COD to Prepaid: 6 Ways to Get More Indian Shoppers to Pay Online
Prepaid orders ship with less risk and get paid sooner. Six ways to move buyers from cash on delivery to online payment without losing the sale, with the maths behind each one.
WALoops team
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In this guide
- A prepaid order can't be refused at the door, gets paid days sooner and saves the courier's COD handling charge.
- Buyers choose COD mostly out of trust and habit, not because they can't pay online. Give them a reason and some reassurance and many will switch.
- Work out what a COD order really costs you first. That number tells you how big a prepaid incentive you can afford.
Every Indian D2C founder wants a higher prepaid share. But pushing too hard, like hiding COD or adding a big COD fee, loses the sale altogether. The goal is to make paying online the easier, better-value choice while keeping COD available for buyers who need it.
First, work out what a COD order costs you
Before you pick an incentive, put a rupee figure on the gap between a COD and a prepaid order. For a typical order it's made of:
| Cost | Example |
|---|---|
| Courier COD handling fee | ₹30 to ₹50 per order, or around 2% of the order value |
| Expected RTO cost: RTO rate × cost of one return | 20% × ₹160 (shipping both ways) = ₹32 |
| Cash waiting with the courier | Remittance often takes 7 to 10 days after delivery |
| Payment gateway fee on prepaid | Around 2% (subtract this) |
With these example numbers a COD order costs about ₹50 to ₹60 more than a prepaid one. Use your own courier invoices and RTO rate. That's roughly the most you can give away to move a buyer to prepaid and still come out ahead.
1. A prepaid discount at checkout
The most direct lever: show a lower price for paying online, right where the buyer picks the payment method.
- Show it as a rupee amount, for example "Pay online and save ₹50", not a small percentage. Rupees are easier to feel.
- Show it on both options, so the buyer sees the difference side by side.
- Keep it below your COD cost from the table above.
2. A small COD fee
The same gap as a discount, shown the other way: a ₹29 to ₹49 fee on COD orders. Some buyers react better to avoiding a fee than to getting a discount. Test both, but don't run a large fee and a large discount at once, or COD starts to feel like a penalty and those buyers leave.
3. Partial COD
Partial COD is the middle ground: pay a token amount now (₹99, ₹149 or 10%) and the rest on delivery. It suits buyers who don't fully trust a new brand. They risk only a small amount, and a buyer who has paid something is much less likely to refuse the parcel.
It also works as the COD option for risky orders, like high cart values or PIN codes with poor delivery history, instead of turning COD off for them.
4. Ask again after the order, on WhatsApp
Many buyers choose COD without thinking. A WhatsApp message shortly after a COD order, with a one-tap payment link, converts some of them:
It doesn't change anything for buyers who ignore it. Those who pay are moved to prepaid before you ship. Adding a small reward, like a ₹25 discount or priority dispatch, lifts the response.
5. Remove the reasons people avoid paying online
Much of COD preference is about trust. Things that help:
- Show a clear return and refund policy near the payment options, especially how fast refunds reach the buyer.
- Offer UPI prominently. For most Indian buyers it's the quickest and most familiar way to pay online.
- Show reviews and a real contact number or WhatsApp support button, so the store feels reachable.
- Keep the checkout short. A long, multi-page checkout makes COD feel safer because nothing is paid until the end.
6. Give prepaid buyers something extra
Not every incentive has to be a discount. Other ideas that cost less:
- Faster dispatch for prepaid orders.
- Free shipping on prepaid only.
- A small free gift or sample in prepaid orders.
- Loyalty points or a bigger next-order coupon for paying online.
What to track
- Prepaid share of all orders, week by week.
- Checkout conversion rate. If prepaid share goes up but total orders drop, the push is too hard.
- RTO rate on the COD orders that remain.
- Net revenue per order after discounts, fees and returns. The number that tells you whether the change paid off.
Doing this on Shopify
The WALoops Shopify app covers all six ideas in one checkout. The free plan includes the COD fee and partial payment for 30 orders a month. The Starter plan ($9.99/month) adds the prepaid discount at checkout and the COD-to-prepaid WhatsApp message with a payment link. To cut RTO further, pair it with the steps in our guide to reducing COD RTO.
