Buyers who order and then vanish: why it happens and how to stop it

Ghosting comes in three shapes. The buyer says yes in the chat and never pays. The buyer pays nothing, chooses COD and refuses the parcel. Or the buyer pays an advance for a custom piece and disappears before it is ready.

Each has a different fix, but they share one cause: a 'yes' in a chat costs the buyer nothing. The fixes below all do the same thing in different ways — they turn a 'yes' into an order the buyer placed themselves, under rules they saw before they committed.

What each kind of ghost costs you

'Yes' in chat, never paid

A held piece and a lost sale

You kept a ₹1,450 saree aside for two days and told another buyer it was gone

Refused COD parcel

About ₹175 on a ₹799 kurti

₹70 forward, ₹70 return and a ₹35 COD charge, plus a week or two off sale

Abandoned custom order

Your materials and hours

A name hamper with ₹600 of materials that nobody else will buy

Illustrative amounts. Put in your own prices and courier rates.

1. 'Yes' in chat, no payment

A chat order is a promise, not an order. Make the order and the payment the same step: a checkout where the order only exists once it is paid, or once COD is chosen under your rules.

If you still take orders in chat, send the product link and let the buyer place the order themselves. People take an order they placed more seriously than one you wrote down for them.

On Slaby, a buyer paying by UPI to your own UPI ID sends you the UTR or a screenshot, and the order waits for you to check your bank app and approve it. If no proof arrives within the time you set — 24 hours unless you change it — the order is cancelled automatically and, with stock holding on, the piece goes back on sale. You never have to chase or decide when to give up.

2. COD parcels that come back

A refused COD parcel costs you shipping both ways and keeps stock off sale for a week or two. The fix is to ask for commitment in proportion to the risk:

• Set a maximum order value for COD, so expensive orders are prepaid.
• Ask for a small advance online and the balance on delivery.
• Add a small COD handling fee, shown as its own line at checkout, to nudge buyers who can pay by UPI.
• Limit COD to pincodes where your deliveries succeed.
• Cap how much one buyer can have pending in undelivered COD orders.
• Make new COD orders wait for your accept, and call the buyer when an order looks unusual.

A COD confirmation routine that takes five minutes an order

1. 1

   Accept or reject from the list

   Admin → Orders → COD to accept

   With 'Accept each COD order first' on, new COD orders wait here. Repeat buyers and small orders can be accepted straight away.

2. 2

   Confirm the unusual ones

   For a first order, a high value or an address without a house number, send one message: 'Hi Priya, confirming your ₹799 kurti, delivery to Kothrud in 4–5 days, pay cash on delivery. Reply YES to confirm.' No reply in a working day? Rejecting cancels the order and puts the stock back.

3. 3

   Ship within a day

   The longer a COD parcel waits, the more time the buyer has to change their mind or buy elsewhere.

4. 4

   Send the tracking number

   Enter the courier and tracking number on the order. The buyer gets an email and can follow it on your store's tracking page with the order number and their phone.

5. 5

   Act on failed deliveries the same day

   Shipments the courier could not deliver appear in your failed-deliveries queue. Call the buyer and ask the courier to reattempt, or mark it returned.

3. Custom orders abandoned halfway

For made-to-order work, take an advance at checkout that covers your materials, and publish what happens to it if the buyer cancels after you start. A clear rule, stated before payment, prevents most arguments.

Collect the details with the order rather than in a chat that scrolls away. On Slaby, switch on requirement notes and photos for the product, and a signed-in buyer attaches the name, message or reference picture to the item in their cart. Mark personalised pieces as final sale so the returns rule is clear before payment; damaged, defective or wrong items can still be returned.

Don't over-correct. Switching COD off completely can cost you buyers who would have paid. Limits and advances usually keep most of the sales and remove most of the risk.

Keep the order alive after checkout

A buyer who forgets they ordered is more likely to refuse the parcel. Every Slaby order sends a confirmation email and a shipping email with tracking, and buyers can check status on your store's tracking page without an account.

Where your store has WhatsApp order updates switched on (Settings → Order alerts, available once WhatsApp is set up on Slaby), buyers also get a message when the order is confirmed, payment is verified, it ships with a tracking link, and it is delivered with a review link; they can reply STOP to opt out. Either way, a short personal message on delivery day — 'your order arrives today, please keep ₹799 ready' — is one of the cheapest RTO controls there is.

Once you have some delivery history, turn on RTO risk scoring: it scores each new COD order from your own store's past deliveries, nudges risky buyers to pay online, and refuses COD above the score you choose.

Common questions

Should I stop offering COD?

Usually not entirely. Try limits first: a maximum COD value, a small advance online, and pincode limits. Watch your returned parcels and tighten only where they happen.

How much advance should I ask for on COD orders?

Enough to cover your two-way shipping on a refused parcel is a sensible starting point. On Slaby you set the share paid online and a minimum advance, and checkout shows the buyer the split.

Can I block a buyer who keeps refusing parcels?

You can cap how much one buyer may have pending in undelivered COD orders, and with RTO risk scoring on, a buyer with refused deliveries on your store scores higher and can be refused COD automatically. They can still pay online.

What happens to a UPI order the buyer never pays?

If no UTR or screenshot arrives within your waiting time, the order cancels itself and any held stock goes back on sale. Orders with proof always wait for your approval.

Can I check COD orders before shipping them?

Yes. Turn on 'Accept each COD order first': new COD orders wait in a queue until you accept them, and rejecting one cancels it and puts the stock back.

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