You run the fraud score on a new order. It comes back at 58 — medium risk. Not high enough to auto-cancel, but too risky to ship with confidence. What do you do?
Most sellers do one of two things: ship it anyway and hope for the best (losing money when it RTOs), or cancel it and lose a potentially genuine customer. Neither is a good answer.
There is a third option: offer the customer a prepaid incentive. If they are genuine, they will pay a small advance via EasyPaisa or JazzCash and you ship with confidence. If they were planning to refuse at the door, they will not pay anything — and you cancel with zero cost.
The Problem: Medium-Risk Orders Are the Most Expensive
Critical-risk orders (score 80+) are easy — auto-cancel. Low-risk orders (score under 30) are easy — ship. The pain is in the middle band: orders scoring 35–70. These represent 20–30% of all COD orders and have a 40–60% RTO rate. They are too many to review manually and too risky to ship blindly.
For a seller with 500 orders/month, 25% of orders (125) sitting in this medium-risk band with a 50% RTO rate means 62 RTOs per month from just this segment — costing PKR 87,000 in shipping fees alone.
The Solution: Automated Prepaid Conversion via WhatsApp
Immediately after a customer confirms their order via WhatsApp, OrderWitness sends a second AI-generated message offering them a prepaid option. The message is personalised based on the risk level of the order.
Three Types of Prepaid Offers
HIGH RISK INCENTIVE
Stronger incentive — larger discount, priority shipping, guaranteed delivery window. Designed to overcome high hesitation.
MEDIUM RISK INCENTIVE
Standard prepaid offer — small discount (5–10%) for paying advance via EasyPaisa or JazzCash.
TRUST BUILDING
Loyalty reward framing — "as a returning customer, get priority dispatch when you pay upfront." Converts loyal customers to prepaid.
What the WhatsApp Message Looks Like
✅ Your order is confirmed!
🎁 Special offer: Pay PKR 300 advance via EasyPaisa now and get:
• 10% discount on your order
• Priority same-day dispatch
• Guaranteed delivery in 2 days
EasyPaisa: 0311-XXXXXXX
JazzCash: 0321-XXXXXXX
Send transaction ID to confirm prepaid. Otherwise, your COD order will ship normally within 24 hours.
Why this works: The message does not threaten the customer or make them feel accused. It presents prepaid as a privilege, not a requirement. Genuine customers who want the product see a discount and faster delivery — they take it. Customers who were planning to refuse see a payment demand they have no intention of meeting — they don't respond, and the order stays COD (which you can still choose to ship or cancel).
Accepted Prepaid Payment Methods
When a customer sends you the transaction ID, you record it in the OrderWitness dashboard — including the payment method, amount, and reference number. The advance payment is tracked against the order and visible in your payments feed.
What Happens After the Offer Is Sent
| Customer Action | What It Means | Your Next Step |
|---|---|---|
| Sends EasyPaisa/JazzCash transaction ID | Genuine customer — willing to pay | Record payment, dispatch immediately |
| Confirms COD again (ignores prepaid) | Genuine but prefers COD | Ship COD — risk is now lower |
| No response to prepaid offer | Uncertain — possibly fake | Your call: ship COD or hold |
| Sends message asking to cancel | Didn't actually want it | Cancel — zero cost |
You can also set a policy to automatically hold medium-risk orders that do not accept the prepaid offer within 2 hours, flagging them for your team to review before dispatch. This creates a zero-risk shipping policy for your most expensive order segment.
How Much Does Prepaid Conversion Save?
| Scenario | Without Prepaid Offer | With Prepaid Offer |
|---|---|---|
| Medium-risk orders per month (500 total) | 125 | 125 |
| RTO rate on medium-risk | 50% | 20% |
| RTOs per month | 62 | 25 |
| Shipping cost per RTO (forward + return) | PKR 600 | PKR 600 |
| Monthly RTO cost from this segment | PKR 37,200 | PKR 15,000 |
| Monthly saving | — | PKR 22,200 |
Additional upside: Customers who accept the prepaid offer become significantly more likely to make their next order prepaid as well. The conversion compounds over time as your repeat customer base shifts toward prepaid — permanently reducing your COD dependency.
Setting Up Prepaid Conversion in OrderWitness
- Set your risk thresholds in Settings → Fraud Scoring. Define what score triggers a prepaid offer vs auto-hold vs auto-cancel.
- Enter your EasyPaisa and JazzCash numbers in Settings → Payment Methods. These are injected into the WhatsApp message automatically.
- Choose your incentive — discount percentage, delivery priority, or both. The AI adapts the message tone based on the offer type.
- Set the offer window — how long you give the customer to accept before the order ships as COD anyway (default: 2 hours).
- When a customer pays, go to the order and tap Record Advance Payment — enter the method, amount, and transaction reference. The order is automatically approved for dispatch.
Stop Losing Money on Medium-Risk COD Orders
OrderWitness automatically identifies high-risk orders and sends AI-personalised prepaid offers via WhatsApp. Free plan: 50 orders/month.
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