Top 8 Most Common Reasons for NDR in Ecommerce and how to Fix Them

anil tijori
4 min readJun 24, 2021

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Overview of NDR in Ecommerce

All Ecommerce companies face two major intertwined challenges in the form of NDRs and RTOs. Everytime a failed delivery goes unaddressed, it results in the order being cancelled and returned to the origin warehouse. This essentially means the sale was unsuccessful, money paid has to be refunded, but the shipment of the cancelled order still has to be paid for by you.

Your enterprise gains a double loss from each NDR converted to an RTO. The beauty of NDRs is that they can be addressed. By determining the cause of your NDRs, you can handle them and manage them in such a way that you severely reduce the number of NDRs converted into RTOs. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at how this works.

What is NDR?

We mentioned above the correlation between NDR and failed delivery. To make it clearer, an NDR is a Non-Delivery report which is the report submitted to Ecommerce enterprises enlisting the details of a failed delivery.

When a delivery fails, it is given an NDR status. Courier partners will then have to perform multiple delivery reattempts to try and ensure successful delivery. However, ensuring successful delivery requires more than just a delivery reattempt. It requires a more strategic approach.

Top 8 Most Common Reasons for NDR in Ecommerce

The best strategy for dealing with NDRs is to look at them from a cause-and-affect perspective. If the cause of the failed delivery was that the delivery agent couldn’t find the delivery address, then there is a high likelihood that the delivery agent performing the next reattempt will struggle similar.

However, with the cause of the NDR in hand, you can determine exactly what went wrong and how it can be fixed. So let’s take a look at some of the main causes for NDRs.

1. Fake Delivery

These are the occasions when delivery agents report that the delivery failed while in actuality, they did not make the delivery attempt.

2. Out of Delivery Area

Courier companies typically service a very specific albeit large set of pin codes. Some delivery destinations are handled by different courier partners.

3. Customer Not Available

There are times when a customer may not be available at their delivery destination at the time of delivery to receive the order or to have someone else receive it.

4. Customer Not Reachable

Many times, a delivery agent will call the customer to determine the exact delivery location and request landmarks for spotting it. If the customer is unreachable, the delivery agent may be unable to deliver the order.

5. Customer Rejected Delivery

Sometimes, a customer may change their mind after placing the order. This can happen for a multitude of reasons, like a delayed delivery or simply because they no longer wanted the product. They will then refuse delivery.

6. Wrong Delivery Address

This is an extremely common occurrence. Customers may often incorrectly input their delivery address or mistakenly provide an incomplete delivery address, thereby leading to a failed delivery.

7. Wrong Customer Contact Information

Much like in the situations enlisted above, a delivery agent may need to confirm the delivery destination with a customer or might need landmarks to reach the same. An incorrect contact number would hinder delivery.

8. Customer Rescheduled

On certain occasions, a customer may reach out to the delivery agent themselves and request a later time or date for the delivery to ensure that they are present to receive the order.

How to Fix NDR in Ecommerce

Now that you’re equipped with the different possible causes for an NDR, it becomes much easier to fix a failed delivery. In cases where alternate information is needed, you can use the same Ecommerce non delivery report (NDR) management software & system to send automated messages to customers asking them for specific information that will enable successful delivery, like the correct address or phone number. This same system can then relay the collected information to the shipping partner who can then inform the newly assigned delivery agent. A quick follow up with customers can help you secure a successful delivery on another reattempt.

Conclusion

Without NDR management tools and systems like those provided by ClickPost, many Ecommerce businesses would be drowning in RTOs. Through AI-driven analytic engines & automated systems, NDR management can be carried out with minimal effort, while also saving you a tonne of money. The biggest benefit of this system of NDR management is that it ensures your customers have a top notch delivery experience.

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