’ trust in your brand.
Live Shipment Tracking
Provide customers with tracking URLs and alert messages. The transparency offered helps to reduce anxiety and delivery-related worries and enhances delivery acceptance.
Dedicated Festival Support
With high festive volume, a dedicated account manager can monitor escalations, optimize courier mix, and ensure your shipping process runs smoothly.
Estimated Delivery Promise
Mention estimated delivery dates both during checkout and in tracking updates. Clear expectations are less likely to cancel orders, which boosts their confidence in the brand.
A Smart Festive Workflow to Cut Down RTOs
During the festive season, sellers can optimize their supply chains to reduce returns and improve the chances of a delivery being completed successfully.
- Order placement and verification: The moment an order is placed, the system checks that the address and phone number are valid.
- Courier assignment: The courier selection system chooses the best courier partner considering speed, price, and area coverage.
- Customer confirmation: To minimise fake COD orders, a confirmation prompt is sent via WhatsApp/ IVR to the customer
- Dispatch and tracking: The shipment is sent out with an estimated delivery date (EDD), and tracking links are provided so customers can monitor their order.
- NDR management: If the shipment is not delivered on the first attempt, NDR automation sequences initiate WhatsApp/ IVR follow-ups, reschedule delivery attempts, and escalate to manual intervention if the issue continues.
- Reverse logistics: Returns are processed with hassle-free reverse pickups, undergo quality verification, and customers receive instant confirmation of refunds or replacements.
- Account manager oversight: A dedicated KAM makes sure that operational bottlenecks are resolved promptly and that festive season deliveries proceed as planned.
Why This Matters for e-commerce Brands in India?
The festive season goes beyond a temporary spike in sales, it lays the foundation for sustainable growth in the year ahead. Streamlined logistics and lower RTOs lead to:
- Higher margins with lower costs and returns.
- More sales through faster, reliable deliveries.
- Wider reach into Tier 2 & 3 cities.
- Stronger trust that drives repeat purchases.
Why Bigship is the Perfect Festive Logistics Partner?
At Bigship, we help you ship smarter, faster, and with complete control. In addition to aiding your growth, we provide the following services:
- Multiple courier options: With coverage of over 29,000+ PIN codes and more than 30+ best courier partners, deliveries are guaranteed with zero returns or failures.
- Cost-effective prices: Every shipment undergoes a dynamic price comparison that aims at preserving your festive profit margin.
- Quicker shipments: Same-day or next-day shipment options can be retrieved in high-demand sales to satisfy the buyer’s needs.
- Intelligent NDR handling: RTOs are substantially diminished through a blend of automated WhatsApp/ IVR follow-ups and manual escalation.
- Monitoring & informing: Enhance your customers’ experience by offering full transparency with tracking and EDD-based proactive notifications.
- Dedicated account manager: Using a proactive KAM, a specialist account manager is able to provide timely solutions, advanced coaching, and sustained support during shipping seasons.
- Festive-ready features: Early COD remittance, multi-channel integrations, and a single dashboard to manage all your shipping seamlessly.
Conclusion
For e-commerce companies, the festive season in India presents a huge opportunity as well as serious difficulties. While the volume for orders tends to increase, return-to-origin shipments (RTOs), returns, and delivery delays also increase, which lowers profit margins and diminishes customer satisfaction. For e-commerce stores to succeed during the festive season, they need to effectively manage logistics, employ multiple couriers, aggressively reduce failed deliveries, and manage NDRs.
When working with Bigship, sellers gain the ability to use 30+ courier providers, advanced automation, proactive NDR handling, and real-time tracking, all from one interface. These festive season features allow you to reduce RTOs, improve delivery speed, and increase trust, thereby improving profits during the year’s largest sales event.
So sign up with Bigship this festive season and get your shipments delivered on time.
