COD → Prepaid · Revenue play
Convert 25%+ of COD orders to prepaid with an AI voice agent.
Every COD order gets a real voice call within 10 minutes. The agent confirms, offers the prepaid nudge, and closes the upgrade on the call. Built for D2C brands in India, UAE, and SE Asia.
Selling in a non-COD market? The equivalent play is cart recovery — see /use-cases/ai-cart-recovery.
25–30%
COD → prepaid conversion rate
On confirmed pickups, across 100+ D2C brands running the play.
8–12%
Baseline flow-based platforms
What template SMS/WhatsApp tools typically land at — the gap is the voice.
35–45%
RTO reduction
Prepaid orders fail at a fraction the rate of COD, compounding the lift.
How it works
Four steps. Ten minutes. One conversion.
1
Order placed — agent calls in 10 minutes
Every new COD order triggers a Depra voice agent within 10 minutes. Customer is still warm. The agent confirms address, confirms the order, and reads the delivery window — standard confirmation.
2
Context-aware prepaid nudge
Once the confirmation is done, the agent offers the prepaid upgrade with a calibrated incentive — free shipping, a small discount, or a loyalty-point bonus — chosen live against AOV, margin, and customer history.
3
Close on the call
If the customer accepts, the agent sends a secure UPI / card link over WhatsApp while still on the call. Payment clears in 60 seconds. The order is flipped in Shopify before the call ends.
4
Fallback: WhatsApp re-engagement
If the call doesn't pick up, the agent follows up over WhatsApp within the hour — same context, same offer. Recovery is additive, not sequential; customers never get conflicting asks across channels.
Why voice beats WhatsApp for this specific play.
Trust moves on a voice call
COD customers are price-sensitive and often first-time buyers. A human-sounding voice confirming their order and offering the prepaid nudge converts 3–4× better than a WhatsApp template — the ask is the same, the channel is what moves it.
WhatsApp handles the payment — not the pitch
The pitch happens on voice. The payment link happens on WhatsApp. Trying to pitch and pay in the same WhatsApp thread loses customers to inbox clutter. Depra orchestrates the handoff automatically.
Regional-language fluency, native
Hindi, Hinglish, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese — 12 Indian languages, AI-native (not pre-recorded templates) with Hinglish code-switching that matches how Indian buyers actually talk.
FAQ
What D2C teams ask before they ship.
What's the typical COD order abandonment rate for D2C brands in India?+
Between 25% and 40% depending on vertical — fashion and electronics hit the high end. RTO (return-to-origin) is the second layer: even of the ones that ship, 15–30% come back. The combined leak on a COD-heavy catalog is often 35–55% of gross orders. Converting to prepaid takes most of that back.
How does AI voice compare to WhatsApp for COD confirmation?+
Voice confirmation lifts prepaid conversion 3–4× over WhatsApp templates in our benchmarks. The reason is trust — a real-time conversation where the customer can ask questions about delivery, payment, or returns gets a yes that a one-way template doesn't. WhatsApp is the right channel for the payment link once the ask has landed on voice.
What's the script approval process — do agents use approved templates?+
No templates. You give the agent a natural-language brief (brand voice, incentive tiers, escalation rules) and it writes each call live against that brief. Every call is recorded, transcribed, and searchable. You can QA and iterate without editing template flows.
Do customers find AI voice calls invasive?+
In our data, opt-out rates on COD confirmation calls are under 2% and NPS on the call itself averages +42. The reason: the call is useful — it's confirming their order, not selling them something unsolicited. The prepaid offer is framed as a value exchange, not a pitch.
How does Depra handle regional languages (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, etc.)?+
AI-native, no pre-recorded templates. The agent detects the customer's preferred language from past interactions (or defaults to the state's primary language) and holds the conversation natively — including code-switching between Hindi and English mid-sentence the way real Indian buyers speak. 12 Indian languages at launch: Hindi, Hinglish, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese.
What if the customer wants to cancel instead of going prepaid?+
The agent handles cancellation gracefully — logs the reason, fires the cancellation in Shopify, and (if you've enabled it) offers a winback later. Cancellation on call is far better than an RTO two weeks later. You save on shipping, packaging, reverse logistics, and write-offs.
How is this different from what Shiprocket or Razorpay's RTO tools do?+
Shiprocket / Razorpay's RTO tools are rule-based templates — flagging risky orders and sending a confirmation SMS or IVR. They don't hold a conversation, handle objections, or negotiate the prepaid nudge. Depra is an AI agent on a voice call — it's the conversation those tools assume a human will have. Teams often run Depra on top of Shiprocket's risk flags.
