In a perfect world, sellers will never face NDR (Non-Delivery Report) or failed delivery cases. But, in reality, they often face various challenges in last-mile delivery, like customer unavailability, fake delivery attempts, etc that directly lead to failed deliveries and increase the RTO (Return-to-Origin) rates.
This is exactly where an efficient NDR management process takes center stage. This terminates the potential NDR reasons, develops a smooth communication flow with shoppers, and ensures each delivery reaches the right recipients on time.
In this article, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of NDR management — what it is, why NDRs happen, the main reasons for NDRs, best NDR management practices, and many more.
First, let’s understand what exactly an NDR is in eCommerce logistics.
What Is NDR in eCommerce Logistics?
In eCommerce logistics, NDR or Non-delivery Report is a type of notification provided by carrier partners that lists the orders which couldn’t be delivered within a certain timeframe.
To put it more simply, when a delivery agent fails to deliver an order in the first attempt, it gets flagged as NDR.
These NDR cases are usually informed to sellers over APIs or through Excel and CSV files. Brands then follow a series of NDR management steps to ensure the successful delivery of those orders.
The term that’s directly related to NDR (Non Delivery Report) is RTO or Return-to-origin. A carrier generally makes 3-5 attempts to successfully hand over a parcel to the customer. In case all these attempts fail or no initiative is taken, the order is returned to its original facility hub, which is known as RTO.
NDR Management – Best Practices to Manage Non-Delivery Report Cases in eCommerce
Undelivered orders can seriously hamper your profit margin and lower the customer satisfaction level.
To safeguard your brand from these potential issues, you must follow an NDR management process. Below, we have listed some best practices to manage NDR cases in eCommerce.
1. Automate the NDR management process
One of the effective and easiest ways to manage NDRs is to go for an automated NDR management tool.
As soon as the delivery agent marks the delivery as “failed”, it segregates them into issue-specific buckets and tries to fetch real-time feedback from customers via multiple communication channels.
It then sends those feedbacks to delivery agents, so they can make those deliveries successful.
As you saw, these NDR management tools put the whole process in automation, eliminating the manual hectic work of reaching out to customers and fetching feedback from them.
As a result, it makes the whole event systematic and easier.
2. Validate the delivery address
As we have already discussed earlier, wrong or incomplete delivery addresses are the major reasons for non-delivery reports.
To combat this issue, you need to verify the addresses and PIN codes entered by customers.
If you feel overwhelmed to manually check the addresses, you can go for address verification software like PostGrid or Smarty to validate customer addresses.
3. Allow customers to reschedule the delivery
Just like wrong addresses, customer unavailability is another major problem that directly leads to NDRs. So, it’d be a good initiative if you give them the flexibility to reschedule the delivery as per their choice.
You can simply add a reschedule button on your website or integrate the option into the customers’ tracking page. This way you can efficiently manage NDR cases.
4. Communicate properly with customers
If any NDR cases arise along the way, try to communicate with shoppers in real time without wasting one second. If you don’t get a response via email, try to communicate with them through various mediums.
It can be WhatsApp, SMS, or a simple phone call. If possible, try to communicate with them in their native languages to enhance the response rate.
Best NDR Management System for eCommerce Companies
If you do a simple Google search, you will get hundreds of NDR Management tools. Not each of them will be a perfect solution for your business.
1. Direct API integration with carriers to identify NDR cases the moment they arise and send NDR feedback in real-time.
2. A text analytics engine to segregate NDR cases into issue-specific buckets.
3. A multi-channel strategy (Email, SMS, WhatsApp) to gather feedback from customers automatically.
4. An intelligent time-specific approach to fetch maximum response rates from customers.
For example, if a shopper doesn’t respond to an email within 2 hours, the system should automatically send a text message. If the customer still doesn’t respond, it must contact him through WhatsApp.
This simply means that instead of waiting for hours to get a response from one channel, the NDR management tool must have a time-definite system to drive maximum response rates from shoppers.
5. The system should show all the NDR cases in an organized manner on a centralized platform, so the customer support team can call the customers manually to resolve issues
6. It must have seamless integrations with different communication gateways to increase the chances of getting customer feedback
7. The OTP-based cancellation functionality to avoid fake delivery attempts
8. A smart NDR case allocation system to different representatives as per their specialization. (E.g.: All “customer unavailability” issues will be delegated to representative X who is specialized in that category.)
9. In-depth reports on NDR cases like NDR team performance, NDR reasons, RTO%, etc.
Top 5+ Most Common Reasons for NDR in eCommerce — Why Does NDR Happen?
NDR can happen for a variety of reasons. In this section, we’ll look at some main reasons for NDR in eCommerce.
1. Customer unavailability
One of the common reasons that accounts for most NDR cases is customer unavailability.
Oftentimes, customers remain reachable, but they can not accept the orders, which might happen for various reasons like busy schedules or other commitments. Because of these, the first delivery attempt fails and the order falls under the NDR bucket.
2. Incorrect address & phone numbers
In most cases, customers enter wrong or incomplete addresses like non-specific locations, no landmarks, and wrong phone numbers while placing orders.
This makes it difficult for the delivery agent to find the exact locations of the customers, which may lead to failed deliveries.
Likewise, the delivery agent calls the recipient to check their availability to take orders. In such cases, if the number remains unreachable, the agent marks the order as NDR.
3. Customer rejection
This is another common reason for non-delivery issues. Many online shoppers simply refuse to accept the orders when the agents try to hand over the parcels to them.
This can be for any reason — maybe they have got a better deal, or perhaps the packaging is damaged, or maybe they have changed their mind. Whatever the reason is, the order is marked as NDR in such scenarios.
These customer refusal cases mostly occur when it’s a COD (cash-on-delivery) order and the payment has not been made. In the case of prepaid parcels, the number of NDR issues due to customer rejection is relatively lesser.
4. Out-of-delivery & remote areas
Out-of-delivery areas (ODA) and remote locations typically fall outside the regular delivery service zone because of limited accessibility, unserviceability, and lack of logistical infrastructure.
When customers enter an address that is included in those areas, it may result in an NDR case.
To avoid such NDR issues, eCommerce brands usually deploy shipping software that identifies these ODA areas and assign specialized carrier partners to make those deliveries successful.
5. Fake delivery attempts
Often, the delivery agents mark a delivery as “canceled by customers” without even trying to reach out to them. These fake delivery attempts not only hamper your delivery rate but also frustrate customers. Businesses must take solid action to avoid such cases.
6. Customers rescheduled the delivery
Shoppers often lead a busy work schedule, because of which they don’t always stay available to accept orders.
The customers then contact the delivery agent for rescheduling or change the date on the eCommerce portal during the time of delivery.
Though these types of orders will be successful later, still the agents categorize them as NDRs.
How NDRs Are Generated
There are mainly two ways through which NDRs are generated – i. Manual way and ii. Automated way.
Let’s discuss the manual way first:
An agent tries to contact customers to deliver the parcels.
If the first attempt fails for any reason (unavailability of customers/rescheduled delivery/incorrect addresses), the agent records the details on a portal, usually on an Excel file. At the end of the day, he then sends the document to the seller.
The manual process is a bit hectic and time-consuming. That’s why most brands go for an automated NDR management system. Through an NDR management solution, the process goes like this:-
1- The delivery agent tries to hand over the parcel.
2- If the order gets flagged as “undelivered”, the system captures those cases.
3- It then tries to segregate them into issue-specific buckets and generates NDRs.
4- Next, all the NDR cases are sent to the sellers.
Effective NDR Management Tools to Avoid NDR
As you know, you have two main options to manage NDRs. One is the manual process and the other one is the automated process.
Here, we have mentioned some effective NDR management tools you need to have in your tech stack – no matter whether you’re handling non-delivery reports manually or automatically.
1. Automated NDR management system
If you are looking to automatically manage NDRs, you should better opt for an NDR management tool.
It handles the whole process without much human intervention, eliminating the need for adding other solutions. You can also think of it as an all-in-one solution to manage failed deliveries.
However, you will get an abundance of NDR management tools. ClickPost and Shipway are two of the top choices among the best NDR management software. You can go for any of them as per your choice.
(P.S: If you are looking to manually manage NDRs, you must add the below-mentioned solutions to your tech stack)
2. NDR tracking system
First things first, you need to go for an NDR tracking tool that will help you monitor the NDR cases. This will help you take further action to manage those failed deliveries.
3. Integrated NDR portal
After tracking, you need to ensure that all these NDR cases are displayed in a centralized manner on an integrated dashboard. Otherwise, some cases may fall through the cracks which can seriously hamper your profit margin.
4. Automated messaging
Each NDR case can happen for different reasons. Some may happen for customer unavailability, while some of them can be for customer refusals.
Whatever the reasons are, you must deploy an automated communication system that will analyze those reasons and send issue-specific automated messages to customers via multiple channels.
5. Seamless integration with carriers
Alongside these, ensure your current system has a direct API integration with the carriers you’re dealing with. One way, it will help you manage a better communication flow and on the other hand, it will help you take immediate actions on NDRs.
How to Reduce RTO% Due to NDR Management in the eCommerce Industry?
If non-delivery reports are not managed properly, it will lead to a higher RTO rate, which is undoubtedly a nightmare for eCommerce sellers.
1) Go for a carrier partner that specializes in reducing the RTO%.
2) Invest in an NDR management tool that has a proven track record of reducing return-to-origin rates.
3) React immediately without any delay after getting NDR cases.
4) Keep an OTP-based cancellation process in place to avoid fake delivery attempts.
5) Incentivize your customer support team to encourage them to convert failed deliveries into successful ones.
6) Incentivize customers to nudge them to opt for prepaid orders over COD orders.
How NDR Management Helps in Efficient Handling Unsuccessful Deliveries (Importance & Benefits)
To put it simply, a proper NDR management process can take your eCommerce business success to the next level. Here, we’ll look at some benefits a solid NDR management method brings to your plate.
1- Reduced RTO%
A higher return-to-origin rate can seriously affect your business, hampering your profit margin.
When you adopt an efficient NDR management system, it tries to make each delivery successful, which reduces the number of RTO orders and keeps your profit margin intact.
2- Improved customer satisfaction
Today’s customers are very choosy regarding the brands they shop with. One subtle mistake – and it will lead to customer churn rate.
An effective NDR management system shows your customers that you really care for them, which increases their shopping experience.
On the other hand, it provides them with a sense of control over their orders by giving them multiple choices of when and how they want to receive their shipments. This further improves the customer retention rate.
3- Increased brand loyalty
When you take utmost care of failed deliveries and customer orders, it gives you an edge over your competitors and portrays your brand as a legitimate one in this competitive market.
In fact, it also improves your word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing and attracts new customers.
4- Higher delivery rate
Almost every eCommerce brand wants to improve its delivery rate. After all, it’s one of the most important metrics that determines your business success.
Simply put, the higher the delivery rate, the better. Effective NDR management helps in this case.
If you regularly take action on failed deliveries and monitor NDR reasons, it eliminates the hurdles that can hold you back from achieving successful delivery, which, in turn, improves the monthly delivery rate.
5- Reduced shipping costs
When an RTO happens, the sellers need to pay for shipping charges twice. One is for the first delivery attempt and the second one is for returning it.
Now, if you ship internationally, the cost can be even higher due to customs procedures and transportation.
A solid NDR management process facilitates successful deliveries, which eliminates those extra charges that you’re bound to pay in the case of RTOs. That’s why if you want to up your profit margin, NDR management can help you a lot.
Conclusion
If you include a proper NDR management plan in your business strategy, it can prove to be a game-changer on your way to eCommerce success. As you saw, not only does it help you improve the delivery rate and shipping mechanism, but it also indirectly improves your ROI, customer satisfaction, and brand affinity.
Please keep in mind that if you manually try to manage these NDRs, you will have to invest your valuable time into some repetitive tasks. So, we suggest you go for an automated NDR management software to ease the process.
Hope this guide has helped you solve your doubts regarding NDR management. Happy shipping!
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions and Answers)
1)What is the full form of NDR in carrier or logistics?
The full form of NDR is a Non-delivery Report. These NDR cases are shared by the carrier partners that detail all the information of undelivered orders and the reasons behind them.
2)What is the relationship between NDR and RTO in Ecommerce?
Sellers follow a series of steps (known as NDR management) to turn those failed deliveries into successful ones. When all these NDR management strategies fail or no actions are taken, it leads to RTO.
3)Which is the best NDR management solution?
Indeed! There are hundreds of NDR management solutions available on the market. But. not all of them are good at it. As per our research, ClickPost is a leading NDR management tool that comes with lots of top NDR capabilities, like automated issue categorization, intelligent communication workflow, multi-channel approach, etc.
4)How does NDR Management help me with processing undelivered orders?
If you have already adopted an efficient NDR management system, it can reduce the undelivered orders to a great extent. First of all, it categorizes the NDR cases into multiple buckets and based on that, it tries to fetch customer feedback. Once the customer gives their response, it then helps to manage the further process and reduces the return-to-origin rate.
