Eliminate Customer Disputes With Advanced ePOD Software

Recently the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article highlighting the rise in returns scams.

Most people were shopping from home during the pandemic and having whatever items they ordered—bicycles, groceries, refrigerators, lawn chairs, you name it—delivered directly to their front doors. In theory, it's great.

As a regular and frequent online shopper, the convenience and control are fantastic—it's a great incentive to keep on ordering with those same companies and businesses who consistently provide excellent products and services.

And I'm not the only one that feels this way. Online retail sales increased 32.4% year over year in 2020, and in Q1 2021, they're up 39%.

With all this online shopping, it's natural for there to be returns. It happens.

But with the explosion of online shopping during COVID, "item not received" fraud took off, as well. Basically, this is where shoppers claim they never received their online orders… even though they did.

The WSJ writes, "Forter Ltd., which provides fraud-prevention technology to retailers, said some clients reported a 33% jump in 'item not received' abuse over the past 12 months." That's huge.

Because when this happens, when a consumer reports' item not received,' retailers generally issue a refund—mainly if what was ordered is less than $500. If even a small handful of their consumers falsely claim their item wasn't received, retailers could be out a lot of money. $100 here and there adds up quickly.

So, what is there to do?

You have one smart option, really. An option that doesn't just put a bandaid over the surface of the scam. Instead, it tackles the root of the problem.

You can't control your customers. They're going to do what they're going to do. The only thing you can do is better protect yourself.

That's where electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) software comes into play.

Our software is made to tackle issues like return fraud. Because it's evidence-based and has features designed to eliminate disputes, you have the data to back you up.

Our flexible ePOD software has configurable options allowing you to tailor the doorstep workflow to your specific requirements. Pre-COVID, this meant capturing a signature on glass for many of our customers. Now, they're able to take advantage of other functionality to support no-contact delivery—such as taking a photo of the product with the customer or within a doorstep threshold as proof of delivery.

And the best part: all activities performed are timestamped and geo-location stamped with latitude-longitude. So when viewing photos (or signatures) from within the ePOD system, even if it's a photo of the product with just the corner of an open doorframe, you can drill in and see the location of the activity on the map. This is particularly powerful because it reflects the location of the driver and device at the time, not just the vehicle they were driving.

All of this means that when a customer comes to dispute a delivery and claim it wasn't delivered, you have the proof that it was.

And the icing on the cake? You can automatically provide these proof of delivery details to your customers. So they have visibility and confirmation of the completed delivery, further deterring potential spurious claims.

You won't have to pay for those items that claim to have been lost. You won't have to worry about forking over $100 here and there for items that "weren’t received.” Instead, you can keep that money, grow your bottom line, and focus on cultivating your business. And you can do it easily while achieving a host of other benefits, all with our ePOD software.

Ready to tackle delivery fraud? Find out how, now.