How To Offer Payment on Delivery (POD) Without Tears

This is not originally written by me; it was written by a friend, Olaniyi Olaniran Samson. I love this piece that is why I’ve decided to share it here. If you have any question or suggestion just drop it in the comment bellow. I hope you enjoy this piece.

There are many challenges that will hinder entrepreneurs from getting their products to their clients’ especially when selling online in Nigeria. One of the major issues is Return Order as a result of Payment on Delivery for products.

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Imagine you spend #10,000 on a product, pay for advert either on Facebook or other platforms to get it across to the customers, pay for shipping e.g #4000 to core north and you hear after 7 days that the order has been returned, how will you feel? BAD? Yes, that is why you need to understand what has happened.

There is no point blaming customers who returned your products, considering the atrocities going on online where some people are constantly looking for ways to  defraud innocent citizens. This is indeed a challenge for those of us selling products online e.g supplements, phones ,laptops, kitchen utensils, etc let me explain how we can get these done at lowest cost.

However, I’ll be mentioning some names of some companies in the post. I am not saying they are the best, but they have been the ones I have tried and have stood the test of time for over 22 months of my sojourn on products selling online especially to the Nigeria audience.

BEFORE YOU DO PAYMENT ON DELIVERY:

You will need the following: Delivery companies, Customer Services, Products, selling platforms etc. The issue with return orders has much to do with the seller than the customer, the way you present the products to them determines if they will continue buying from you or even return your first order.

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DELIVERY COMPANY:

There are many delivery companies in Nigeria that offer payment on delivery, I have used like three different ones but I have stick with TRANNEX, they offer great service and get my money to my account with 24-48 hours after the order has been fulfilled. I enjoyed their services because they have network around the country and help take your goods as far as North I mean SOKOTO, KEBBI and JIGAWA. You might need to get the list of companies that does that.

CUSTOMER SERVICES:

Customer service is the key when you want to sell with payment on delivery. To reduce the rate of return, you must remember that if you are using POD, if any of your products is returned, it is a loss to you since you will pay for the shipping, so to avoid this to happen, you must have interacted with the customer ask him/her questions, telling him when he will receive the order, that the order might be delay, if he won’t be available who else can get it on his behalf, which address will be convenient for him home/office, the specific amount he has in cash. All this can be done with whatsapp/BBM or even facebook chat. You can even joke with him or her; don’t force them to pay before delivery since you just want to deliver the product to the customer. Let them have a feel of human towards your business that will break their wall of resistance towards you and your product.

PRODUCTS:

This is what you want to sell, remember it is the object of concern, imagine you spend #10,000 on a product, pay for advert either on Facebook or other platforms to get it across to the customers, pay for shipping. Let your customers know exactly how the products look like; you can even send the product real picture to your customers. This is not compulsory, but necessary when it comes to POD. It is important you educate your customers and with detail information on the products before sending; don’t ever assume customers will just accept your products without rejection. I remember one of my clients returned a 32 GIG memory card to me on the excuse that he used it and it is not working. Since he hasn’t pay the courier company!
So, be sure of know your products; know all the functions, and clearly explain the detail of your product to your customers.

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PLATFORMS:

For POD: JUMIA, KONGA,DEAL DEY etc allow customers to buy products with POD option, but the weight of return order might not be on you. But if you are selling from your personal ecommerce website e.g shopify or woocomerce(wordpress), JIJI, OLX, even Facebook page, the weight of return order might be on you. So, understand the platform you are selling from.
If you are having your personal website, make sure it has SSL enabled, because that will send a message to the buyer the kind of seller you are.
If you are selling on Facebook Page, understand that people there are those that just bump into your Add, not necessarily people that want to buy that product, they are cold customer so, you need to warm them up chat them up and let them want to buy from you immediately.

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