A small business owner in Gujranwala once described her fake order problem simply, some weeks it felt like she was running a courier charity, packing and shipping items nobody ever intended to accept. That’s not an unusual complaint. Because cash on delivery requires nothing from the buyer upfront, placing a fake order costs a stranger nothing while costing the seller real money every single time.
The sources vary. Sometimes it’s genuinely a bored person testing whether a page is real, sometimes it’s a competitor placing fake orders to waste a rival’s resources, sometimes it’s just someone who changed their mind between clicking order and the rider showing up, with no financial consequence for doing so. Whatever the reason, the outcome for the small business is the same, wasted packaging, a rider fee that often applies regardless of delivery success, and a return shipment charge on top.
For a larger business this is a manageable line item. For a small one running on thin margins and limited stock, a bad week of fake orders can mean real cash flow trouble, especially if inventory got tied up preparing orders that never converted to actual sales.
Practical ways to cut this down
- Confirm orders by phone or WhatsApp before packing, not after
- Track customer phone numbers and flag repeat cancellations before accepting new orders from them
- Request a small partial advance on higher value orders through Easypaisa or JazzCash
Industry estimates for COD failure rates in Pakistan commonly sit somewhere between fifteen and thirty percent for newer or smaller sellers, dropping noticeably once a business builds a track record and a loyal repeat customer base. That range alone explains why the businesses that survive their first year are usually the ones that treated order verification as a core process from day one, not an afterthought added once losses got noticeable.
Ikonix Marketing Agency has set up simple order verification steps for a couple of small ecommerce clients, mostly a confirmation message sent automatically before an order moves to packing, which sounds minor but consistently cuts the number of wasted shipments. It’s an operational fix more than a marketing one, but for a small business the savings show up directly in monthly profit.
Fake orders aren’t going to stop entirely as long as COD stays the standard way of buying online here, and removing COD isn’t a real option for most small sellers who depend on it for trust. The businesses managing it best are the ones that added a small filter step, not the ones hoping the problem sorts itself out.