Reducing cash-on-delivery returns: four layers, from the ad to the refused parcel

A refused parcel costs twice: the outbound shipment, then the return. And it tied up stock, an ad, a call, a courier. The right reflex is not to look for a trick, but to see where in the chain you lose the order. There are four places. Here is each one, with what the e-commerce law requires and what you can measure.

Layer 1: the promise, before the order

Refusal at the door often starts in the ad. A price without delivery costs, a photo that does not look like the product, a “24-hour delivery” that does not hold: the customer orders one thing and receives another.

• Show the total price, delivery included. The law asks that the offer state prices including all taxes, availability, and delivery terms, costs and times (art. 11).
• Promise only what you can deliver. An honest time beats a fast time that fails.
• Describe the product as it is, with photos you took yourself, sizes, materials.
• Do not validate what is not in stock: the law forbids it (art. 24).
• On the ad side, see the Meta Ads guide for e-commerce: an ad that attracts the curious fills your “refused” column.

Layer 2: the form and the confirmation

Law 18-05 sets three steps for an order: the terms are made available, the customer checks the details (products, unit and total price, quantities) and can change, cancel or correct, then confirms explicitly (art. 12). A form that respects these steps already reduces orders made by mistake.

• A short form that asks for phone, wilaya, commune and address, and shows the summary with the total before sending.
• The confirmation call: an explicit “yes” before shipping. The scripts are here: confirmation call in French and darija.
• An order with a wrong number, or one nobody placed, should not leave: if you deliver a product that was not ordered, you cannot demand its price or the delivery costs (art. 21).

Layer 3: delivery

Some returns are not a customer refusal but a delivery failure: vague address, unreachable courier, too long a time, a wilaya poorly covered.

• Choose the carrier on your own parcels, not on a price table: the comparison method explains how to test.
• A usable address: commune, neighbourhood, landmark, second number (that is why the script asks for them).
• A receipt: on delivery, the e-supplier must require a receipt, which the customer cannot refuse to sign, with a copy handed over (art. 17). It is your proof that the parcel was handed over.
• If the parcel arrives late, the customer may send it back as it is within 4 working days of delivery (art. 22): a delay is paid for twice.
• If the product is non-conforming or defective, you must take it back: the customer returns it in its original packaging within 4 working days, at your cost, and you must deliver again, repair, exchange or refund within 15 days of receipt (art. 23). A quality check before shipping costs less than that procedure.

Layer 4: after the refusal

A refusal is information, not only a loss.

• Record the reason for each return: did not answer, address not found, changed their mind, product different from the photo, had not ordered it, too expensive on delivery. A few categories are enough.
• Look layer by layer: many “did not answer” point to layer 2, many “different from the photo” to layer 1, many “address not found” to layer 3.
• Put the product back in stock after checking, and count the cost of the return.
• Keep your records: the law asks you to keep the transaction records and their dates and send them electronically to the CNRC (art. 25).

Measuring without inventing figures

We give no “normal” return rate for Algeria: we found no official source, and we do not copy figures from forums or competitors’ blogs. Measure your own: orders received, orders confirmed, parcels delivered, parcels refused, by product and by carrier. The real cost of a delivered parcel is worked out with the cost-per-delivered-parcel formula, and the COD profit tool tells you from what refusal rate you lose money.

What we could not confirm

The text of Law 18-05 we read says nothing about a customer who confirmed an order refusing a parcel at the door without a reason, nor about what the seller can then demand: check before writing a rule into your terms of sale. We also did not check whether keeping a list of customers who refuse and using it to turn down future orders complies with Law 18-07 on personal data. For the conditions of trading online and the auto-entrepreneur status, see can they sell goods?.